Bible Connection Podcast: Soul Rest with Curtis Zackery

Bible Connection Podcast: Soul Rest with Curtis Zackery

Curtis Zackery joins us on this episode of The Bible Connection Podcast to talk about his new book, Soul Rest. This book was born out of Curtis’ own history with finding identity in his work and his ministry and seeks to show how often we push to do more of God’s Work without stopping to see if God is with us in the work. In the Bible, God gives us the example of resting from work and finding refreshment in the work only God can do – a practice that Curtis stresses the importance of today. Although true rest only comes from Christ, Curtis gives us some helpful advice to point us back to resting in Jesus.

SPOTIFY | LIBSYN

Curtis Zackery

Curtis Zackery joins the Bible Connection Podcast to talk about his new book, Soul Rest, and how it was born out of his own life and his own search for identity within the “hustle mentality.” He talks about how our worth and value become interwoven with what we do for God instead of living from God. We tell ourselves that we are only valuable if we are building, creating, and pushing for God without stopping to see if God is with us in our work. A convergence of a few different things brought Curtis to awareness of things needing to change in his own life and his own search for value. He talks about those different things and what God laid on his heart during those times.

In the midst of ministry work, Curtis learned more about depending on God in all things, including the loss of two pregnancies. He recognized a difference between the world’s idea of rest and the concept of resting in Christ. He searched the Scriptures to understand more about God’s idea of rest and what it actually means to be connected with God in rest. In the Bible, God stresses the importance of Sabbath rest and finding refreshment in the work only God can do. We are still called to the act of acknowledging that work that only God can do.

Curtis gives us some examples and some practices that we can place in our lives to make sure that we intentionally rest in Christ. Finding deep contentment in Christ is the message of the Bible and Curtis gives advice on how to live that out. Although true soul rest can only come through Jesus Christ, Curtis gives us some practices that may be able to help us that aren’t just checking a box, but help us to meet the Lord of the Sabbath in our rest.

Excerpts from This Episode

3:54: “Our lives are to be spent living for the Kingdom of God here on Earth. It’s for His glory. Everything that we do is for the purpose of elevating the name of Jesus.”

7:21: “What I was recognizing, sadly, is there was a dependence on me to lead through things, there was a dependence on the relationship, but I wasn’t fully depending on God to sustain and fuel me.”

10:58: “I know that my desire is to be connected to God and to live from a place of connection with Him. So I have to just search the Scriptures and see what it tells me about this idea of rest.”

13:05: “You need to stop and you need to acknowledge the word that can only be done by the Hand of God. On six days you will work and you will do your thing, you’ll produce, you’ll make, you’ll build. On the seventh day, what keeps the day holy, is you stopping, acknowledging the work that can only be done by the Hand of God and finding refreshment in that.”

16:01: “This idea of God’s desire for humanity to find deep soul contentment in Him is the message of the Bible.”

20:14: “When we start to get into the minutia of is this enough, am I doing it the right way, we begin to steal from the opportunity to find that place of communion and connection with God.”

23:25: “Yes, there is work, yes there is the glorification of the Kingdom of God and the way of Jesus, but it is sustained by the work that has been done on the cross.”

30:40: “I can’t stress enough the importance of community. Our faith is communal by design. And I think that’s one of the biggest areas where we go askew because we do think it’s up to us to journey alone and to try to figure out the best way that we can to adapt and adopt these things.”

Featured Scripture

Genesis 2:2: “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.”

Exodus 31:17: “It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.”

Matthew 11:28-29: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Ephesians 2:8-10: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

Romans 12:1-4: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function.”