Mark 6:31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
The Bible tells us to work, but it also tells us to rest. Under the Old Testament, people who insisted on working all of the time, without taking the Sabbath day of rest, were subject to the death penalty. Maybe that would get the attention of today's overly busy, stressed-out workaholics, who are so busy providing for their families they never spend any time with them. So if God desires us to rest occasionally from our labours, it is surely only stretching the matter slightly to see in the Sabbath principle a justification for taking time off work.
The Sabbath also speaks to us of Christ. That God wants us to honour Him by not working at times is a reminder that we are not saved by our works, that in Christ we enjoy a "Sabbath rest" in the grace of God.
Jen Wilkin an author and Bible teacher from Dallas, Texas says in her book “Ten Words to Live by: Delighting in and Doing What God Commands”, “Our patterns of work and rest reveal what we believe to be true about God and ourselves. God alone requires no limits on his activity. To rest is to acknowledge that we humans are limited by design. We are created for rest just as surely as we are created for labor. An inability or unwillingness to cease from our labours is a confession of unbelief, an admission that we view ourselves as creator and sustainer of our own universes.” (pp. 64-65).”
Lord, there are times when I want to get away from the crowds, when I feel oppressed by company. There are other times when I just wish that somebody knew that I exist; I can have too much of aloneness. If I can reach you in prayer, and know that you are more central to me than my own thoughts, I feel at peace, as the apostles must have felt. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment