Welcome back to Mental Health Integration. Now, in the last section, we talked  a lot about self-care, like so much about self-care and therapists and  psychiatrists and all of that. And in this section, I want to take a step back and I  want to ask, okay, well, where is Jesus? Does Jesus do self-care? Like, what  does the Bible say about this stuff? Because that should probably inform us if  we're pastors and if we're faith leaders and we're talking about Jesus and now  we need to talk about self-care. 

This isn't just best practice because Brandon said so. This is actually also in  your Bible. So, we're going to walk through some of these spaces, specifically  about self-care, about rest and margin, and we're going to work through what is  it that God's actually saying. 

So, are you ready to jump in? Here we go. In Genesis 2, it says, Thus the  heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh  day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he  rested from all his work. Then Gid blessed the seventh day and made it holy,  because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.  I have often had the experience where I feel like I need to keep going and keep going and keep going and keep pushing and keep pushing and keep pushing  and it's not biblical at all. In fact, God is very, very intentional about rest. When God is the one who rests and who says, on the seventh day, he looked at all he created and it was very good. And then, as many commentators say, he  actually creates the crown of creation, which is Sabbath. The thing that caps off  creation, the thing that makes it all work is rest. 

That is so much unlike how I'm naturally wired to just go and go and go, but it is  exactly what we need to do to stop and rest. And we read about it other places  in the Old Testament as well, that there is this idea that we need Sabbath, that  we need rest. In Exodus, it says, each morning, everyone gathered as much as  they needed. 

And when the sun grew hot, it melted away. In the sixth day, they gathered  twice as much. Two omers for each person. 

And the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses. He said to  them, this is what the Lord commanded. Tomorrow is to be a day of Sabbath  rest, a holy Sabbath for the Lord. 

So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever  is left and keep it until morning. So they saved it until morning, as Moses  commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it. 

Eat it today, Moses said, because today is a Sabbath for the Lord. You will not  find any of it on the ground today. Six days you are to gather it, but on the  seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any. 

This is God's dictation to Moses around manna in the wilderness. Moses had  led the Israelites out of it, out of Egypt. They are currently wandering the 

wilderness, trying to see what is going to happen, and they're being fed with  manna. 

It falls from the sky in the morning, it's on the ground, it's dew in the morning.  They gather it all every day, and on six days, if they keep it towards the next  day, it rots and gets maggots, except one day, and that is before the Sabbath,  when nothing happens to it. It just stays intact, because God has even built into  his provision for his people that they need rest and margin. 

It's been said that God created the Sabbath for man, not the man for  Sabbath, because this is something that naturally is a part of how we were  created. We were naturally created to rest, not that God needed us to rest, and  that's why he created us this way, but that this is part of what makes us work  well, is this rest, and so we do it. And we see that, right? They gather, they eat,  there is abundance, there is enough, but it requires the Sabbath, and this is  before we get to Jesus, that there is still this idea of rest. 

We see Jesus, even though it seems like from the religious leaders, Jesus  throws out the Sabbath, right? He's healing people on the Sabbath, he's doing  stuff on the Sabbath, he's taking care of us on the Sabbath, but we still see  Jesus rest a lot, even when he's being pursued. Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place  where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when  they found him, they exclaimed, everyone is looking for you. 

Jesus is taking the time off, and it's not because he has a lot of extra time.  Jesus does not have a margin for a lot of things at this point in his ministry. He  does not have spare time. 

There are just massive crowds gathering to try and chase Jesus and get what  he has. They want him to teach, they want him to preach, they want him to heal, they want him to do stuff, they want miracles, they want it all, and he's been  doing it all, and he keeps doing it all. And in the middle of all of that, he wakes  up early in the morning and runs away and goes to the mountains to pray, to be  silent, to rest, to reconnect. 

I think it's really important to state here that if Jesus needed to practice self-care and needed to make sure that he was connecting with God, maybe that might  be important for us. If Jesus is not overwhelmed, even though there are literally  crowds of people demanding his attention because they want him so badly to  be healed and want him to do his Jesus thing, maybe we need to take the time  and the space to rest. I have been around so many entrepreneurs who work 70, 80, 90, 100 hours a week. 

I've been around so many pastors who work 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 hours a week. It  is just amazing, but there's no chance to reconnect and no chance to  center when we work that much. We don't do our best work. 

We don't put our best selves forward. We put something forward, but when 

we're pushing that hard, what's best about ourself, it's not coming out, and  Jesus speaks pretty profoundly to that, pretty profoundly that, no, we need rest.  I, as Jesus would say, I need rest, so you should probably rest, and then he  offers us rest as well. 

In Luke 11:28-30, Jesus says, Come to me, all you who are weary and  burdened, 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 will find rest for your souls. My  yoke is easy and my burden is light. 

Jesus even takes the time to say, Hey, I am rest for you. The way that I am  going to do this Jesus thing, if you will, the way that I'm introducing my kingdom, you can trust me. You can know that my yoke is easy and my burden is light. I think part of this is what we see in the story of David and Saul. We saw in the  story of David and Saul that Saul was constantly trying to prove  himself, constantly trying to be enough. He was working through his own  insecurity. 

He was constantly pushing, and it seems like David's not. David is resting in  who God is, and he's asking the questions, being attentive, and then following  what God says. I think that's actually a really, really great model. This is David taking Jesus' yoke and Saul taking another. This is Jesus  being redeemed by Jesus, or David being redeemed by Jesus, and this is Saul  trying to redeem himself in some ways. And this is David trusting that God is  enough and Saul trusting that he's not, that Saul somehow needs to prove  himself or do everything right in order for God to do the God thing. I love the way this is phrased in the message. I think it's beautiful, so I want  to walk you through that as well. The same passage, Luke 11:28-30, in the  message says, are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion? Come to me, get away with me, and you'll recover your life. 

I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch  how I do it. 

Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on  you. Keep company with me, and you'll learn how to live freely and lightly. This is the profound promise of God in the middle of all of this stuff. We're trying to learn self-care. We're trying to learn how to do all of these things, and there's  a temptation to say, I must do it perfectly. 

There's a temptation to be just like Saul and to push and push and push and  say, well, I'm eating right, and I'm sleeping right, and I'm exercising, and I'm  doing all the right things. Is it working? And Jesus seems to be saying, slow  down. Be with me, and I will give you a real rest. 

Work with me, and I will show you the unforced rhythms of grace. This isn't to  say Jesus is saying, stop. Jesus did a phenomenal amount of stuff in three  years, okay? He healed people.

He upset people. He did all sorts of ministry, all sorts of preaching, all sorts of  everything, but he still promises, walk with me, and I will give you a real rest. I  will do my work, and you can do your work, but you can do your work with me  instead of for me. 

I think this is a profound difference and a profound separation in what it means  to walk with Jesus and what it means to walk for Jesus. We walk with Jesus, we walk alongside, and we do our work with him. As John 15 says, you  know, Jesus is the vine, we're the branches, and we stay connected to him, and when we stay connected, we bear fruit. 

But the emphasis is on connection. We stay connected, and because of that,  we bear fruit. We're going to see Saul, and where I have been often, is I need to generate it. 

I need to push it. I need to do it. So to take the same thing, John 15 would say,  Jesus is the vine, we are the branches, and my job is to bear fruit. But without being connected to the vine, a branch doesn't bear anything good. It can't. It needs that life source, and I need that life source too. Jesus was profoundly aware that he needed that life source even, and his  connection to God, even though he was divine. We should probably take note of that. And then when he offers this life to us and says, learn the unforced  rhythms of grace, there's an invitation to please learn this rhythm of not striving,  but being. 

Of not pushing, but being. And as we work through mental health, there's a  temptation to strive. I realized this in my own life, that I was pushing so hard  because I was doing everything right. 

I was the ultimate pharisee of mental health. I had my support network that I  met with. I had my diet, and my exercise, and my meds. 

I had my psychiatrist on speed dial. I had my therapist. I was working at all. I was working my program. I was getting somewhere right, and I was stressed  out of my mind, and it was because I was trying to do everything right and  control the outcomes. I was trying to dictate what the outcome was doing by  dictating the inputs. 

And at some point, I had to release that and slow down and say, whoa, I cannot  control the outcomes of this. I cannot control how this happens. I need to slow  down. 

Am I still going to take care of myself? Yes, but that's not the end, right? All of  these habits and all these things that I'm doing, they are a means to an end. I  am doing them in order that I can get better. I am not doing them because if I do them perfectly, I will be perfect, and I have lost myself in that, and I've seen a lot of people get lost in that. 

So I learned this trick. It's not a trick. It's a habit from my counselor, and my wife has done the same from some friends, which is to hold your hands open 

because when we're walking with Jesus through this, when he offers this to us,  our role is to accept what he has for us. 

So I want to read this passage with you one more time, but with this posture of  our hands open, not trying to control everything, but just doing our best and  being in it. Are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion? Come to me. Get  away with me, and you'll recover your life. 

I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch  how I do it. 

Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on  you. Keep company with me, and you'll learn how to live freely and lightly. Instead of holding on and trying to control things, this is our hands closed. I am  trying to dictate what is going to happen. My job is to hold my hands open and  to receive, and holding your hands open is both a posture of giving and  receiving. 

This is how I give something away, and this is how I can receive something, and in the case of our role with Jesus and this space around self-care, um, don't be  a Pharisee about it. I've done that. It doesn't work. 

Open up. Receive what Jesus has for you, and also be willing to know that the  gift, the posture of receiving is also the posture where Jesus can take things  away, and it could be that you're holding on to things that Jesus wants to take  away and discard, and that is just fine. There's nothing wrong with that. We just have to be in a posture where we're willing to do that, and then things  can start changing for the better. Let's keep moving because Jesus and this  section, this isn't the only spot that it talks about how we get better and how the  self-care things work. There's also a little bit that it says about counselors. In Proverbs, it says, for lack of guidance, a nation fails, but victory is won  through many advisors, and some translations even say counselors here. Now,  it's important to note that this is not saying you need an LMFT and an LPC. This is actually how things change because those didn't exist. 

All of our ideas about what a counselor is and their accreditations, those are all  fairly recent things, but it is to say that you don't do this thing alone. When I said you build your network, you build people around you, you do this thing together.  

That's what this is talking about when you keep this transparency with the  people around you. 

That's what this means. Let's keep going. Now, in 1 Corinthians 6, it says, do  you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit? Who is in you?  Whom have you received from God? You are not your own. 

You were bought with a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies. When we talk so much about diet and we talk so much about exercise, we talk so much  about all of these things, a lot of it has been couched in terms of do this  because if you do this, your meds might have a chance to work and then you 

can get better. 

This is a very, you know, it's a very simple way of saying you need your best  shot at this thing. It's really hard, but there's a second side to this, which is you  don't just take care of yourself because it means your meds might work. You get one body, one, and you get one life, one, and God wants to walk with you and  enjoy you and actually get you to enjoy walking with him. 

That he is so pleased to walk with you in this life and he is a pleasure to walk  with. That said, if you don't take care of your body and you die at 47, when God  said if you did take care of your body you would have lasted to 78, that's a  bummer, especially when you only get one. So this is actually a direct  command, like take care of yourself. 

Your body is made to move, go move it. Your body is not made to sit here all  day, though I have been sitting here most of the day. I did move this morning. Go eat things that make your body work well. Go rest so that you can recover  your life. Go take care of yourself. 

We are commanded to do this because not only does it mean that our meds  work, but we can enjoy our life later. We can keep doing ministry later. We can  keep making a difference later. 

We're not bogged down by as many medical bills and as many problems later if  we take care of ourselves. We have an opportunity to have authority over a  space and this was just given from the beginning, right? Adam is given  authority. Take care of the garden. 

Do it and now our authority is to take care of different things and part of that is  your body so you can keep doing things and keep enjoying things and God can  keep enjoying you in this life. Just go do it. Take care of yourself because you  only get one. 

Take it seriously and enjoy it. Thanks. In the next section we're actually doing  reflections about what all of this stuff means and how we can take an inventory  of what our own life is and how we're doing well in life or how we're not  doing well in life. 

Whatever it is, well or not well, the truth of it will help us get to where we want to go. I will see you in that next section. 



Last modified: Tuesday, January 20, 2026, 10:32 AM