Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.
And by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done;
and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it,
because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created,
in the day that the LORD God made earth and heaven (Genesis 2:1-4).
Because man was created at the end of the sixth day, his first full day was the seventh day of creation, the day God rested. For man to have fellowship with God from the beginning, he had to start by entering God's rest, and this is still essential for true fellowship with God. This is why the Promised Land is equated with the rest of God in Hebrews 3-4. He created man to need rest. However, the rest he needs is more than just sleeping.
In Psalm 46:10 the Lord says, "Cease striving and know that I am God." Striving is a demonstration of the fact that we really do not know God as He is. If we know Him as He is, we know that He is above all authority, power, and dominion. If we know Him as He is, we can trust that He is in control, and that He really will work all things together for our good. This brings rest, peace, and security that is incomprehensible to those who do not know the Lord. Peace and rest in the midst of any situation should be the hallmarks of every believer.
Striving is the result of worry, and worry is the result of not having faith in God. This is sin, as we read in Romans 14:23, "whatever is not from faith is sin." In I Peter 5:6-7 we are exhorted to, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you." The way we humble ourselves before God is to cast our anxiety upon Him. Anxiety is pride. It is pride to think that any problem is too big for God, and we have to straighten it out ourselves!
It took faith to enter the Promised Land. Doubt caused an entire generation to perish in the wilderness. Many christians, likewise, do not attain to the promises of God in their lives because they allow doubt to control them instead of faith. One of the primary ways we demonstrate faith is to rest in His promises, and in who He is. If we really trust Him, we will have rest and peace, even in the midst of our trials.
In Ezekiel 44:18 we are told concerning the priests, "Linen turbans shall be on their heads, and linen undergarments shall be on their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything which makes them sweat." Sweat is the result of exerting our own strength, so sweat speaks of a ministry that comes from our own efforts. If we are going to be the priests of the Lord, we must not take on anything that makes us sweat. The Lord beckons us in Matthew 11:28-30:
"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
"Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.
"For My yoke is easy, and My load is light."
A yoke speaks of work, but when we are yoked with the Lord, it will be His strength that does the work, and we just get carried along for the ride! It is the Spirit that He has given to us that will do the work, just as He did from the beginning. We are told in Acts 7:48, "the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands." Paul the Apostle explained to the men of Athens in Acts 17:25, "neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything." All of our best efforts will not accomplish anything for Him. We are simply called to obedience and abiding in Him. When we come to rest in Him, He will then move through us, and we will actually find rest and refreshment as He does it.
We see in His call that we need to be yoked with Him. By doing this, we learn from Him to be gentle and humble. When we depart from these two great qualities of the Lord, we will begin to work in our own strength. We know that when we begin to sweat and strive, we have departed from abiding in Him, and from the rest that we have in Him. When we abide in His rest, we are always refreshed instead of drained.