“Taking time for rest... in the Law and in your life”

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

This quarter, I've been teaching the Law of Moses. And it's been a great personal journey for me as I'm seeing greater depths of God's perfect plan than I've ever noticed before. The one concept whose depth has struck me more than anything else is the Sabbath concept. It's a powerful idea on so many levels, but the one that is perhaps the most helpful is the obvious one: the Sabbath causes us to rest.

Obviously, nothing in the Bible encourages God's people toward laziness (cf. Prov. 6:6-11), but there is plenty in the Bible that encourages us to take time with God and rest. Whether your day-to-day obligation is feeding and clothing kids, managing investments, cleaning windows, supervising a production line, or writing sermons... the workaday world is and should be important to us. But while that's true, we can't let that world consume our worldview. God's people need regular breaks to devote ourselves solely to the things of God, and we need to appreciate those breaks when they come.

Sunday worship is a time when our minds can rest in his word and his worship. Wednesday Bible study is very much the same thing. Personal devotions—times of reading & pondering God's word and praying to him—ought to have a place in every Christian's calendar. Elders and preachers need time to rest from their labors. Rest from toil is a healthy part of the life cycle of groups of people too; Companies, churches, families, or clubs all need time to settle our minds on what we're really all about (remember that God gave the Sabbath as a national idea). Vacations can sound like a very American idea, but there are Biblical reasons to see the value of a little R&R — rest (that's a biblical idea) and recreation (can you see the idea of re-creation in that word?).

So make sure that you take time to let your mind and your heart rest with God. Next week's holiday gives a perfect opportunity to do that. Make sure to take full advantage of the opportunity and give God sincere thanks for the blessing that it is when we avail ourselves of it.

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