It is my prayer that these excerpts of the “Work Hard, Rest Well” Bible study would serve as a tool to encourage you to work hard without shame and rest well without guilt as we follow God’s example of hustle. I call it “holy hustle” – the kind of work that honors others, helps us become good stewards of our gifts, and builds God’s Kingdom instead of our own.
Each week in the full study you’ll find a section of Scripture to focus on, a brief devotional, and 5 days of personal study questions and activities designed to help you dig deeper into God’s Word (instead of focusing on my words). If you have a copy of the study with you, you’ll see that I encourage you to write in the book, fold over pages, doodle in the margins, highlight it – whatever you need to do! You’ll want to make sure you have a Bible nearby (a study Bible will be super handy), your favorite pen, and – if you’d like – a few friends who want to go on this Holy Hustle adventure too. I’m currently going through the study with some amazing women from my church and the discussions are so rich and wonderful.
Week 1 Reading: Genesis 1 – 2:3
Although the inspiration for Holy Hustle came from the book of Ruth (you’ll learn a lot about that in the book), we’re going to start our journey together at the very beginning – learning how God models work and rest for us in Genesis. We need to take some time to make sure we understand what God has to say about this topic before we start talking about what it looks like in our lives. We’ll also spend a little time this week considering what “hustle” means and assessing where we currently fall on the striving/serving – laziness/rest scale. Knowing what God says and understanding where we need His help will prepare us to be open to the work He wants to do in our lives.
Good and Holy
As we read through this short section of Genesis, ask God to show you the ways He wants you to learn work and rest from His model. In six days God worked hard (one could say He hustled) until the job was complete – a job that took an incredible, never before seen amount of creativity. When He was done, He called it good.
And then, when everything was finished according to His plan, He rested – and called it holy.
When we work hard, putting our plans, agendas, and tasks in God’s hands and trust Him with the details, we can work hard until the job is done, and then rest well, knowing we have honored Him with our efforts.
Discussion Questions
1. What do you initially take away from your reading today?
2. What does this section of Scripture teach us about God?
3. How does this Scripture come alive in a new way as you read it through a “holy hustle” lens?
