Rest and Rise Bible Study: Week 1

Hello fellow adventurers!

The following is an excerpt from my upcoming 4-Week Bible Study titled, "Rest and Rise: Be Refreshed In Your Work."

Walk through a sample study with us every week leading up to the official launch on February 27th. Make sure you're subscribed and follow me on Instagram to see all the latest updates!

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God told us to be fruitful and multiply goodness. I believe we have a desire to fulfill this great calling in our lives, but a focus on work isn’t working.

We all need rest, but we we aren’t taking it. Americans lose $223 billion in unused vacation days. Hustling through our breaks not only costs dollars, but leaves us feeling overworked or unworthy. Even if we use every spare moment to be productive, go to bed late, get up early, and put in our best effort day after day, it’s not enough. By the time the weekend rushes in, we still feel behind and our efforts are unacknowledged. The weight of work can feel unbearable.

Here’s the good news:

Once we learn how to rest in Jesus, He will multiply our work.

Instead of leaning on our own strength, God invites us to do work His way. Over the next four weeks, we will dig deep into Matthew 11:28-30. Jesus will teach us how to rest so we can rise with a renewed perspective, be refreshed with His presence, and accomplish greater things than we ever could on our own.

If you live with aching ambitions, deferred dreams, and stress headaches, this study is for you. If you long for both satisfaction in your work and a day at the spa, you’re in the right place!

As a personal trainer, I used to measure progress by the amount of squats, sweat, and weight lost. My clients enjoyed the results for a time, but there was still something missing. One day, a friend pointed out a picture of an athlete’s face as he crossed the finish line in record time: it was a look of pure serenity. This athlete learned to rest in his work. He trained to adapt his body to any level of stress and quickly return his heart rate to homeostasis.

My own clients suffered from the stress of jobs, kids, family, and responsibilities. What they yearned for was not just a thinner frame or faster mile but stability, balance, and resilience in their daily lives.

We do not need more burpees; we need to learn how to breathe.

Once I recognized the power of the ability to rest in any situation, I changed my methods. I started and ended each session with this prayer over my clients: “Lord, as we rest in You, may You move in us.” They worked harder and took more risks because they began their workout from a place of soul rest. Their perspective shifted from working to get it right to working because they are already loved. And bonus: the exercise equipped them to adapt better to stress.

This rest and rise cycle makes us not just physically fit but spiritually ready in every moment of impending anxiety, pounding pressure, or weighty decision-making.

Try a shortened sample below for yourself!

Rest

Start your time of rest with this prayer in a position of humility:

Jesus,

Thank you for ____________________________________________. You are my ____________________ (i.e. provider, friend, Father).

I give up my cares and plans to You today:

Set a timer for one minute. Breathe deeply and release every muscle, starting from your toes and working up to your forehead. When your mind starts to wander like an ox for greener pastures, repeat Jesus’s words, “Come to me.”

Let me rest my worth in your finished work. Let this offering of silence be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen!