We Enter God’s Rest, enjoy God, and are Satisfied with God before we Work for God

We need to learn how to rest with God and then work for God, and we need to enter into God’s rest as we work with Him and for Him; we need to keep the principle of the Sabbath, taking Christ as our rest and enjoyment for our satisfaction with God and in God, and then work with God and for God.

Lord Jesus, we come to You to be one with You today. You are our rest. You give us rest. We take You as our rest. Oh Lord, even as we do so many things outwardly, we want to be in You as rest inwardly. Keep us in You, in our spirit, resting with You and working with You! May we keep the divine principle today of remaining in rest as we do all things in our Christian life! Amen!

We believers in Christ can come to the Lord day by day, even moment by moment, to receive and enjoy rest. As we toil and are burdened, doing so many things in our Christian life and in our work for God, we need to come to the Lord, and He will give us rest.

When we come to the Lord, He shows us that He bears a yoke; He bears the will of the Father as His yoke, which is easy, and He carries out the burden of God’s will, which is light.

Our yoke is heavy, and we have no strength to carry it; even when we take Christ’s yoke and are yoked with Him, we need Him as our everything. His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

Sometimes we toil so much that we may not have enough sleep; we may do so many things that we can’t even sleep.

Sometimes it may seem that the Lord’s yoke is so heavy and harsh; at these times, we need to come to the Lord, and He will give us rest.

The principle is that we labour, toil, and bear burdens, but at the same time, we are coming to the Lord inwardly to enjoy Him as our rest.

When we come to the Lord and are one with Him, we will realise that everything in God’s economy is not a heavy burden but an enjoyment.

If we feel unrest, we should not blame God’s economy; we are blaming the wrong thing.

It’s not God’s economy and the burden to carry out God’s economy that makes us bitter; rather, it is our using our natural life and strength that causes us to think that the yoke is bitter or hard.

If we still use our natural strength to serve the Lord, if we still harbour something for ourselves in serving the Lord, we will think that the Lord’s will is hard and harsh.

But if we come to the Lord and take Him as our rest, Hallelujah, we enjoy rest with Him, and we can toil with Him by remaining in His rest in all things! Amen!

As we Work for God we need to Rest with Him: Keep the Principle of the Sabbath!

Another mention of the matter of resting with God first and then working with God, or resting with God while we work with Him, is seen in Exodus 31:12-17.

After a long record concerning the building up of the dwelling place of God, there is a repetition of the commandment to keep the Sabbath.

Jehovah called Moses to go up to the mountain; there, He gave him the law, then He gave him the revelation concerning the building up of His dwelling place on earth.

We see so many details regarding the design of the tabernacle and its furniture, and we also see a full revelation regarding the priesthood; after that, we see a record concerning the builders of the tabernacle.

After all these, the Lord repeated the commandment to keep the Sabbath. It seems that this is an insertion here, for God was speaking of the building of the dwelling place of God, the priesthood, the law, etc, and suddenly He says that His people need to keep the Sabbath.

Here we see that God wants His builders, the believers in Christ who grow in life and build up the church, to not just work for Him but even more, learn how to rest with God.

We should not merely work for God and forget about resting with Him; rather, we need to be reminded to rest with God, even first rest and then work with and for God.

God wants us to keep the principle of the Sabbath; this principle is not a matter of what day we rest, on Saturday or on Sunday, but it is resting with God and then working with God.

In the Old Testament the Sabbath was to be kept holy, and no one was allowed to work on the Sabbath, for this is the day of rest (Heb. 4:7-9; Isa. 30:15).

Today we need to keep the principle of the Sabbath, for the Sabbath is related to God’s dwelling place, both in the preparation of the materials, its building up, the service of the saints in the church, and all the details related to the building of the church.

The fact that the insertion concerning the Sabbath follows the charge for the building work of the tabernacle indicates that the Lord was telling the builders, the workers, to learn how to rest with Him as they worked for Him.

We need to heed the Lord’s word in spirit. The Lord Jesus said that He will build His church; the One who builds the church is Christ (Matt. 16:18).

We need to be in Christ and one with Christ to build up the church, and in particular, we need to learn how to rest with Him. May we learn from the Lord today.

May we as the builders of God’s house and workers in the building of God learn to rest with God and then work with God and for God.

In order for us to build up the church on the earth, we first need to learn how to rest with Him, and then, we will know how to work for Him.

If we know only how to work for the Lord but do not regularly rest with Him, we are acting contrary to the divine principle.

Actually, even as we work for the Lord to build up the church, we need to come to Him and take Him as our rest; we rest in Him and with Him, and then we work with Him and for Him.

This is the divine principle, and we should not break this principle. Many times, zealous Christians inadvertently break God’s principle, and sometimes they may even willingly do this.

They are full of zeal, power, and strength, and they just work for God, but they do not rest with God. Oh Lord Jesus! May we come to the Lord regarding this and be before Him, even enquire of Him,

Lord Jesus, we love You and we want to work for You for the building up of the church. Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to You to build up the church as the dwelling place of God. We want to be one with You, Lord, in the work of building. We come to You and learn from You, for You are the One who builds up the church. Hallelujah, the church is the Lord’s, and He is the One who builds up the church! Amen, Lord, may we learn to come and rest with You and in You, and then work for You and with You. May we see this divine principle in our working for the Lord. May we keep the principle of the Sabbath today, learning to rest with the Lord and then work with Him. Amen, Lord, bring us into You as our rest. Keep us coming to You to receive You and enjoy You as our rest. May we take You as our rest and our satisfaction. Oh Lord, may we first enjoy You, partake of Your riches, and rest with You, and then do things in oneness with You for the building up of the church!

Enter into God’s Rest, Enjoy God, and be Satisfied with God, and then Work with God and for God

Many people, when they hear about the matter of keeping the principle of the Sabbath, they think they should stop everything and just rest, doing nothing; many think that the significance of the Sabbath is merely to cease from work.

If we look at the first mention of God keeping the Sabbath, which He didn’t call Sabbath but only a day of rest, we see in Genesis 1-2 how God created all things, and then He rested.

God created the earth, the heavens, the animals, the birds, and all things necessary for man’s existence; He created all things in six days, and on the seventh day He rested (Gen. 2:2).

On the sixth day, God created man, and when He saw man, He was satisfied; then, on the seventh day, God rested. This means that, as soon as man came out of God’s creating hands on God’s sixth day, man entered not into work but into God’s rest.

Man’s first day was not a day of work; it was a day of rest. This is the divine principle, and we need to keep this principle, which is also the principle of the Sabbath.

We need to realise that God rested on the seventh day because He had finished His work and was satisfied (Gen. 1:26, 31-2:2).

When He obtained man, for whom He created all things, God’s glory was manifested because man was there in His image and with His authority!

Man was about to exercise God’s authority and express God in His image to both subdue Satan and bring in God’s kingdom.

As long as man expresses God and deals with God’s enemy, God is satisfied and can rest.

God worked hard, even laboriously, for six days, and on the seventh day He rested; He was happy, He was satisfied, so He rested.

He was not happy only with the sun, the moon, the stars, the heaven, the earth, the animals, the trees, or the fish; He was happy because He gained man!

Man’s first day on earth was a day of rest; he first rested with God and then he worked for God and with God.

Later, the seventh day was commemorated as the Sabbath (Exo. 20:8-11); God’s seventh day was man’s first day. Wow, our first day, our first order of business, is not to work for God but to rest with God!

This is how we were created according to the divine principle! God has prepared everything for man’s enjoyment; after man was created, he didn’t join in God’s work but rather, he entered into God’s rest.

As believers in Christ, we were not saved primarily to work with God and for God; we were saved to first enjoy God, rest with God, and partake of God’s rest, and then we can work with God and for God.

God has prepared everything. He has come in the Son and has redeemed us, and He has become a life-giving Spirit to enter into our spirit and dispense His life into us.

Even after we repent and believe, God continues to do everything in us; He operates in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure, and He does everything. He renews us, He transforms us, He conforms us to His image, and He glorifies us.

The first order of business for us as believers in Christ is not to work for God but to enjoy God and enter into God’s rest.

God doesn’t want man to start working for Him as soon as man believes in God; God did all the work, and man first needs to enjoy God and rest with God, and then man can work for God and with God.

When the Lord Jesus was on the cross, one of the words He said toward the end was, It is finished. It is done! Praise the Lord, all the work is done, and now it is finished!

We believers in Christ enter into Christ’s finished work, enjoy His person and His work, and enter into His rest. God has done everything; everything we need, He has done it all.

We just enter into what He has accomplished. We can praise Him for what He has done.

May we realise that man was created not to work first but to be satisfied with God and rest with God (Matt. 11:28-30). It was the Sabbath that was made for man and not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27).

The religious ones flip this in the wrong way, saying that man is for the Sabbath; actually, the Sabbath is for man, for God wants man to rest with Him first.

When we are filled with Christ by enjoying Christ, then we can work for the Lord and with the Lord.

May we realise that we cannot go on working for God continuously without any break; there have to be intervals of work followed by intervals of rest.

Actually, first we rest and then we work, and we rest and are satisfied with God so that we may know God, enjoy God, and be one with God as we work for God. Our work should be the overflow of the inner life!

Lord Jesus, may we be those who know how to rest with God and enjoy God first and then work for God and with God. Amen, Lord, we come to You to enjoy You today. We want to first enjoy You and then work with You and for You. May we enter into Your Sabbath rest today. May we remain in Your rest. Thank You, Lord, for creating us not to first work for God but to first enjoy God and enter into God’s rest! Hallelujah, man’s first day after being created by God was a day of rest, not a day of work! Amen, Lord, we love You! We want to take time to enjoy You and rest with You. You are our rest. You are our satisfaction. Fill us, Lord! Fill us to the brim! Satisfy us. Constitute us with Yourself. We just open our whole being to You. We want to be filled with the Triune God! May our work for God be the overflow of the inner life. May Your life in us fill us and saturate us until it flows out of us as our work for God! Amen, Lord, may we take time to rest with You again and again so that we may be filled with You and work one with You!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Minoru Chan on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus (msg. 172), by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The All-inclusive Christ as Revealed in Matthew (2025 Thanksgiving Blending Conference), week 5, Christ as the One Who Gives Us Rest – day 3.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Lord, I believe a rest remains / To all Thy people known; / A rest where pure enjoyment reigns, / And Thou art loved alone. / A rest, where all our soul’s desire / Is fixed on things above; / Where fear and sin and grief expire, / Cast out by perfect love. (Hymns #424 stanzas 1-2)
  – Thy glorious, radiant face / My heart delights to see; / Here I’d abide and ne’er depart, / Beholding constantly. / In such a fellowship / Thou, Lord, art grace to me; / My heart and spirit gladdened, filled, / I enter rest in Thee. (Hymns #812 stanza 3-4)
  – The overflow of life is work, / The work should be our living! / What we experience e’er should be / The message we are giving. / When living and the work are one, / The work will be effectual; / When message and the life are one, / The word will be successful. (Hymns #910 stanza 1)