Theme of the Week: How to Make the Most of Your Sabbath Rest
Bible Verse: “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.” Exodus 20:9-10 NIV
Scripture Reading: Psalm 46:1-11
It is interesting that God would prescribe a day of rest in his law. Why make it a written law instead of simply suggesting it? Why make it a law instead of a nice gift? Maybe because the Israelites were so used to hard labor and having no say in when and how long to take a break from the demands of their masters, that they had been conditioned to continually show up to “work,” so to speak, and to stay on their task until they felt they couldn’t do it anymore.
Maybe they were so used to following rules that even to stop laboring to take a breath required that they received an order from someone. And when we think of it, we, too, have holidays prescribed in our laws. So maybe we’re not that much different from the people of God.
One thing we can get from this is that if you don’t write it down, you might not take your much-needed time of rest seriously enough; you might not consider it something more than a suggestion. My wife has a saying: “If it’s not in the calendar, it’s not happening!”. She’s an event planner, so believe me, she plans everything, even for the family, from our yearly vacations to the kids’ back-to-school activities. And she loves it!
Here’s a quote from Benjamin Franklin you may have heard more than once: “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” Planning is important, not only for big things but also for simple ones, like resting. If you don’t plan your time off, you’re definitely planning to be tired. It’s been such an unexpected year, full of unwanted surprises and demands, so do yourself a favor and plan a time off!
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