God's Sabbath Days of Rest

Recently the Lord got a hold of my heart. He got on to me for not allowing my Sabbath day to be a day of rest. You see, I was set on getting in my 7,000+ steps even on Sunday. Therefore, I was walking around the church parking lot or in the buildings praying and reading my Bible at the same time. By about 9AM I was pretty tired and the day of study and worship had not even started yet. God said, "Stop it. Make Sunday a day of rest." He reminded me that it would be good for me, not a hindrance.

Of course, that is what He did for Israel in the Old Testament by commanding them to set aside the last day of the week to be a Sabbath day of rest, as well as other Sabbath days of rest to focus on Him. (Ezekiel 20:12) "And I gave them My Sabbath days of rest as a sign between them and Me. It was to remind them that I am the Lord, who Had set them apart to be holy." If we are not observing a Sabbath day each week, we are sinning against God. We all need to listen closely to God. 

Rest is good for us. Please, don't be like I have been in my life and think that I have to be busy all of the time. That was not healthy for me, and it is not healthy for any of us. God designed us to need nightly rest, weekly rest, and occasional times of rest through the year. Like this verse says, He does this to remind us that He is Lord. He knows what is best, and we need to listen well. When we rest, we need to focus in on God and spend time listening to Him in the silence of doing nothing for a while. Yes, even put down our phones.

Then, the other reason for the Sabbath is that God has set us apart to be holy. We are to be holy because He is holy. When we are like God, we are different from the people of this world. When we take a day from work and our regular schedule, people will notice. They will wonder why we do that, and we can tell them about our holy God and His plan for our lives. He wants all of us to be freed from sin by the blood of Christ, by grace through faith in Him. He wants us to live an abundant life, which is a holy life. The Sabbath helps keep us on track with all of these things.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Ezekiel 21-23.