Is Your Rest Work?

“I had to work at making it a Sabbath day,” Sandy said.

We laughed while musing about the quirkiness of linking the words “work” and “Sabbath” together.

Sandy was talking about Sabbath in the Seventh Commandment context: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work…”

In practical terms, Sandy follows this by attending church on Sunday and then attempting to make the remainder of the day restful and God focused. But like most of us, she has a never ending to-do list. And it doesn’t go away on Sunday. So when Sandy was taking a much deserved Sunday nap, her brain wanted to churn through all the tasks she could be doing.

Now here’s where the “work” part comes in. Laying there she had to make a definitive decision to resist plunging into her project list. She had to intentionally draw her mind toward trusting God. She worked to the point where she was able to say: “I decided to just lay there and let Jesus take care of me.”

Hebrews 4 focuses significantly on “Sabbath and rest.” Here’s one particularly revealing verse: “Let us therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example.”

What was their example? This was the people Moses led around the desert for forty years. A restless people marked by disobedience to God. They substantially lacked trust and faith in God—a trust that God would take care of them.

Sandy has it figured out. Sabbath and rest equal trust. Trust in God.

Let her words be yours: “I decided to…let Jesus take care of me.”