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Presented by Lauren Stibgen
Maybe you are a planner and a list maker. Or maybe you just let the days fly by with work, kids, social plans, and other things that fill your time to the point of depletion and exhaustion. Busy days can sometimes fly by, but we often don’t feel like we have accomplished much.
We just finished a season, which to me, feels like the busiest time of the year that culminated with Christmas and the start of a new year. For me, this season was dizzying. Work was budgets, performance reviews, and year-end preparations. Home was preparing for the holidays, unexpected surgery for my daughter, and so many social commitments I don’t even want to recount them. Oh yes, and social events for my children and work parties. Add this to trying to maintain my own health and preparing to talk to you about experiencing grace through the sabbath. Don’t laugh. You are probably wondering if I observed the Sabbath rest in this season, or if I experience Sabbath rest at all.
Seasons don’t matter. The reason I bring up the end of the year is only because it is fresh in our minds. Honestly, if I break down the weeks and months, there’s always something. A special project, a birthday, travel, board meetings, kids sports or other activities, and more social events. And the cycle repeats.
What is even worse—we have social media to remind us of things we may be missing out on. News that needs our attention. Dings and pings to respond to. Email on our phones that comes along with us.
There is a lot that drowns out God’s grace and his intention for us to experience this on the Sabbath.
The truth is I haven’t always been great at observing the Sabbath, but that all changed when I was forced to stop, like all of us were, during the pandemic. When life started back to “normal” it felt good and bad all at the same time. Soon the pace was right back to where it was, and my seven days were booked and busy.
The return to normal forced me to look closely at the Sabbath.
God created rest.
In Genesis 2:3 we first see the Sabbath. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. In Exodus, the Sabbath became a commandment. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy (Exodus 20:8).
The Hebrew word for Sabbath literally means “to cease.” If I never cease or take time away from the normal flow, how can I ever experience God? How can I hear him? I will bring us back again to the notion that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. If we never allow ourselves to be vulnerable in faith, we will never know his goodness and be able to say, “God, I trust you to maintain control while I put all my focus on you.” Striving and not ceasing keeps the focus on me and what I can do, not on how God moves in my life.
In Isaiah 58:11 we are beautifully reminded of how God provides for us. The Scripture says, The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
How will I ever experience this guidance, satisfaction, strength, and watering that never fails if I don’t show my weakness and rest and reset?
In the New Testament book of Hebrews, we see this repeated in chapter 4:9-10. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.
We rest just like God rested.
Throughout the Bible, those who were closest to the Lord practiced rest. The prophets, King David, and even Jesus and the disciples rested.
I often turn to Psalm 23:1-3, 5.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
It reminds me that God provides all, he leads me in stillness and restores me. He leads me in paths of righteousness. He provides abundantly even when I feel like I am surrounded by my enemies.
When we think about the life of David as a shepherd, fighting Goliath, leading as a king and even running for his life, we can relate a bit. Oftentimes, the lives of those in the stories we read seem far from what we are experiencing, but really, David had as much, if not more, chaos than we do. He needed God’s rest.
I also look to Jesus. Repeatedly, we see Jesus retreat from the crowds to pray and rest. He also calls his disciples to do the same in Mark 6:31, And he said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat (ESV).
Can you relate? I am not saying my life is anything like Jesus and the disciples, but we can feel this. People constantly clamoring for your time and attention at work and at home, countless appointments to be in one place or another, forgetting a meal because we are on the run and the day doesn’t seem to stop. Yes, to all of the above!
We are called to come away.
I often hear people talk about how they cannot have a Sabbath because they cannot rest on the seventh day. The pattern of the Sabbath being on the seventh day should not be a hinderance to your rest or finding a time to truly cease. Even though we still see examples of observing the Sabbath in the New Testament, we also see calls to rest whether it was David or Jesus and the disciples.
When we consider the other restorative ways that God moves through us on the Sabbath, maybe it is easier to think about how it will apply.
Acknowledge God as Creator and holy. When God rested it was to celebrate his creation. We can do this too. He also called us to keep the Sabbath holy.
Lay down burdens. God calls us to lay down our burdens. In Jeremiah 17:21, the Lord says, Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem (ESV).
Take care “for the sake of your life.” My life is dependent on laying my burden down.
Gather together and reason. God also calls us to meet with others and to reason with them about God. We see in the book of Acts how Paul meets with the congregation on the Sabbath to talk about Jesus.
Praise the Lord. We are to praise the Lord with joy on the Sabbath. Psalm 92 is called the Sabbath psalm, and throughout the New Testament we see a call to sing songs and hymns (Colossians 3:16).
Pray. We pray on the Sabbath. In Acts 16:13 we see a group of women coming together to pray.
Serve others. In the New Testament we see Jesus challenge the Pharisees by feeding his disciples and healing the sick. God calls us to good works of love and service to others on the Sabbath.
When we cease self-focus and busyness, say no to those things that replace the peace and presence of God in our lives, and say yes to his calling and truly trust him, we can experience his grace. Finding the time to cease from our everyday patterns allows us to grow inwardly still in this seemingly unceasing chaos.
What are the consequences of not taking Sabbath? I am still hanging on the verse above from Jeremiah which says, Take care for the sake of your life. For the sake of my life, I need to rest and turn to God.
Thinking about some of the topics from this week, I can list a handful of the consequences of not taking time with God.
First and foremost, we cannot experience his grace. We cannot give ourselves grace, but we can find it in the Sabbath.
We cannot discern God’s will for our lives. As many of us made resolutions this year; perhaps we haven’t stopped long enough to seek his will for us.
We become short with our words both in how we talk to ourselves and to or about others. When we are not taking time in God’s Word, we quickly forget how he wants us to reflect on what he says of us and how we are to reflect love and grace with our words.
We are prone to anxiety and worry. Ceasing helps us to lay our burdens down at the feet of our Lord and be reminded that he works all things for our good and for his glory—not ours.
Our relationships suffer at work and at home. Through the Sabbath, God calls us to serve others who are in need and to show his grace and love. Removing the focus from my needs and focusing on reflecting Jesus not only brings us in closer relationship with others, but also in closer relationship with God.
Another consequence of never ceasing is the impact it has on both our physical and mental health. Studies have shown a greater impact on mental health rather than physical; however, I am sure we have all had the experience of being physically unable to function due to exhaustion or sickness after a prolonged period of chaos in our life.
As I mentioned, I had to rethink the Sabbath. I had quickly allowed my work to flow into every day of the week. Calls were constant, even to the point where I was receiving calls during church on a Sunday. I was not observing the Sabbath, and I was not acknowledging the day as holy for the Lord. It took my dear husband to point this out to me. Let me say he called me out. Slowly, I made changes. Starting with telling people I was not available. I then moved to setting focused time on my phone with do not disturb on. Rather than grabbing calls, I texted people and let them know I was unavailable. Then I asked if the matter was urgent or if it could wait until Monday. I spent more time in the Word and in prayer. I tried to eliminate trips to the store or other plans that could take place on another day.
What I have experienced has changed me. I strive less and rely on God more. My relationships are better; my stress is lower. I am reminded that grace and peace are multiplied to me in the knowledge of Jesus. I think first about his call to come to him all who are weary and heavy laden; he will give us rest. Then, I think about his call to abide with him. Apart from Jesus, I can do nothing, but with him, I can bear much fruit.
Find time to cease. Rest, pray, praise, serve. Seek the perfect grace and peace through Jesus. Take care for the sake of your life.
Father, please give us hearts for your Sabbath today.