Will You Give It A Rest?

A Short Devotion from Reasons for Hope*Jesus

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The 4th commandment is to keep the Sabbath holy. (Exodus 20:8-11) What a strange topic for the new year.  Stay with me!!!

Making something holy means to set it apart, to give it value. God is saying I worked 6 days a week and rested on the 7th as an example to you of how important it is to take a day of rest and also to use that day to value Me and to focus on Me.

Our lives are WAY too busy with commitments and activities. In this day of technology, we are never “unplugged.” We are always “on” — checking our devices, communicating, and getting overloaded with information. We leave NO margin for rest or downtime. God, in His infinite wisdom, knows that our bodies, our minds, and our spirits NEED rest, so He commanded us to take one day to unwind, decompress, recharge…we need it to “catch our breath” so we can tackle the other 6 days in the week.

Sabbath

The word Sabbath means stop, cease, desist from work. When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, they worked 7 days a week. They were in bondage…there was no rest for them but once they were free to follow and worship their God, they were commanded to take a day of rest. As they were traveling in the wilderness towards the Promised Land, God gave them mana from heaven; He told them to gather it 6 days a week and on the 6th day to gather enough for 2 days worth because He did not send it on the 7th.

In the New Testament, we are not told to keep the Sabbath, but the principle is there. Jesus went to the temple to worship on the Sabbath; He also healed on the Sabbath, teaching us that man was not made for the Sabbath but that the Sabbath was made for man (we are not under the tyranny of legalism; use commonsense).

Find Rest

Keeping the Sabbath, the day of rest was and is NOT a suggestion but a command; this is hard for us to swallow, but to not obey is actually a sin. Out of the big 10, God put it on the list and placed it #4. Your day off is not the same as the Sabbath; your day off will be filled with your to-do-list. Take one day out of your week for worship, enjoying family time, and rest. Before you dismiss this because you can’t even imagine “unplugging” for one full day, consider how much more productive you will be on the other 6 days and consider the consequences to your physical, emotional, and spiritual health if you don’t. Statistics show that 50% of all doctor visits are stress-related….what will you do for your body, mind, and spirit in this coming new year?