Rest

A few weeks ago we started a short series on what it looks like to follow Jesus in the midst of busy lives, lives where we feel pressured by so many expectations and distractions.

What does following Jesus look like day-to-day? How do we do what life demands while also finding time to cultivate a real-life relationship with Jesus?

The answer is in actually following Jesus, not just in the abstract I’m-a-Christian-because-I’ve-been-baptized sense, but actually walking in his footsteps, doing what he did, learning to do life like he did it.

And how did he do it?

Tomorrow we’ll focus on Jesus and the Sabbath.

At the beginning of Scripture God established a pattern for work and rest, later codified after Israel came out of Egypt. Work, then rest.

For good reason, I think, we no longer bind the specific requirements associated with Sabbath observance in the Law of Moses, but I sometimes fear that we’ve abandoned the notion of Sabbath entirely . . . and to our own detriment.

There’s an important spiritual principle here that’s associated with the rest that Jesus brought: rest from trying to measure up, rest from the requirements of the Law, rest from the burden of guilt and sin.

But it’s more than just a spiritual rest, and it’s possible that we’ve bought into a deceitful version of the American Dream that’s created a mentality that we must constantly work, constantly produce and strive and attain . . . or else we won’t have enough.

That belief–that there’s not enough, that God won’t provide for us–is incredibly dangerous, and it damages our souls.

Tomorrow we’ll reflect on how the principle of Sabbath ought to be incorporated into our lives. If we don’t practice Sabbath, we’ll never have the relationship with Christ we were created to have.