God has finished His work in six days, but the week we have contains seven days. God made seven days, and on the seventh day He rested from His work. God was not tired and worn out from a hard week of work. The word used here is shabath and it means to cease, desist or rest. God is ceasing His labor, and creating a sacred time of rest and celebration.
Man, made in the image of God, needs this sacred time. God made us to work for six days, and to take the seventh as a day to cease from our labor, to rest, to enjoy fellowship with Him and with others, to celebrate what has been accomplished. God does not intend for us to go on constantly, never stopping to breath, smell the roses, and enjoy the creation He has given us, though that is the direction the world has tried to go. We have permission to take a day and rest, we need that day of rest, God created it and it is good.
This was has been a difficult thing for me to follow, especially over the past year. I'm nearing the end of my master's degrees, yes plural, and there is a push to get this done. On top of this, the weekends have been when I've had my girls, and so this idea of a day of rest has been a concept I'm looking forward to someday in the future. During the week I work my job and try to get all of my school work done so that my weekends are completely free to devote fully to my girls. For a while I wasn't sleeping a ton, but I've learned to function very well on little sleep, most parents do I feel, and it's worked. But recently, I've felt the need to take some time by myself and hit a trail in the woods.
My vision quest didn't happen this year, life did, and I'm feeling the lack of this time. I feel like much of my time has been non-stop, where I'm always doing something. I'm two thirds done with an assignment as I'm writing this, and I still have an essay to research and write by Sunday, with a pretty busy weekend, and next week is short week. I've found myself thinking, as soon as school is over I'll finally be able to take a sabbath, but I know that isn't the right mindset. God gave me a day to rest, He created it specifically so that I had the time to do everything I need to do and then be able to cease from my responsibilities for a day and celebrate who He is.
God created the seventh day for us, let us take the time to rest and celebrate who He is.
Fight the lion, 1 Peter 5.1-11
TO GOD ALONE BE THE GLORY!
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