Rest • Reflect • Restore • Recharge • Reset Focus • Restart
In a culture that glorifies constant output, endless busyness, and packed schedules, getting genuinely renewed can feel like a rare luxury. Yet we were never designed to run on empty. From the very beginning, God built a rhythm of rest into creation – offering the Sabbath not as a restrictive rule, but as a life-giving invitation to pause, reflect, and step out of relentless striving. Whether you’re planning a holiday, considering a sabbatical, or simply seeking quiet moments in your daily routine, discover how embracing the six ‘R’s – Rest, Reflect, Restore, Recharge, Reset Focus, and Restart—can draw you back to the true Source of life and restore your soul.
We get tired. All of us. We need rest. All of us.
Sometimes an activity holiday with lots of people will give you the buzz you need but other times they will drain you. When did you last have a holiday that genuinely renewed you? A time when you could slow the pace, allow yourself to think, to be.
‘Holidays and vacations can help to balance activity with contemplation, haste with more natural rhythms, noise with the heralding silence of peace’ – Pope John Paul II
We have an inbuilt need for rest – every day, every night. The first weekend was God’s idea – He gave the Sabbath as a day to rest and to draw near to Him. Have you ever felt the need of a career-break, a sabbatical to replenish?
Holidays are part of God’s rhythm for your life. They don’t need to be exotic or expensive but you do need them for the six ‘R’s if you are going to live well.
1. Rest
A tired and exhausted body needs to break for food every few hours, for sleep every night and to have time out at least once a week. Likewise spiritual renewal doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when you intentionally stop, breathe, and let God refill what life has drained. Sabbath isn’t an outdated rule — it’s God’s built‑in recharge system for tired disciples.
You are not designed for nonstop output. You are a jar of clay — intentionally limited so that His power, not yours, is what carries you (2 Corinthians 4:7).
Sabbath and vacations are reminders: “You can stop. I will sustain.”
Times where you:
- cease striving
- silence the noise
- step out of productivity mode
- let God be God again
Jesus reinforces this rhythm with His invitation:
“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest… you will find rest for your souls.” — Matthew 11:28–29
Times of rest are not pauses from life — they give opportunity for a return to the Source of Life.
2. Reflect — Sabbath Creates Space to Hear the Whisper
Spiritual renewal begins with reflection. Sabbath slows you down enough to notice what’s happening beneath the surface:
- Where am I spiritually dry?
- What am I carrying that God never asked me to?
- What emotions have I ignored?
- What habits are draining me?
Reflection is how you can tune your heart to listen to God, to be mindful of Him within and around you in all you see.
3. Restore — God Rebuilds What You Cannot
Isaiah 40:28–31 is the heartbeat of restoration:
“He gives strength to the weary… those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.”
Take a true Sabbath and you will find this is where restoration happens:
- your identity is re‑anchored as a child of God
- your perspective is lifted
- your soul is re‑centred in Christ
- your hope is rebuilt
You stop working so God can start restoring.
4. Recharge — You cannot run on empty
Electric vehicles need charging points otherwise they stop! It has to be planned.
Recharging is not passive; it’s relational. Sabbath gives you a rhythm that recharges you through:
- Scripture that steadies your mind
- worship that softens your heart
- silence that clears the clutter
- prayer that refocuses your identity
- community that strengthens your faith
This is where the battery fills again — not through effort, but through connection.
5. Reset Focus
If life has become blurred so that important things are out of focus, holiday is a time to refocus. Think about the priorities you have – family, relationships, values. Are you giving enough attention to these? How about God – is He in the centre of your life or has He been displaced by wrong choices, materialism, pressures? If so, think about the further generosity of God’s Jubilee. The detail of this is in Leviticus 25 and Isaiah 61 but it was Jesus Who came that you might step in His Jubilee for your life – His good news for your life is His favour (Luke 4: 18-21).
Jubilee is God’s radical reminder that rest is not optional but essential. Every fiftieth year, Israel stopped — debts released, land restored, slaves freed, work paused. Jubilee reset the entire nation back to grace, showing that life flourishes when people step out of relentless striving and return to God’s rhythm. It was a holy pause where identity was renewed, burdens lifted, and community healed. Jubilee teaches us that rest is not a break from productivity; it is the foundation of spiritual freedom, emotional restoration, and a life lived in God’s abundance.
6. Restart — Begin Again With God’s Strength, Not Yours
If you will live in God’s rhythm, He will give you a restart like no other. The first time of connecting to God’s purposes for your life happens when you trust in Christ Jesus – like a new born child, you make a complete restart with no guilt or condemnation (John 3:16). Each day following that first day of restart, we get to make the choice to put away old ways of thinking and to put on His way of new life – see Ephesians 4:20-24
Let your holiday choice be a Sabbath for your soul. God calls: “Start again, but this time with My strength.”
God’s rhythm is not weakness — it’s wisdom. It’s choosing to live through His strength rather than human effort.
A helpful worship song, ‘Your Love Never Fails’ written by Anthony Skinner and Chris McClarney, sung by Maranatha Music :
Further Reading: https://connect4life.org.uk/c4l-boosters/holidays/
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