Devotional Thoughts from the Passages Journal Reading – Feb 23, 2011
It’s interesting in Exodus 35 that Moses reminds the people to honor the Sabbath right before a major work project is launched. The people are about to build the Tabernacle and Moses, knowing the tendency of man, reminds the people to work six days and rest on the seventh even when there is a bunch of work to do. This is certainly a good word of encouragement to me!
To rest one day out of seven as unto the Lord is to make sure that God, and not work or material possessions, is at the center of our life. The Sabbath is a gift to us from God. He gives us permission to rest, celebrate, enjoy relationships and all of the blessings that He has poured out on us, and especially to enjoy Him. To refuse to rest is to deny that God is sovereign and supreme in the details of our lives.
There are a number of things that must happen if we are to enjoy Sabbath rest in our culture.
1) We must plan for it. Taking one day out of seven to focus on family, friends, rest, and worship is counter-cultural. For many, Sunday will be the Sabbath. For our family, Saturday is the day of rest.
2) We must protect it. There will always be distractions that pull us away from this day of rest. Sometimes the distractions are valid and there is a real need to be meet and service to be done. We should not neglect human need for the sake of rule keeping, but we should protect the Sabbath with regularity for our good and the glory of God.
3) We must prepare for it. There is a bit of irony here in that if we are to enjoy the Sabbath it requires that we first be diligent in our work during the other six day of the week. The pattern should be six good, hard, God honoring days of work followed by one glorious day of rest. Get your work done, the bills paid, the lawn mowed, and the house clean so that the Sabbath can be enjoyed.
These are just a few thoughts that came out of my devotional time this morning and I hope that they are an encouragement to you!
In His Grace,
Joe
