Sabbath Rest

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."  (Exodus 20:8-11 NIV)

I woke up this morning realizing that I actually rested on the Sabbath for a change. Over the years, I have purposely tried to keep the Sabbath; but, I there is usually work or something that needs to be done every Saturday. Yesterday, God blessed me with a day with real time to spend time with Him and in private devotion to Him. It is a good thing for us to be able to keep the Sabbath.  Sometimes, we are able to keep the Sabbath on Saturday. Sometimes, we are not able to. Whatever day we are able to rest in the Lord, it is important that we do so. God rested on the seventh day from all of His work. We need to find a time and a day to rest from our work as well.

Years ago when my husband was logging, every now and then, he would get this crazy idea that he would have to work on Sundays instead of going to our place of worship. It never failed! The equipment would break down and he'd lose even more time fixing it, as well as a whole lot of money.

When confronted by the Pharisees and the teachers of the law about healing a man and his disciples picking some heads of grain to eat on the Sabbath, he said, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” and "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." In Mark 2:27, he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

I don't believe that my husband was being punished for working on Sunday. But, the reality is that we need to find time to rest in the Lord. Working seven days a week is just not good for anyone. Things happen when we get tired and worn out. We make more mistakes than usual. God gave us a day of rest and the best place to rest is in Him.

The Sabbath is a gift to us. May God help us to be good stewards of our day of rest and use it wisely.

God's Peace - Pr. J