A Sabbath day of rest

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.  Exodus 20: 8 – 9

Busyness is one of the greatest deceptions of modern life. There is almost a virtue of being busy.  Christians on Facebook will tell their friends all about the wonderful things they have been doing and how busy they are. However, I am not saying that laziness is a virtue either but as the old saying goes, ‘we are human beings not human doings’. Who we are is more important than what we do.

Busyness sounds so fulfilling and satisfying with not a minute to spare but that is the very problem. When over busy, we have no time to think, meditate and often pray and read our Bibles. We are too busy to stop and if we do stop we feel guilty that we are not doing something.

That is why God instituted the Sabbath day of rest and he not only commanded it, he also did it. Right at the beginning God rested on the seventh day after spending six days creating the universe and our wonderful planet. The Sabbath was given to the Israelites before the 10 commandments (Exodus 16:23). Indeed the origin of the word Sabbath is rested. It is good to rest and God commanded the Sabbath as the fourth of the Ten Commandments. 

This is where the howl goes up that we are not under law but under grace but God in his graciousness has given us a day of rest. I believe it is to the detriment of both individuals and society that we have thrown away our rest day as casually as we throw out the rubbish. 

Several times in the Bible God warns us that when the cares and worries of life take over, we will miss out on what He is doing. In the parable of the sower, one lot of seed never came to fruition because the cares and worries of life choked it (Matthew 13: 22). Busyness fills our life with cares and worries – we have so much to think about that we have trouble thinking about God and the life he wants for us.  In Luke 21 Jesus was talking about the end times and again warns that the cares and anxieties of life cloud our vision from what is going on (Luke 21: 34). Jesus is always alerting us to watch and pray. Busyness crowds that out.

Making a conscious choice to keep one day of the week separate (holy) to the Lord is vital for believers. The busyness of modern life will choke our minds and hearts from what God is saying and doing unless we choose each week to set aside a day to rest and re-group. This is not a day to necessarily spend being all spiritual or at church all day but a day to spend with God, family and friends; a day to clear our minds of the clutter of the week and to think about other things.

Let us unashamedly grasp hold of our day of rest and use it as that – a day of rest – not a day to catch up on the chores but a day of rest. I guarantee that as we honour God with our Sabbath, he will help sort out our priorities for the week and there will always be time to get those things done that need to be done AND we will be refreshed in every way and our lives enriched. I can recommend it wholeheartedly.