Is rest an unnecessary luxury or a fundamental need? What role should rest play in one’s life? In this article, Pastor David Platt makes a biblical case that humans are created for rest so that we can ultimately be satisfied with God. Pastor Platt explains that rest is not only physical relief, but also freedom from fear, anxiety, sin, and legalism. As humans, we are prone to satisfy our longings with the pleasures of this world. Instead, God calls his people to rest in him because only he can satisfy them.
- Rest is a Command
- Rest in the Bible
- Only God Satisfies
Watch the full message of Are You Tired? Come to Jesus
From the very beginning of creation, to the very first set of commandments God gives, to the very design of our bodies, God has created us for rest. He calls us to rest and not just physically. Yes, God designed us to rest from work on a weekly basis, but think of all the other ways God has designed us to experience rest:
Ways that God Has Created You for Rest
- God desires you to experience rest from fear—1 John 4:18.
- God desires you to experience rest from all worry, to be free and not to worry about anything—Matthew 6.
- God desires you to experience rest from all anxiety about anything—Philippians 4:6-7.
- God desires you to experience rest from sin—Romans 6:18.
- God desires you to experience rest from efforts to save yourself from sin—that’s throughout the whole book of Galatians.
God Created Us to Rest from the Emptiness of the World
More than all that, God desires you to experience rest from endless efforts to satisfy yourself in this world, from endless running after money, positions, possessions, and pleasures in this world, thinking, “This will satisfy me or that will do it,” then coming up empty.
God says to His people in Jeremiah 2:13, “You don’t have to keep drinking water from broken cisterns that don’t hold water, when I will completely satisfy your soul.” I can keep going on and on with other Scripture.
Return to His Rest
God desires you to experience rest from having to control everything around you, particularly in the middle of challenges around you. Psalms 116:7 says, “Return, O my soul, to your rest.”
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
