This is the sixth and final part of a series called, Finding a Rhythm of Rest in a World of Busyness and Burnout. Today, I want to share with you one of the benefits of rest that isn’t about you but will add direct benefits to your life.
I also recently my book, Rest Assured: Seven Days to Stillness, Sanity, and the Sabbath You Need! This book answers the question, “How can I learn to live life from a healthy place of contented rest rather than from hurried frustration, exhaustion, busyness, and burnout? The book is meant to be used as part of a seven-day journey to help you establish and live a lifestyle of rest that will in turn help you be more happy and fruitful in life.
If you missed it, here is the video from the Rest Assured Facebook Live Event.
Now, let’s talk about a secret to rest that isn’t primarily about you…
Rest Isn’t All About You
There is a secret to rest that we haven’t yet considered.
The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. (Proverbs 11:25 NLT)
Life-Giving People
Some people are just fun to be around. When you leave them, you feel encouraged, refreshed and empowered. They are like breath of fresh air. I want to be that type of person; the type of person that leaves people better than I found them. I have a few friends like this, including my wife. After being with them, I feel better than I did when we started. With a life-giving person, there is no pressure to be someone I’m not, no pretenses and no masks. They are truthful and honest with me, and I with them.
There is a man in the Bible who was like that. More than likely, you have never heard of him, but he encouraged one of the greatest apostles in history. His name was Onesiphorus. Listen what the apostle Paul said about him,
May the Lord bless Onesiphorus and all his family because he visited me and encouraged me often. His visits revived me like a breath of fresh air, and he was never ashamed of my being in jail. (2 Timothy 1:16 TLB, italics mine)
There are people all around you that need a breath of fresh air. So what are you waiting for? We know that Jesus told us it is better to give than receive (Acts 20:35), and if we give, it will be given back to us – “good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over” (see Luke 6:38 ESV). Jesus didn’t come for healthy people, He came for the sick, the weary and the downtrodden (Luke 5:31-32). To do what? To give them life!
If you allow Him to, Jesus will make you healthy and whole so you could do the same for others. And in doing so, you will receive refreshment for refreshing others!
Be the Type of Person You Want Others To Be
Do things on purpose, be generous for no reason, love without cause. In doing so you will revive others and be like a breath of fresh air to them. Each of us needs to be an Onesiphorus and to have an Onesiphorus.
Selah
Maybe it’s time you get started refreshing others? Why not be generous and give it away? The challenge today is to refresh one person. Go be an Onesiphorus to someone else! Bring someone at your workplace coffee for no reason. Give them a compliment just because. Buy a coworkers lunch unexpectedly. Get together with a friend simply to encourage them. Be a good listener. Pay attention to those around you when they share their likes or needs and then beat them to it. Give an extravagant gift.
Go ahead, I dare you, be the person you want others to be!
You can check out the whole series here:
- Part 1 – Death by Overwork
- Part 2 – The Gift of Rest
- Part 3 – The Exchange
- Part 4 – Stretched Thin
- Part 5 – What Is Sabbath Anyway?
Rest Assured: Seven Days to Stillness, Sanity and the Sabbath You Need
True rest is something that we all desperately need but can’t seem to find. It’s not just sleep and down time we need, although that is important, but rest for our souls. In the words of the early church father, Augustine of Hippo, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
True rest can only be found in a relationship with God.
The book is now available as an e-book or in paperback
