What if the next breakthrough in your business growth isn't tied to doing more—but to doing less, with purpose?

In this episode of Her Faith at Work, host Jan Touchberry talks about what it means to pursue soul rest as a business strategy rooted in Scripture, not self-reliance. If you've ever felt like you're doing all the "right" things but still feel drained, discouraged, or disconnected from the Lord, this one is for you.

You'll learn how rest can be both a spiritual discipline and a secret weapon for sustainable business growth. From practical teaching on 7 types of Biblical rest to the deeper question of why so many high-achieving Christian Entrepreneurs resist slowing down, this episode will both convict and refresh you.

“Rest isn’t lazy. It’s obedience.”

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• The difference between physical rest and true soul rest
• How hustle culture can secretly hinder your calling
• The 7 types of Biblical rest and which one or ones you might be missing
• Why strategic stillness is essential to business growth
• The surprising science behind God-designed rest and how it helps you hear Him more clearly

Timestamps:

Timestamps:

0:00 - Welcome & Why We Struggle With Rest

2:25 - What is Biblical Rest?

5:38 - Defining Soul Rest

8:10 - The 7 Types of Biblical Rest

13:45 - How Rest Fuels Clarity, Peace & Growth

16:30 - The Soul Rest Retreat Invitation

17:45 - Final Prayer & Reflective Questions

Rest is Sacred... and Strategic

In a culture that celebrates busyness, it takes bold obedience to honor God's invitation to rest. But soul rest is more than permission to pause—it's preparation for the next season of business growth God has for you.

If you're craving clarity, peace, and purpose in your work, this episode reminds you that rest is not the reward for success. It's the foundation of it.

Your Next Step: Experience Soul Rest for Yourself

Ready to trade burnout for breakthrough? The Soul Rest Retreat is a quiet, Spirit-led space to unplug, reconnect with God, and reset your rhythms for the season ahead. Learn more and apply here → jantouchberry.com/retreat

Resources Mentioned:

• Matthew 11:28-30
• Psalm 23
• Mark 6:31
• Philippians 4:6-7
• Deuteronomy 5:12
• Soul Rest Retreat jantouchberry.com/retreat
• Get the newsletter jantouchberry.com/newsletter

Let’s Connect:

Website: jantouchberry.com

Instagram: @jantouchberry

Subscribe & Review

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00:00

I don't know about you, but I feel like the world is moving at a pace that was not built for peace. Between business goals, family needs, trying to keep up with all the things, rest can really feel like a luxury.

00:14

Or worse, it can feel like a sign of weakness. But what if rest isn't something that we earn after the hustle? What if it's actually the key to sustaining the work that God has called us to? That's what we're going to dig in today.

00:30

It's not just sleep or self-care, but deep biblical soul rest. The kind that your spirit is probably desperate for, even if your calendar doesn't know it yet. Let's talk about it. Here we go. Truth time.

00:52

When's the last time you raised your hands for a swift kick in the pants? Well, I'm the no-nonsense type friend who's going to tell you when you have food in your teeth. So let's get right to it. This is your infusion of sacred and secular, calling you higher into who God created you to be, exploring how intimately faith applies to every part of your life and how you can live that faith every single day in the marketplace.

01:18

I felt the tension of separation of church and state. I've been one of the few women at a table of men for decades, and I've stood my ground. Are you ready to do the same? These tools, resources, and interviews are meant to do just that.

01:35

I'm Jan Touchbury, and it's time to share Her Faith at Work. Hey there, friend. Welcome back to Her Faith at Work. I am so excited that you're here, and that you have chosen to allow me into your ears one more time.

01:52

Before we jump in, I just want to remind you that if you are not currently on my email list, you are missing out really great stuff if I do say so myself. It is not just a regurgitation of this podcast.

02:06

It's more goodness. There's more tips, more actionable things to help you grow in not only your business, but in your faith. So you can jump on that using the link that you'll find in the show notes, or you can just go to janetouchberry.com slash newsletter, and you can get on right there.

02:23

Okay. Today, we are talking about a topic that God has been working with me on for a few years now. Rest. Rest is not just canceling your plans or hitting snooze, although that does count. True rest, God designed rest, is about pausing with purpose.

02:45

It really is an invitation to stop striving and start trusting that God's got this. It is stepping off the proverbial hamster wheel that we all find ourselves on these days. falling into the arms of Jesus who is waiting there to catch you I don't know like picture that in your mind because that is so comforting to me and most of the time when I picture the Lord he's walking beside me but there are times where I need to fall back into him and knowing that he's right there waiting that's just such a beautiful beautiful picture so here's my question for you when is the last time you did that when is the last time you truly let yourself rest like gone limp rest without feeling guilt I think that's the key right without feeling guilt you may have heard me talk before about God planting this idea of soul rest in my spirit that was a phrase that I really hadn't heard before he spoke that to me a couple of years ago but it sure does sound good right sure does sound good soul rest is really that sacred stillness where your spirit can literally exhale I think it's what Jesus was talking about in Matthew chapter 11 verses 28 through 30 where he says this come to me all 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 my yoke is easy and my burden is light this is not talking about a bubble bath or a spa day which are both amazing and they sound wonderful right now but really it's about surrender is about humility it's about taking off your Wonder Woman costume where you do it all and picking up his yoke of peace where he does it all when we are rooted in in soul rest,

04:58

we can stop white-knuckling the outcomes and trusting the process. I am in this right now. This whole thing is coming from so deep in my soul. This is about God's process, not my process. It's about his pace and not my pace.

05:15

It's about his agenda and not my agenda. It's about his timing and not my timing. But if I am going to be real with you, I think sometimes I avoid rest because the hustle feels safer. Being busy feels productive.

05:36

And my personality likes being productive. And quite frankly, I like it. I like it. And rest, it kind of can sometimes feel like I'm falling behind. What am I supposed to be doing that I'm not doing because I'm resting?

05:54

That's not resting. That's being still, but it's not really resting because my mind is worried about what I'm not doing. It's like I'm missing something or I'm letting someone down or I'm going to fall behind because I'm not being productive and doing all the things all the time.

06:12

But friend, that is a lie from the pit. The enemy is going to use exhaustion and busyness to keep us ineffective. Rest is not rhythm, not burnout. And the sooner we stop glorifying the hustle, the sooner we start operating in the fullness of what God called us to.

06:35

So I want to talk about the seven kinds of biblical rest that I have been studying. There may be more. I will caveat this by saying I am not a seminary graduate. I'm not a biblical scholar. I'm just somebody who loves Jesus and loves his word.

06:51

So this is what he taught me in my time alone with him. A lot of this came out of a soul rest retreat that I took for myself back in April. You might be missing one of these. You might be missing more than one of these, but we're just going to go through them really quick.

07:08

Okay, number one, refreshing rest. I find this in Psalm 23, specifically verses one through three says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.

07:26

He restores my soul. I love that. The second type is solitude, Mark 631. And it says, he said to them, come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while. For many were coming and going and they had no leisure even to eat.

07:50

I don't, that's a verse that I, I mean, I've read it obviously because I've read the Bible. cover to cover, but I've never really experienced that verse like I did when the Lord showed it to me in this guise of soul rest.

08:06

So I'm going to read it one more time. This is Mark 6, 31, and he said to them, Jesus said to them, come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while, for many of them were coming and going and they had no leisure even to eat.

08:24

That'll preach. Okay, number three, stillness. Psalm 37, seven, it says, be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. I am also in that place right now. Number four is physical rest, and that is in Matthew 11 that I already read.

08:44

The number five is peaceful rest. Philippians four, six through seven. It says, Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

08:58

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. He will give you the peace that you need to be able to rest deeply. Number six is Sabbath rest.

09:13

We all know the Sabbath, right? It's one of the Ten Commandments. It says in Genesis two, two through three, it talks about on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done and he rested. And then in Deuteronomy five, twelve, it says, observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy as the Lord your God commanded, circle that underline it, commanded you to he's commanding us to have a Sabbath.

09:40

I don't know when the last time you had a true Sabbath was. And by Sabbath, I don't mean sitting on the couch and binging your favorite Netflix. They didn't work. They didn't prepare food. They didn't do anything.

09:55

They just rested and let the Lord minister to them and bring rest to their souls. And then in number seven, sleep Psalm one 27 two, it is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil for he gives to his beloved sleep.

10:20

I love that one, especially as a woman who is at a time in her life that sleep doesn't come easily. I think I might start saying this one before bed every night. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil for he gives to his beloved sleep.

10:42

Thank you, Jesus. So which one of those do you need most right now? You may be raising your hand on several of them and that's okay. So I want to know, I get a little sciency right now, okay, we're going to talk about some science.

10:53

God designed our bodies to respond to rest like a reset button. Your brain consolidates your memories while you sleep, your nervous system calms down when you're still and are resting. Peace is not passive, it's what our bodies need to do what they were created to do.

11:15

And I honestly believe that the enemy keeps us busy to keep us from hearing from God, because a busy mind has a hard time catching the whispers of the Holy Spirit. So let me ask you, and I'm not talking about rhetorically, okay, I want you to answer this for yourself.

11:32

What's keeping you from resting right now? What's keeping you from resting? Is it the fear of falling behind? Is it because you feel guilty about resting? Is it the belief that it all depends on you?

11:46

Hmm, there's a little pride. Sister, that is a lie. Okay, you do not have to carry this anymore by yourself. You just don't. And this week I wanna challenge you to choose one of those types of rest to lean into and schedule it like you're scheduling a meeting.

12:02

Guard it like your piece depends on it because it does. I'm gonna go through those seven types really quickly one more time just to refresh your memory. Is it a refreshing rest like in Psalm 23? Is it solitude like in Mark six?

12:15

Is it stillness like in Psalm 37? Is it a physical rest like in Matthew 11? Is it a peaceful rest like in Philippians four? Is it a Sabbath rest like in Genesis and Deuteronomy? Is it literally getting more sleep like in Psalm 127?

12:34

So which type of rest is God calling you to? When God first spoke to me about soul rest, so about two years ago, and he gave me opportunities to experience it in two specific seasons that I was going through in my life.

12:50

Each time he called me away to solitude for about a week and both experiences were incredibly powerful in their own way. And frankly, now I crave it. Like I crave the quiet, I crave the stillness, I crave the restoration that it brings deep inside my body and my soul.

13:09

And I prioritize it. It's not something that I'm willing to leave out of my calendar. I intend, Lord willing, to be able to have my own little soul rest retreat every year at least once because I need it.

13:26

I've experienced it and now I know that I need it. So when God called me not just to receive the rest, he also called me to help create a space where others could experience it too. And that's how the soul rest retreat was born.

13:44

A friend told me once when we were talking about the parts of the body of Christ. She said, Jan, I think you're the rib. Okay, that one got me a little bit because I'm like, I don't think I've ever heard that before.

13:55

I don't really know what that means. But as I sat with that and as we kind of processed it together, I realized that the rib creates structure. The rib protects vital organs, including the heart, that you need to survive.

14:12

And the ribs provide safety. And so as I've been sitting with that even over the last year and a half, those words just keep resonating with me. And we were just talking a couple of days ago about the soul rest retreat, which is happening in November.

14:31

And she said, Jan, I think that the soul rest retreat is a working out of you being the rib for the body of Christ. The Lord has called you to provide this space where you are calling other women. to a place that they can be protected, that they don't have to feel like they have to provide the structure because you're providing the structure, you're providing the safety, and you're protecting their heart.

15:02

And it'll be a safe space where they can lay down what they're carrying because they were never meant to carry it alone. So if your soul is crying out for more, if your soul is crying out for deep soul rest, maybe the retreat in November is your invitation from God.

15:24

There's no pressure, just an invitation. So as I wrap up today, I would love to pray for you. God, I just pray for those that are listening that are tired, like really tired, like weary to the depths of their soul, if they're really honest.

15:48

God, I just asked that you would meet her in that place. Will you show her that your rest isn't reserved for later, that it is available to her right now if she'll just take a breath. God help her to lay down the pressure to pick up the peace that only you can offer.

16:09

Teach her the importance of rest and how to rest like it matters because God, it does. You tell us that it does. You modeled, Jesus modeled that it does. Thank you for being a God who models rest so that we can feel comfortable in modeling our lives after you in rest.

16:32

But God, thank you also that you say in your word that you are a God who never sleeps so that we can feel like we can and that you've got the ball while we're resting. Help us to find the kind of soul rest that only you provide.

16:48

In Jesus' precious and holy name, I pray, Amen. Friends, don't let another week go by where you are living on empty, okay? You were made for more than just surviving. So let's walk this out together, okay?

17:06

I hope that you found this episode encouraging that you've gotten some good challenge out of it, even, and that you really will take that challenge to heart and that you will ask the Lord how He's calling you into rest this week.

17:22

I will see you next time. Thanks for joining me for another episode of Her Faith at Work. If the Lord puts someone on your heart that you think needs to hear this message today, will you just smash that share button?

17:33

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17:44

the air pods of people that need to hear what the Lord is saying to them today. I hope you'll come back for the next episode of Her Faith at Work. The podcast comes out every Wednesday. And if you look down in the show notes, I've even got a couple of free downloads for you that I think you will really enjoy.

18:01

With that, have a great week. See you next time.