Restful Productivity

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" Matthew 11:28

If you were going to create something that would be able to be productive, like a robot or a virtual personal assistant, would you create it with the need to be shut down on occasion?

Or would you want it to run 24/7?

In this generation of smart phones, when was the last time you turned yours off? Hint: Airplane mode doesn't count.

God started it.

God created us with a need to rest. I know a lot of us wonder why; why can't we have all 24 hours each day to get things done? Why would God create us with the disadvantage of tiredness?

Could it be because our tendency to become tired leads us to dependency on God?

If we never got tired, we might actually buy into the belief that we can do it all.

 

An Outline for Work and Rest     

 

The story of creation, aside from being a wonderful account for how God formed the world we know, teaches us two things about work:

1. God focused on one thing every day. Instead of going in many different directions to "get it all done", God instead created each section of our world individually. Day one: Light to separate day and night. Day two: Sky. Day three: Land to separate the seas...etc.
2. There was a day focused on rest. "By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work." Genesis 2:2 There was a separation point between the work of creation and the following days. God did not need to rest; He was setting an example for us to follow. As we finish one project or goal, we need to step back and rest and reflect before jumping into the next assignment.

 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. Psalm 23:1

Even though we become tired and need rest, we can also rejoice in the fact that in Christ, we lack nothing.