Rest feels rebellious (or at the very least lazy!) in our productivity-obsessed culture. So many of us fall for the lie that our worth comes from what we accomplish, how much we juggle, and how well we perform. We’re typically stretched so thin that we often answer “busy” when someone asks how we are. Not joyful, not happy, not blessed, not chosen….but busy.
But spiritual rest fights against the cultural pressure to prove our value through our output. The more we spend time resting in and with the Lord, the better we become at living from a place of restoration rather than exhaustion. And, thankfully, in His lovingkindness, Jesus modeled for us during His earthly ministry how to rest even during our busiest seasons. Here are 4 things Jesus teaches us about rest and how we can follow His example.
During His ministry on earth, Jesus’ work never ended. People constantly followed Him around waiting for Him to teach, heal, or lead, and the Savior so graciously did all those things. But since Jesus was fully God and fully human, He felt tired at times. (Of course He did!) In our time and culture, that would be when we’d grab another cup of coffee or an energy drink and press on. But Jesus modeled a different way for us.
Jesus rested when He was tired. That’s it.
Scripture makes a point of telling us that He did. Remember the story of the Samaritan woman at the well? While traveling to another town, Jesus felt tired and decided to take a break. John 4:6 puts it this way: “…Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well.”
Jesus still had miles to go, but rather than grab a drink to go, He chose to sit down and rest. It’s that simple: Jesus felt tired, so He rested. We so often skip by that part of the story and jump right into the encounter with the Samaritan woman. But if Jesus hadn’t taken time to rest by that well, the Samaritan woman never would have met Him. She never would have told her neighbors about the Messiah, and they never would have experienced the Savior for themselves. It all started when Jesus recognized He was tired and made the choice to rest in the middle of His workday. And the Lord kept that part of the story in scripture for us to read.
What does this teach us? When you feel tired, rest. That seems so simple and revolutionary to our productivity culture. But your body’s need for rest is God’s design. Choosing to rest when you feel tired doesn’t make you lazy. But, it does make you more like Jesus.
When Jesus withdrew to pray, the urgent didn’t stop being urgent. People still needed healing. Disciples still needed teaching. And everyone still needed to eat. Yet Jesus regularly chose resting with the Father over the demands of the crowd. Luke 5:16 tells us, “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”
But what if His workload was precisely why He made a point to connect with the Father? What if taking that rest allowed Him to continue His work from a place of restoration rather than exhaustion? And, more importantly, if the Savior needed this rhythm of withdrawal and rest, how much more do we?
When we choose to approach our work and relationships from a posture of resting in Him, we are mentally, emotionally, and spiritually prepared to do the work He calls us to do. If Jesus found time to rest with His demanding schedule, we can too. And, by the way, scripture doesn’t tell us how long Jesus rested with the Father, only that He did.
What does this teach us? When you feel most pressed for time, that might be exactly when you need to follow Jesus’ example and withdraw for a few minutes. Your rest becomes restorative when you invite God into it. Even a five-minute prayer break transforms ordinary rest into spiritual renewal.
Jesus didn’t say, “Come to me after you clean the kitchen, respond to that text, answer those work emails, make the bed, decide what’s for dinner, start a load of laundry, AND THEN I will give you rest.” Instead, Jesus simply said: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
The biblical example of rest that Jesus invites us to experience is simple. Tired? Rest. Overwhelmed? Rest. Jesus puts no prerequisites on His offer to rest with Him.
What does this teach us? Break down the rules you’ve created about when you’re “allowed” to rest. That 10-minute break sitting in the driveway after work? Take it. The quiet moment while the kids do homework? Embrace it. Jesus’ invitation is always open. He tells us in Mark 2:27, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Rest serves you. God didn’t create you to earn rest by first marking off everything on your to-do list.
From the beginning, God set rest apart from work. He made it holy. God rested first, then later Jesus gave us a real-world example of how to manage a busy schedule and still rest. In Mark 6:31, when the disciples were overwhelmed, Jesus said, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” Jesus didn’t simply tell His disciples to take a break. Instead, He invited them into sacred rest with Him.
The Lord invites us, but He doesn’t force us to truly rest in Him. We get to choose. We can go through the motions of rest by scrolling on our phones or binge-watching TV, or we can choose to actually connect with Him.
David wrote: “I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk. Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me” (Psalm 131:2-3). Notice that David chose to calm and quiet himself. A weaned child is content to seek her mother’s arms simply to be held, to feel safe, and to rest.
What does this teach us? You can experience the holiness of His rest when you choose to seek the same with your Father, not for what He can do for you, but simply to be with Him. Even five minutes of choosing His presence over the scroll can become holy ground.
Rest is a spiritual practice (and it fights against the culture of productivity). But, the more you spend time resting in and with Him, the better you become at living from a place of restoration (and the easier it becomes to let go of the lie that you are what you DO). Practice doesn’t mean perfection. It just means you commit to the process of learning to be more like Jesus every single day.