On a typical Sunday, I (theoretically) get to sleep in more than any other day of the week. Add to that that we moved to a new house that is a two-minute drive from our church. I say it’s a theory because it doesn’t really matter what time I go to bed… my body says it’s time to get up at 6:30 am. We have been, for a lack of a better word, busy with stuff. So on the one day of the week where there is nothing planned except to gather with other believers at our church I decided to make the executive decision to skip church so our family can just rest. So how did that turn out?
I did the laundry.
I cleaned.
The kids cleaned.
My wife cleaned.
We both did dishes at different times of the day.
I folded the clothes.
She cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
She went grocery shopping.
We all did anything and everything except the reason for not going to church. Rest just didn’t happen. And now here I sit on a dreary, raining Monday morning still tired.
God, in his ways, may have been speaking to me directly yesterday and this morning. Since we wouldn’t be in church, I still needed to post for our church’s social media account and I went to the Bible app for inspiration and strange enough it was Psalm 23. That famous passage that declares “He makes me lie down” (v. 2). Then, later in the evening as I’m “wasting time” with video games we get a black-out. That was 10pm which is what I’ve designated as bedtime for me. “The powers at be” are like nah fam, we’re shutting off the power. Then this morning, I’m looking at the rain and my devotional from HeReadsTruth is Zechariah 10:1-12, “Ask rain from the Lord in the season of the spring rain…”
From Jared Kennedy at HeReadsTruth: Zechariah’s prophecy is a reminder that God can make even dry ground lush again.
Call it a coincidence, call it God speaking, call it what you want… we should take the Sabbath more seriously.
What is the Sabbath? A day of rest AND worship set aside by God. Mark 2:27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Take time this week to join me and let’s rest.
Death of Me 