The Rest We’ve Forgotten

A recent study found that the average iPhone user touches their phone 2,617 times a day. Two thousand, six hundred and seventeen swipes, taps, and scrolls every twenty-four hours. Think about that. Another study revealed that simply having your phone in the same room with you while you work lowers both productivity and creativity. Even untouched, its presence pulls at you like gravity.

We live in a world cluttered with distractions. We wake up tired, scroll ourselves into more exhaustion, and fall asleep wondering why we still feel behind. Burnout has become normal. Exhaustion is worn like a badge of honor as if running on empty is proof, we’re “working hard enough.”

Every January, people try to break the cycle with resolutions. Gym memberships skyrocket, self-help books fly off the shelves, and planners sell out. But by February, most resolutions are already broken. We’ve all been there. That’s why I rarely preach about resolutions. They’re not bad set them if you’d like but they’re not the ultimate answer.

Vacations? Same story. We say, “I just need a vacation.” So we book the flight, take the trip, and come home even more exhausted. Just last month, our family had a reunion. It was wonderful, but when it was over, I was drained. Vacations are good, but they don’t cure soul-level exhaustion.

So what does? The answer isn’t new, flashy, or hidden. It’s as old as creation itself. The solution is Sabbath rest.

I call it the forgotten commandment.

When God gave the Ten Commandments, He didn’t just say, “Don’t murder,” “Don’t steal,” or “Don’t covet.” Right in the middle, He gave one we’ve nearly written off:

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Exodus 20:8

The word Sabbath means “seventh day.” Holy means “set apart.” God embedded a rhythm into creation itself: six days of work, one day of rest.

It shows up everywhere in Scripture:

   •   The seventh day is the Sabbath day.

   •   The seventh year is the Sabbath year.

   •   Seven sets of seven years lead to Jubilee a year of restoration and release.

This wasn’t God tossing out a suggestion to busy people. It was His divine rhythm.

Notice the command doesn’t only talk about rest. It talks about work.

“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.” (Exodus 20:9–10)

Work six. Rest one. Both matter.

That’s different from man’s ideas. Our five-day workweek? That was Henry Ford’s idea in 1926. To keep his workers healthy and productive, he gave them Saturdays off. Helpful? Sure. But still a human solution.

Now some argue for a four-day workweek or universal income, where everyone works the same and earns the same. But God’s rhythm isn’t four and three. It’s six and one.

I saw this modeled on our family ranch. My father split our 400+ acres into seven sections. Each year, one section rested. Neighbors laughed. “Ed, why waste good soil? Why leave a productive field empty?” But when harvest came, our crops consistently outperformed theirs. When they asked for his secret, my dad just smiled and said, “I let the land rest.”

Obedience, not overwork, brought blessing.

And that principle shaped Tammy and me. For over forty years of marriage, I’ve worked full-time in ministry and we’ve also renovated homes to create a second income stream. Not because of big salaries, but because we worked six days and protected the seventh. We created margin by honoring God’s rhythm.

Genesis tells us God created man on the sixth day. Imagine if God had stopped after five? Humanity wouldn’t exist.

That makes me wonder: What doesn’t exist in our lives because we’ve stepped out of God’s rhythm? What opportunities have we missed by skipping the work we were called to or the rest we desperately need?

Sabbath isn’t optional. It’s God’s idea. Ignoring it carries consequences stress, broken families, burnout.

So why do we resist Sabbath? Often it comes down to control. To stop means we trust God to keep the world spinning without us. That’s scary. We fear falling behind. We confuse rest with laziness.

But Sabbath isn’t laziness it’s obedience. It’s worship. It’s saying, “God, I trust You to sustain me, even when I stop.”

The irony? Sabbath is not a burden. It’s a gift. The antidote to our frantic, over-scheduled, screen-saturated lives. Sabbath reminds us that we are not machines. We are children of God, created to live in His rhythm.

Even Jesus honored this rhythm. He worked hard, healed crowds, taught multitudes but He also withdrew often to lonely places to pray. If the Son of God rested, what makes us think we don’t need to?

So here’s the challenge:

   •   Maybe you need to set down your phone and reclaim stillness.

   •   Maybe you need to protect one day a week for worship, family, and renewal.

   •   Maybe you need to let go of the lie that exhaustion equals importance.

God doesn’t bless burnout. He blesses obedience.

We don’t need more resolutions. We don’t need longer vacations. We need Sabbath.

Because when you align with God’s design six days of work, one day of rest you’ll discover peace, clarity, and strength you didn’t know were possible.

Sabbath isn’t about doing nothing. It’s about trusting Someone.

Jesus still whispers the same invitation:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  Matthew 11:28

Maybe the rest you’ve been chasing in screens, vacations, or resolutions has been waiting all along in the gift God gave at creation: Sabbath rest.