Topic: Rest Before You’re Ready – Daily Devotional by Proverbs 31 Ministries  10 APRIL  2024

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Rest Before You’re Ready

APRIL 10, 2024

“God called the light ‘day,’ and the darkness he called ‘night.’ And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.” Genesis 1:5 (NIV)

This is for every woman who feels like she has to get it all done before she rests.

Many of us are waiting until we’re “done” or “finished” with our work before we rest. But that moment is not coming until the end of our lives.

We’re convinced that the laundry has to be done, every text has to be answered, every kid nurtured, and every important email responded to. Before we rest, we need to have a grip on the next week, plan the next thing, and finish the dishes.

This is why I’m incredibly grateful for the very first vision of rest, which God cast in Genesis.

Just after God created day and night, literal light and darkness, He did something interesting. Right here, in the foundation of everything, He switched the order: He shifted from the day-night pattern to night and then day.

“And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light ‘day,’ and the darkness he called ‘night.’ And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day” (Genesis 1:3-5, NIV).

This is life-changing for those of us who feel we need to earn our rest.

When our intentional and creative God spoke day and night into being, the original sequence was day and then night. But in Genesis 1:5, it’s like He pulled out the Uno reverse card and suddenly referred to the two as “evening, and … morning.”

One possible inference here is that for the humans who inhabit God’s creation, night and rest come first. And then work. This isn’t to say we’ve completely misunderstood God’s intention for Sabbath at the end of the week (Genesis 2:2). But it does point to the truth that we can’t work from an empty tank.

From the very beginning, we see God easing our fears and concerns about whether we’ll ever be able to earn our rest. There is no list to finish before we take the gift of rest that’s offered to us by a good and loving Father. There is evening and morning; there is rest and then work. In God’s structuring of the created order of everything, we might say He intentionally sequenced rest to come before any kind of waking activity.

So we break ties with the lie that we can’t rest until after our work is completed, and we receive the truth that we won’t be able to work well until we rest.

When we rest, we take God at His word, trusting that striving can cease.
When we rest, we tear down the false idols of people-pleasing, fear and perfectionism.
When we rest before the work is all done, we declare God’s faithfulness louder than our own fruitfulness.

His Kingdom comes when His will is done, and His Kingdom comes when His daughters rest.

God, we thank You for modeling rest for us in creation and in the life of Jesus. We thank You for giving rest to us, Your kids, as a gift of grace and relief. Please help us to accept the gift and stop trying to earn it. Help us to break ties with striving! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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