HIS REST FOR YOUR STRESS

And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made – Genesis 2:3

“…Jeremiah took his stand in the city gates of Jerusalem, where he could be heard by all who walked by, and proclaimed this message: “This is what the LORD says: ‘Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem. Do not bring a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath…’” (Jeremiah 17:21-22).

It’s odd that Jeremiah would stress Sabbath observance when so much was wrong with the city, but it was essential to do so because the Sabbath is at the heart of what ails us – our tendency to work ourselves to death when God wants to give us rest.

REST is the oldest institution in the world. It was established in the beginning when God set out to make the world. He worked six days, we’re told, and then took a day off. Then God wrote that day large in Israel’s law book and on her calendar. He called the day Sabbath, a word that means “to cease from one’s labors, to rest.”

It was Augustine who first noted that the phrase “there was evening, and there was morning,” which occurs on each of the first six days of creation, is conspicuously absent on the seventh day. The seventh day had a beginning, but it had no end. God’s rest goes on forever.

This restful seventh day was a symbolic rule for Israel, but for us now it’s a daily reality – that “spiritual rest, in which believers lay aside their own works to allow God to work for the,” as John Calvin said. The Sabbath was once a day to rest; now it’s an everyday thing (Colossians 2:16-17; Hebrews 4:1-11).

The Sabbath is not just a day, it’s a disposition – a mindset of resting every day, all day for all we have to accomplish, believing that God is at the heart of all our activity. It’s an unencumbered, unhurried, relaxed lifestyle that grows out of a deep awareness that God is on the job twenty-four hours a day whether we are or not.”