God's Labor Day - Enter His Rest

by Barbara Latta

God's Labor Day - Enter His Rest

The first recognition of a day to honor the labor of American workers was in the late 1800’s. Later, a national holiday was enacted to commemorate the achievements and contributions of workers to the economy and society.

Labor Day has now become an extended weekend dedicated to shopping and barbecues—a day of rest from the labors of jobs and a time to enjoy family and friends.

Why is it so easy for us to rest from our physical work, but resting in God is an unattainable goal?

One reason could be because our life in this natural world depends on performance. We work at our jobs and get praise or merit raises. If we don’t do good work, we can lose our position. We work in school to get good grades so we can graduate, get recognition, or scholarships for higher education. Sometimes we are working at friendships to get people to like us. Our relationships should be based on unconditional love, but our human nature still can throw good deeds out there, sometimes unintentional, in an attempt for praise.

God instituted the Sabbath Day to give His people a time of rest from their labors. Our bodies need time to wind down, relax and recharge. But this day was a shadow of things to come. A lesson to them that while they did need to rest from work, if they would just obey Him, they would find rest for their souls because He would take care of everything they needed. They could stop striving and worrying about what was coming next.  

In Hebrews chapter 4, the writer of the book uses the example of the Israelites who walked in disobedience to God. They did not enter the Promised Land and they did not enter His rest. When we are worried and fearful, we are not entering the rest God has provided because we are not trusting Him. Worry is disobedience.

Grace is the gift to us that invites us to rest. Rest in the finished work of Christ. It is done.

When worry and anxiety enters our minds, we are not resting in the gift of grace. The definition of worry is to choke, strangle; to shake or pull at with the teeth. 

The Bible tells us in 1 Peter 5:7-8, Casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a lion, seeking someone to devour (NASB).

God's gives us rest by meeting our needs.

He is telling us to cast all our cares on him. What happens when we don’t? The next verse tells us when we are worried and anxious we are inviting the devil to come in and choke, strangle, shake and pull at us with his teeth. We all know that worry causes torment. We are allowing ourselves to be strangled and torn.

We can enter God’s rest when something troubles our minds by saying, “I’m giving this to you, God. You can handle it and I can’t.”

And when those thoughts return, give it to Him again, and again, and again.

Jesus said, Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matthew 11:29-30).

God’s Labor Day is really rest day. Rest from the labor of striving, stressful, anxious-filled living and rest in His capable hands.

Because He’s got our backs.

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God's Labor Day means to enter His rest (click to tweet)