Day 3
Reading: Genesis 2:1-9
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. 4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. 5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. 8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The Genius Of Genesis
Rick Warren was spot on when he said, “I could imagine God saying to a lot of us, ‘Hey, I'm God, and you're not. You're not the general manager of the universe.’”
Our society so often defines people by what they do. So, when a person is “doing nothing” they can feel a sense of guilt or inadequacy during those periods. Some of us are terrified of people thinking we are slothful.
But the truth is, we are just as loved by God when we are resting. We are just as whole, just as precious and just as saved. These feelings are not what our Heavenly Father intended for us as His creation.
Adam’s first day on earth was not spent at the office printing out spreadsheets or writing projection forecasts. Nor was he busy planting seeds, counting snakes and tending to the animals. He was created, then he and Eve and God all put their feet up! As our reading today reminds us, their first day on was a day off. This tells me that God didn’t define Adam by his usefulness. That gives me confidence that God doesn’t judge me by my productivity or my CV either. God doesn’t value me or love me because of the fact that I can work.
No. He loves me because He made me.
We can see rest as simply an absence of work, but this robs rest of its power and strength. Rest is not just a negative vacuum – a time of counting the hours before work starts again. A person doing this is not resting from work in his/her mind or her body at all.
If we see rest and work as opposites, by very definition they are in opposition to one another. They FIGHT. We have to learn to see them as friends that need one another in order to function. We need to realize that we need to rest well in order to live well. We also need to rest efficiently to work effectively.
Where do you feel a lack of balance in your work or resting?
What could God be nudging you to do about that?
Pray: Father, please help me not to try and find my worth in my work. Thank you that I am loved and precious even when I am choosing to be still. Amen
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Taken from Reading Plans from YouVersion (https://www.bible.com/en-GB/reading-plans/11321-the-rest-of-your-life/day/3 ) and River Publishing for this plan.