Is Sabbath Calling Your Name?
A couple of years ago, I pulled up to the preschool where our grandson Jack attended. He was almost as excited to see me as I was to see him! It was “Milly Day!” His sweet teacher greeted me and gave Jack a goodbye high five. She let me know that Jack had quietly laid on his nap mat during rest time, but that sleep had eluded him.
He seemed pretty energetic at that point, but I tucked her comment into my brain as we headed to my truck. I buckled Jack into his car seat, and he began to chat away. I got all the details! He basically talked nonstop for a couple of minutes. Then – dead silence. I asked him a follow-up question – no response. Glancing in the rearview mirror at the next stoplight, I saw his head slumped in that awkward position that sleeping kids fall into when they lose the “staying awake” battle. Jack was out like an Energizer bunny with no charge in the battery.
“In the beginning…” Not far into the book of Genesis, we find God completing His marvelous work of creation. Genesis 2:2 says, “By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day 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 He had done.” Creator God had accomplished His task, and He rested, not in exhaustion, but in the finality of His work. Having just completed the creation of man, He knew that this being made from the dust of the earth would need a special kind of rest – a kind that would bring restoration and renewal. This observance that He instituted was to be a part of a beautiful rhythm in the lives and activities of His people from that point forward. It was to be a time of refreshing to mind, soul, and body.
In Exodus 20, God included observing the Sabbath as one of the Ten Commandments. This day of rest was to be one of the key differences between God’s people and the surrounding pagan nations.
By the time Jesus entered the pages of history, the religious leaders of His day had convoluted God’s pure intent for the Sabbath with a mountain of man-made rules. They had lost sight of God’s loving purpose for this precious day. Jesus ruffled their feathers on more than one occasion when He – the Son of God – brushed aside their human traditions to reclaim the message of God’s heart – restoration.
In Psalm 23:3a, David says of God his Shepherd, “He restores my soul.” God does, and God will, but only as we avail ourselves of the rest He provides.
Are we willing to accept His invitation to come to Him? To be a “peculiar people” who unplug, unwind, and untether ourselves from the fast pace of the world? To free ourselves up to slow our minds and bodies and like a luxurious bubble bath, to soak in the goodness of the God Who loves us?
To be sure, it’s a countercultural idea when everyone else is packing their schedules with activities and busyness. But if far too often you find that stress is winning the day in your heart and mind, maybe it’s time to make a little Sabbath date with your God. Give Him a big chunk of unscheduled, unhurried, uninterrupted time. You weren’t made to run on fumes. You were made to run on the energy and joy of the Lord – and that only comes from sweet rest in Him.
