Sabbathize!

According to the book of Genesis, when God had finished his work of creation, "he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done" (Genesis 2:2b-3). God made this seventh day of the creation week "holy." This means that he set it apart from all other days. The other days were characterized by work. This seventh day, the Sabbath day was characterized by rest.

When God gave to Israel the Ten Commandments, the fourth on the list concerned this seventh day. Listen to what he mandated for the Israelites: "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 manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 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).

Now in our workaholic, always-on-the-go society, this commandment seems to be more of a burden than a blessing. After all, time is money and even when I am not working on the job, I got "stuff" to do on the home front or at church or at school! But Jesus said this concerning the Sabbath: "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27). God made the Sabbath and built it into the weekly rhythm of life for our sake. A Sabbath rest is something we all need. As I said in yesterday's post we all must "come apart lest we come apart!"

All this to say - be sure you are "sabbathizing" on a regular basis. Set apart time for physical rest, spiritual renewal and emotional recharging. God's pattern is one day per week. For many Christians this could and should be Sunday. (Now let me add that I don't think God wants us to get legalistic about "keeping the Sabbath." But I do believe he wants the vast majority to do more with this gift of a day of rest than we do!). Let's get intentional about seeking the body and soul rest that we all so desperately need! Let's Sabbathize!

Thanks for stopping by . . .

pj