Many suffer burnout while running on near empty. This often manifests as a gradual sense of being increasingly overwhelmed.

The secret of countering burnout resides in one word: Rest.

Not just any rest but God’s kind of rest.

Liberty not legality

Jesus was never against the Sabbath per se. He was against it being weaponised by certain quarters to control people for their own religious and legalistic ends. In so doing the Pharisees marred the spiritual image of the Father and distorted the intent of the God who gave the Ten Commandments.

Jesus came to restore that image and design. So He consistently “broke” the letter of the law in order to point to its overarching spirit. He said to them: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27)

For instance, Jesus and His disciples plucked corn when hungry on the Sabbath (Luke 6:1-5) and in many other instances He healed on the Sabbath (Luke 6:9, 13:16, 14:5). Jesus anchored His understanding of the Sabbath in the needs of people.

By meeting human needs on the Sabbath, the commandment is fulfilled, not abolished. Here is the biblical suggestion that keeping the spirit of the Sabbath is not an absolute cessation of work as interpreted by the law but an understanding of God’s heart with regards to work.

“Rest” is not necessarily always inactivity. It is a spiritual repose that seeks to involve itself in working with God as He leads us in fruitful partnership with Him. Hence the New Testament spirit of the Sabbath, at its core, can mean a spirit of resting in Him as we do essential work, as well as taking physical rest.

Both are needed. Only grace frees us to do this.

Observing the Sabbath as a legal requirement traps us under judgement and brings condemnation instead of liberty.

Looking at the way Jesus functioned, we get the real deal. He said: “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:8 ESV) What does it mean but the Sabbath was now freed from its legal shackles and is now to be appropriated under the grace He proclaimed?

The Sabbath was also given as a covenantal sign (Ezekiel 20:12) to indicate that God had set His people apart for a special relationship with Him, so that they might intimately commune with Him.

It is not the “magic” of the one day that best describes the Sabbath but rest arising from the posture of surrender and intimacy with Him every day that is key. The “every day” is surety of the “one day”.

Hence the power of a day set aside under grace or a half-day (in my case) set aside regularly over the years will not only revitalise the soul, but also revive our spirits with fresh passion and vision.

Let me share an illustration of what this means. During the pandemic lockdowns, my wife Nancy acquired a passion for making compost.

One day she realised that there was far too much fruit and vegetable scraps going to waste in the household. And we were spending quite a bit on fertiliser for our garden. So she got our gardener to dig a compost trench, throw in some of the dry leaves, put in a good dose of black soil and then began composting with whatever bits of organic waste she could find.

Every day she would toss a heavy dose of vegetable and fruit scraps in and mix it with the soil. The compost pile would always stay warm, never smell and after several weeks would yield many bushels of fine black moist and flaky dirt that we could use in the garden.

Gardeners call it “black gold”. It nurtures our plants and gives colour and sheen to the flowers and leaves.

Sabbath rest for the soul is like that. Over months, the scraps accumulated from the vicissitudes of life – our tiredness, waste, disappointments and failures – get quietly transformed through the Sabbath observance and the Sabbath rest into a rich and fertile bed of fruitfulness!

The ancient Israelites, according to the book of Hebrews, failed to take God up and on his offer of this rest because of disobedience. But followers of Jesus can access the rest that God promises because Christ’s obedience.

So rest is now much more than a weekly reset button. It is the affirmation of a special relationship with God and a privilege extended by a God to us His people so we may delight in Him and enjoy Him forever.

The Sabbath is not just special because it is one day in the week. It is special because God is present and He is holy on that one day as much as all the other days of the week.

Rest is the gracious outworking of God’s desire to manifest Himself in an intimate and joyful relationship with us. All the time.

Both physical and spiritual rest 

The Jewish scholar Abraham Heschel describes this deep rest as “menuha“.

According to Heschel, “menuha” came into existence on the Sabbath and can be described as tranquillity, serenity, peace, and repose. “Menuha” is the state in which there is no strife and no fighting, no fear and no distrust.

What humanity has lost in the Fall was the deeper spiritual rest that brings an abiding peace. Hence all humans have this yearning for menuha or the assurance that all is well.

The problem is that people look to at the wrong things to provide this deeper spiritual resulting in increased restlessness.

This is the situation that plagues the world today. Many are not aware of the need for both physical and spiritual rest. Physical rest without spiritual rest is not satisfying. Spiritual rest without physical rest is not restoring. Honouring the Sabbath does not mean engaging in soul-numbing inactivity nor is it austerely communing with God on the day set aside.

Keeping the Sabbath holy means recognising our brokenness and returning to our healed and communion under grace. It is learning to abide in a continuous posture of trust that because of what Christ has done, all is well and His peace resides in us. This is the true “menuha” rest that brings recovery in the long haul and is only available in Christ.

Jesus bids us: “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30, ESV)

It is an invitation, as Eugene Petersen states it, to “the unforced rhythm of grace.” (Matthew 11:29, MSG)

Steps to living the rested life

1. Surrender to God

Barriers to rest often begin in the overactive mind. Angry, fearful, or anxious thoughts prevent rest.

When work creates resentment against others or fear of things that can go wrong or anxiety about unmet expectations, rest is difficult to come by. The first step to rest is to let go of these hindrances and to look instead to Christ, trusting Him for the future. (Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV)

To rest fully is to anchor the mind upon Jesus and the future He promises to all who follow Him.

2. Get rid of your idols

Secondly, entering into rest involves recognising our misplaced desires. We don’t experience rest in part because we are pursuing something that promises rest but can’t ever deliver it. The Bible considers anything pursued above Christ to be an idol. Tim Keller berates upon this point in his book, Counterfeit Gods.

Our bad habits may hinder us from experiencing a deep rest.

“An idol has such a controlling position in your heart that you spend most of your passion and energy, your emotional and financial resources on it without a second thought. It can be family and children, or career and making money, or … social standing. It can be romantic relationship, peer approval, … your beauty or your brains, a great political or social cause, your morality and virtue, or even success in the Christian ministry.

“An idol is whatever you look at and say in your heart of hearts, ‘If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I’ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.’”

Repent from these counterfeit gods and get rid of them.

3. Get into a divine rhythm

Thirdly, our bad habits may hinder us from experiencing a deep rest. We need to examine whether our current rhythms of work and rest bring us closer to peaceful communion with God, or further away from Him.

A regular rhythm of weekly, monthly or seasonal Sabbatical rest can provide much needed restoration and renewal of  our spirits, souls and bodies. Get into the habit of a good rhythm.

For me, time away from my city and from the daily demands of my work as a pastor and doctor is vital. Usually, I take several breaks away each year, using the time to visit my children in other cities, take long walks or light jogs along a river, read some books, reconnect with Nancy over meals or chat late into the night with her, enjoy time exploring places with members of the family in their city or town.

I often use these times to do catch-up on devotional reading or studying the Bible. Occasionally I speak at other churches on my breaks. These things recharge me, while other things like movies, shopping or going out to sea in a boat just don’t. We need to know ourselves.

It is often in these postures of rest that I get perspective from God to fine-tune the priorities for different seasons in my life as well as for the church.

Finding grace

To sum up, long-term rest comes when we enter the habit of learning to live under grace, repent of our idols and make time each week to meet our challenges, refreshed by His presence and empowered by his Spirit.

It is to learn His “unforced rhythm of grace” so that we “may mount up with wings like eagles, run and not be weary, walk and not faint” for the long haul. (Isaiah 40:31)

I am aware that there are seasons in life where we may not be able to garner “space” to experience the rest we might need. Being new parents, for example, may not allow us any day off from caring for the needs of the new baby. Start-up entrepreneurs, who often have to one to whom they can delegate all the necessary work, may find it impossible to set aside enough time for rest.

In these seasons, even if we are not able to rest properly, we need not feel guilty, but instead turn to God to live under grace with the hopeful expectation that a return to the divine rhythm of rest and work will come in the near future as babies get older or as our start-up businesses develop better capacities.

The Bible tells us: “A Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9), both from an eternal perspective and in this lifetime. It means this rest is always there for us.

Under grace we enter His presence and, in doing so, we are always able to enter His rest. Living in this rest and taking time out weekly to rest will fire-proof us from burnout!

This was first published in The Invasive Kingdom: Transforming Today’s Believers Into Workplace Ministers by Pastor-Dr Philip Lyn and is republished with permission.

The book can be purchased online and physical copies are available at Manna Bookstore.

FOR MORE ARTICLES:

“We wanted to remind people of God, but didn’t imagine it would speak so powerfully”: Accessories brand Jacob Rachel

Truth be told: It takes courage to be kind

Ask Salt&Light: How do I discern God’s will in making a career switch?