It is with interest that we notice that God created man and woman on the sixth day but on their first day both they and God rested. After being with God one day, they then began their work. An important principle of life may be had here. We should work from our rest, not rest from our work.
Not only do we think the opposite of this - "I deserve rest after working so hard" or we fill up our "rest" with so much activity that we come back to our work exhausted. We've really managed to mess that principle of life up big time. My point in all of this is that this is an important principle to our discipleship and worship as believers.
We are referred to as human beings, not human doings. Our starting point is rest. God established the order of rest and then work. Too many times we pride ourselves in our work ethic when we should consider our rest ethic. The only way we can be successful (in God's perspective) in our mission - in what we have been called to do - is to rest in God, abiding in His presence. Rest and abiding are not optional for the biblical lifestyle of the disciple and worshipper.
John 15:1-8 gives us the circle of the disciple/worshipper. It all begins with rest or abiding. If we abide - we grow; if we grow - we bear fruit; if we bear fruit - we are pruned; leading us back to resting or abiding in Him. We have come full circle. The passage does not specifically mention growth. Some call "bearing fruit" growth. But, we have to grow before we see fruit as in the natural order of God's creation. Growth has to happen before fruit is produced and growth comes from our knowing how to abide.
We must be ready when God moves us into a time of pruning and abiding by surrendering fully to Him. We come to know His grace in the abiding and rest.
Our individual worship, and most certainly our corporate worship as the gathered, is dependent on our resting and abiding in His presence first. Then we are truly ready to do the work of worship. mjm
