God's works before creation… — John Calvin

“Here also the impiety of those is refuted who cavil against Moses…For they inquire why it had come so suddenly into the mind of God to create the world; why He had so long remained inactive in heaven: & thus by sporting with sacred things they exercise their ingenuity to their own destruction. In the Tripartite History an answer given by a pious man is recorded, with which I have always been pleased. For when a certain impure dog was in this manner pouring ridicule upon God, he retorted, that God had been at that time by no means inactive because He had been preparing hell for the captious…. As for ourselves, it ought not to seem so very absurd that God, satisfied in Himself, did not create a world which He needed not, sooner than He thought good. Moreover, since His will is the rule of all wisdom, we ought to be contented with that alone. For Augustine rightly affirms that injustice is done to God by the Manichaeans, because they demand a cause superior to His will…”

— John Calvin, Commentaries on the first book of Moses called Genesis

Temptation - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“With irresistible power desire seizes mastery over the flesh…. It makes no difference whether it is sexual desire, or ambition, or vanity, or desire for revenge, or love of fame and power, or greed for money…. Joy in God is…extinguished in us and we seek all our joy in the creature. At this moment God is quite unreal to us, He loses all reality, and only desire for the creature is real…. Satan does not here fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God…. The lust thus aroused envelops the mind and will of man in deepest darkness. The powers of clear discrimination and of decision are taken from us. The questions present themselves: “Is what the flesh desires really sin in this case?” “Is it really not permitted to me, yes — expected of me, now, here, in my particular situation, to appease desire?”… It is here that everything within me rises up against the Word of God.”

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Temptation

no rest apart from redemption in Christ – R. Kent Hughes

“Trust in Him (Jesus Christ) is what gives rest to our souls. True faith is belief plus trust. When you truly trust in Christ as Savior, rest comes because the burden of your sins is lifted. You rest from your works. And because you are in Christ you enter the Sabbath rest of God. You know that He is your Creator and Redeemer.

Everyone who has truly come to Christ has experienced that rest. All the impossible striving to gain salvation was then over. You rested in Christ, not in yourself. The burden of guilt was lifted. Your soul was light with rest.

And now as a believer the principle is: the more trust, the more rest. Our belief or unbelief makes all the difference…Resting is trusting. Believer, you can have perpetual rest by resting in Him…

St. Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless ‘til they find their rest in Thee.” He knew from experience that life apart from Christ is striving, that men and women will remain restless regardless of what they attain or obtain in this world. You will never find rest apart from redemption in Christ.
But when you come to Him in faith as your Creator and Redeemer, you find a Sabbath rest for your soul – His own rest that He has enjoyed from creation…”

— R. Kent Hughes, Genesis: Beginning and Blessing (Preaching the Word)