--- url: 'https://www.freedomchurch.je/why-rest-is-an-act-of-resistance-and-how-to-actually-do-it/' title: Why Rest Is an Act of Resistance (And How to Actually Do It) author: name: freedomjersey url: 'https://www.freedomchurch.je/author/freedomjersey/' date: '2026-03-15T13:51:20+00:00' modified: '2026-04-19T15:40:10+01:00' type: post categories: - Uncategorised published: true --- # Why Rest Is an Act of Resistance (And How to Actually Do It) Most of us are tired. Not just physically tired — though that too — but tired at a deeper level. The kind of tired that a good night’s sleep doesn’t fix. The kind that creeps in when life feels like an endless loop of doing, producing, and keeping up. What if the answer isn’t to push through, but to stop? ## The Oldest Commandment We Ignore Of the Ten Commandments, the fourth — the instruction to keep the Sabbath — is the longest written and, by most accounts, the least followed. It describes how God rested on the seventh day after creation and calls his people to do the same. But why? What does it actually mean to rest in a way that goes beyond a lazy Sunday or a Netflix binge? One commentator puts it simply: Sabbath rest means **to catch our breath, to be restored right to the very soul.** That word — soul — is key. Not just the body. Not just the mind. The soul: the essence of our life, the seat of our emotions and our will, the place deep within us where we meet with God. The question worth sitting with is this: is there any place in your life quiet enough to hear the voice of God? ## Why Did God Rest? Here’s something worth thinking about: God doesn’t get tired. He doesn’t need sleep. He exists outside of time. So when we read that he rested on the seventh day, we have to ask — why? The answer is that God was making a statement. His rest was a declaration of sovereignty. It was a signal that creation was complete, that he was in charge, and that his people could trust him. When we embrace the Sabbath principle — whatever that looks like in our particular season of life — we are making the same declaration. We are saying: *I am not the one holding everything together. God is sovereign over my time, my days, my work, and my life.* When we skip it entirely, we are — often without realising it — saying the opposite. ## The Problem With Living in Egypt In the book of Exodus, the Israelites spent 400 years as slaves under Pharaoh. Their entire existence was shaped by one rhythm: work, gather, produce, repeat. And then God rescued them. He led them out of Egypt and into the wilderness, where he provided food — manna — from heaven, with double provision on the sixth day so that the seventh could be a day of rest. And yet some of them still went out on the seventh day to gather. Why? Because slaves only know how to work. They had left Egypt physically, but Egypt hadn’t left their mindset. It’s a striking picture of something very familiar. We live in a culture that tells us our identity is in what we do, that productivity is next to godliness, and that more is always better. The work-gather-hoard rhythm is our default. We might not be in literal slavery, but many of us are living as though we are — exhausted, striving, unable to stop. As one author puts it, **Sabbath is an act of resistance.** It is a refusal to let culture dictate the terms of our lives. It is a weekly declaration that we are not slaves — we are free people, living under a God who loves us and provides for us. ## Chronos and Kairos: Two Kinds of Time The ancient Greeks had two words for time. *Chronos* — sequential, measurable time — is the kind we schedule, the kind that fills our calendars and keeps us punctual. *Kairos* — opportune, appointed time — is something different. It’s the moment of significance, the divinely timed interruption, the pause where something meaningful happens. Both matter. We need chronos time to function in the world. But many of us have become almost entirely chronos people — slaves to the schedule, always behind, always rushing — and we’ve lost the art of noticing kairos moments. Those quiet pockets of the day where we could simply stop, breathe, and be in God’s presence. The invitation of Sabbath is to rebalance the two. Not to abandon the diary, but to build into it the kind of unhurried time that restores us from the inside out. ## What Sabbath Actually Looks Like There are two simple principles that serve as a practical starting point: - **Cease from that which is necessary.** Stop working. Stop gathering. Stop hoarding. Simply cease. - **Embrace that which gives life.** Sabbath isn’t an empty void — it’s a space to be filled with gratitude, delight, and connection with God. This isn’t about adding another obligation to an already full week. If anything, it’s a permission slip to do less. The goal isn’t performance — it’s presence. For some, this might look like a full day set aside. For others — especially in busy seasons, or for those working multiple jobs just to get by — it might start much smaller. **Start small.** Half an hour. A morning. A walk. A quiet cup of tea with an open Bible. Begin with intention and build the habit gradually. Preparation also helps. If a full Sabbath day is the goal, thinking ahead — preparing meals, clearing the diary, communicating boundaries — means the day itself can be genuinely restful rather than reactive. ## Time Is a Gift, Not a Possession One of the most liberating shifts that can happen when we embrace Sabbath is in how we see time itself. We tend to treat time as a commodity — something we own, manage, and are perpetually running out of. But what if time is a gift from a God who exists outside of it entirely? Psalm 90 says: *“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”* Numbering our days isn’t about anxiety — it’s about perspective. It’s about stewarding well what we’ve been given, rather than white-knuckling our way through the week in a panic. When we give our time to God — when we say, *my days are yours* — something changes. We stop feeling like we’re almost out of time, and we start living as the heirs of eternity that we actually are. ## Dwelling, Not Just Doing There’s a difference between coming to God with a list and simply sitting in his presence. Both have their place. But Sabbath, at its heart, is about the second. It’s about dwelling — being still enough to hear the heartbeat of the Father, rather than rushing in with requests and rushing back out again. Psalm 23 paints this picture beautifully. The Lord as shepherd, leading beside quiet waters, restoring the soul. A table prepared. A cup that overflows. This is not the imagery of striving — it’s the imagery of being deeply, tenderly cared for. That kind of rest is available. Not just once a week, but in small pockets of every day — moments where we cease, look up, and reconnect with the One who holds everything together so that we don’t have to. ## A Simple Invitation You might not be able to carve out a full Sabbath day this week. But you might have fourteen minutes. And within fourteen minutes, you can genuinely encounter God’s peace. Start there. Find your fourteen minutes. Sit still. Let him be sovereign. And trust that the God who created time knows exactly how much of it you need.