Rest: Experiencing God's Peace in a Restless World

By Siang-Yang Tan

Book Overview

In this restless world that seethes with turmoil, genuine peace seems unattainable. Yet as psychologist and pastor Siang-Yang Tan shows, by God's grace the Christian can transform stress into rest.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1569551197
• ISBN13: 9781569551196
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Vine Books
• Length: 225 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

What the World Needs Now... Is Rest

I first read this book soon after it was first published. Recently when my small group sensed God encouraging us to learn about rest, I started rereading it and then purchased copies for those in the group. It is an excellent reference on all the forms of rest for those who are hurried, harried and hassled. It provides convincing explanations about why stressful and overly busy lives are destructive, as well as many realistic ideas about how to implement rest in our pressured lives. Well written and researched.

A complete look at rest

This book provides an overview of the topic of rest from a physcial, mental/emotional, relational and spiritual perspective and proposes that one cannot truly find rest unless all facets are involved. Building from the premise that the heart of rest is a spirit at peace with God through Christ, Dr. Tan devotes several chapters to deepening spiritual rest through the practices of solitude and silence, surrender, simplicity and Sabbath keeping. I found these chapters very helpful and full of insightful suggestions. After developing the concept of spiritual rest, Dr. Tan has a helpful chapter on sleep (again from an all around approach that sleep restores the body, mind and spirit) and offers guidelines for those who have difficulty sleeping. As to the physical component of rest, there is also a lot of helpful information in the chapter on stress management. I found this chapter to be one of the best in the book as it included information on how the physical effects of stress, how to change our thinking to combat emotional/mental stress and provided a solid biblical foundation for stress management. As to the relational aspect of stress, Dr. Tan includes chapters on spiritual community and servanthood outlining how rest is not solely for our personal gain, how the church (and particularly small groups) can be a haven of rest and how an attitude of servanthood can aid us in having restful relationships. This book includes an extensive bibliography and end notes. I highly recomment this book to anyone wanting to learn more on the topic of rest.