Let me ask you a few questions:

How tired are you? How busy are you? What are you doing about it?

Our world runs 24/7. It never stops. Our need for rest isn’t any greater than any other generation but our ability to find it is elusive. We work 40-50-60 hours a week. Mostly due to the fact that we readily have our work available to us at home through our gadgets and computers. The pressure to be the best, to be the most organized, and to be “on” all the time is getting heavier. Our bodies are tired. Our minds are tired. Our emotions are ragged and our spirits are starving.

I think the world of today would go mad, just frenzied with strain and pressure, but for the blessed institution of Sunday.  -Brooke Herford  (1830-1903)

Can you imagine how slow life must have been in 1830-1903?  Mr. Herford thought that people would go crazy if it wasn’t for having Sundays off. If we take a look around and really see people in 2018. We live in a world of hollow-eyed people. People who are ready to snap at any moment and who are unable to stop due to the pressures of what others may think, padding the bottom line, and keeping up with the pace of life.

If someone says “I need rest!” the fears of being considered unproductive come flooding in or worse being seen as weak. We are not robots. We need to rest. God knew it and He instituted it. But we buck His system hardcore.

^{Exodus 20:8} “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

The Sabbath was made to be a blessing to us. A holy day every week where we are given permission to do nothing. A day to not perform. A day to not have to produce. A day to trust in the Lord that He can hold your world together without you going, doing, and being productive.

I recently had a small conversation with my daughter. She just felt off to me. So I asked how she was doing. She said that she was struggling and that the Lord had been talking to her about how her value is not wrapped up in her ability to produced. It doesnt matter if you are introvert or extrovert. It doesnt matter if you are male or female. It doesnt matter if you are married or single. Letting work become the thing that defines your value and identity tries to strangle us all.

This blog series Rock of Revelation is based on the 5 rocks that the Lord gave my church this past year. Rocks of revelation are to be used to defeat the enemy when he comes to taunt us. What’s his taunt? He wants to convince you that you are nothing if you don’t produce anything. That is why Sabbath is so important. This is why we need to know what rest is about. It is about stopping to be with the God, the God who made you, so that, He can weekly impart the value of who you are. You are His and He is yours. That’s it! You need nothing else. No outside thing to say that you have value or that you matter. He has already declared it. It is a day to …know the love of Christ which surpassed knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:19)

Sabbath is a day to allow our God to sift us and search us. Where we can take on the identity again week after week that He has given so that we can be all that He has called us to be during the rest of the week. All our Doing must flow out of Being.

Some more questions: Do you have a Sabbath day? If not, why not? What fears are lurking beneath the “No, I don’t?”

My Sabbath is on Mondays. I am not perfect at it and I certainly don’t have it figured out completely. What I do know is that I keep trying to make this a staple in my weekly routine. Sometimes I botch it and binge too many videos or Netflix and fry my brain. Not exactly rest at all. My motive is I  want to honor my Lord and God. He said, “Remember the Sabbath” -so I keep it.

What do I do?

I light a candle to start the day and say a prayer.

I talk to God. I listen to God.

I turn on some worship music.

I relax, read, walk, sit, eat good food.

I sometimes get together with friends.

I am an introvert with an extrovert switch. So that makes me ambivert. lol

I need to recharge my batteries alone with a notebook, earbuds, and some music.

I write. I rest. I be. I remember who I am and whose I am.

CHALLENGE:

Pick a day – call it Sabbath – the STOP there every week.

Put all things that make up REST for you on that day.  It is a day to delight in what God has done in your life, in your heart, and in your world. 

Thanks for listening,

Starla