January 20, 2025

Week 3 : From Rest, Not for Rest | Pray Through the Gospel of Mark

WEEK 3 – FROM REST, NOT FOR REST

For the next few minutes, we are going to turn our attention to God in prayer. He desires to meet with us today. To talk to us. To share His heart with us. Take a moment and pray this simple prayer that can be said in the span of a breath.

I find my rest in You, Jesus.

The pinnacle moment of creation was when God, after six days of work, comes to rest, to dwell in the midst His creation. Sabbath was the way that God commanded the Israelites to reflect Him by working for six days and resting for one the way that He did in Genesis.

Over time this practice became more legalistic and obligatory because the Jewish people, especially the Pharisees, believed that keeping the Sabbath, among other rules, was the way they would be delivered from Roman oppression.

As I read the following passage from Mark 3:1-6 listen with the expectation that God is moving towards you, to speak to you, through His word.

Again he (Jesus) entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. ² And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him.³ And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.”⁴ And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. ⁵ And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁶ The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

Little did the Pharisees know, they had just encountered the One who would give them the true rest they longed for. While they obsessed over keeping rules and regulations because they believed this would bring God’s kingdom, Jesus stood before them as Lord of the Sabbath…the One who would bring complete rest and total restoration.

The idea of Sabbath and Shalom are closely related.

Sabbath means rest. Shalom means peace, nothing missing, nothing broken, everything is as it should be. It’s not merely the absence of conflict. It’s wholeness of relationship with every area of life. When all is well, we can rest. And in Christ, all is well. He is our Sabbath rest.

St. Augustine said, “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord. Our hearts are restless until our hearts find rest in You.”

For the next few moments, we are going to pray in response to the truth that Jesus is our rest.

In the space between each line pray in your own words or sit quietly and listen for the still small voice of the Spirit.

(Whenever there is a space between lines in the prayer add a longer pause for personal reflection.)

You have made me for Yourself, O Lord. My heart is restless until it rests in You.

Will you show me the ways I work to earn rest? Where have I believed the lie that my value is based on what I do?

Will you show me the places I go to find rest apart from You? Things that deplete rather than restore my soul?

In You, I am known to my depths, and I am loved, accepted, and forgiven. I don’t have to hide behind roles, status, work, or my achievements.

I don’t have to carry the weight of the world on my shoulders when You carried the weight of my sin on Yours. 

You restore my soul.

Will you teach me how to rest in You?

Hear the Word of the Lord:

²⁸ “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30

Amen.