True Sabbath Rest Frees Us From Restlessness
On the Sabbath, we rest
We all live with chronically unsatisfied desires. No matter how much we seem to get, it never feels like enough.
The Bible calls this inner disquiet “restlessness.” And one of the ways we fight against this restless ache in our hearts is through Sabbath.
In the Exodus story, before the command to sabbath is given, we read all sorts of language that shows the restlessness the Hebrews carried and came from in Egypt.
“Why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!”
“You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.”
“Lazy! That’s what you are! Lazy! That’s why you whine, ‘Let us go so we can worship God.’”
Pharaoh was a cruel tyrant. No matter how hard the Hebrews worked, it was never enough. They lived under the oppressive yoke of the daily quota—more, more, more.
True Sabbath Rest Is an Act of Resistance
God’s command to “remember the Sabbath” is to remind the Israelites they are no longer slaves—they’re in a new kingdom, ruled by a different King. There’s no daily quota anymore. No taskmaster pressing in from above.
So Sabbath isn’t just about a rhythm; it’s about resistance.
And we need this kind of resistance in the modern West, where we work more than ever before, have more than ever before, and still remain unhappy.
It’s Egypt all over again.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
On the Sabbath, we rest from work.
On the Sabbath, we rest from even thinking about work.
On the Sabbath, we rest from wanting and worrying.
True Sabbath Rest Breaks the Cycle of Striving
And in doing so, we break our addiction to the twin gods of the West—achievement and accumulation.
Sabbath is a weekly declaration that Pharaoh and his army are at the bottom of the Red Sea. We are free to live in a new kingdom, under a new King.
We don’t have to produce or perform or buy our way into love. We don’t have to hold our lives together or fear what lies ahead.
We can rest.
Reflection: Jesus Invites Us Into True Sabbath Rest
Are you exhausted all the time? Waking up to your alarm clock day after day? Always in a hurry, late for the next thing, impatient with life? Do you feel haggard? Rarely your best self? Drowning under the tide of options and opportunities?
Constantly trying to catch up to the ideal life that is always just out of reach?
Come to me.
Slow your whole life down.
Let me show you how to shoulder the weight of life with ease, even joy. Other people offer escape aplenty; I offer something more: real, true rest. Soul-level rest. Copy the details of my life, pattern the rhythm of your life after mine, and slowly but surely, I will teach you how to live with more ease and gratitude and joy than you ever thought possible.
—John Mark Comer, paraphrase of Matthew 11:28–30
Reflection: Embracing Our God-Given Limits
Resisting limits isn’t new for the human race. From the very beginning we’ve had an animosity toward finitude and boundaries. In their rebellion, Adam and Eve wanted to be “like God.” Invincible. All-sufficient. Autonomous. Limitless . . .
What if Christians were known as a countercultural community of the well-rested—people who embrace our limits with zest and even joy?
As believers we can relish sleep as not only necessary but as an embodied response to the truth of Scripture: we are finite, weak creatures who are abundantly cared for by our strong and loving Creator.
—Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary
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Excerpted from Sabbath Meditations by John Mark Comer & Practicing the Way. Copyright © 2022 by Practicing the Way. Published by WaterBrook, an imprint of Penguin Random House Christian Publishing Group, LLC. Used by permission.
John Mark Comer is the New York Times bestselling author of eight books, including Practicing the Way, which was named the 2025 Christian Book of the Year by the ECPA, and The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, which has sold more than a million copies and been translated into over 20 languages. Heis a pastor and the founder of Practicing the Way, an organization working to see the renewal of apprenticeship to Jesus in our time. The Comers live in the Santa Monica Mountains just outside Los Angeles. Visit him at johnmarkcomer.com and Instagram.com/johnmarkcomer
Practicing the Way helps churches form lifelong apprentices of Jesus. Our free resources are used by thousands of communities and pastors worldwide tohelp people be with Jesus, become like him, and do as he did. Our work is possible thanks to a group of monthly givers called The Circle and other generous givers. More than 23,000 churches in 157 countries are actively using Practicing the Way resources. For more information, visit practicingtheway.org.
