“Don’t ever forget
that you were slaves in Egypt and God, your God, got you out of there in a
powerful show of strength. That’s why God, your God, commands you to observe the
day of Sabbath rest” De 5:15.
I started an amazing Bible Study that you and I
desperately need…a Bible Study with its principle seemingly easy, but walking it
out is impossible left to our own devices.
Breathe by Priscilla Shirer speaks to the age old principle of
resting on the Sabbath. Somewhere along
the way we have adopted a narrow view.
Let’s revisit the ancient days and understand the principle behind the
Sabbath. It wasn’t in full about a day
of the week, and it wasn’t about God wanting to hog the spotlight for a 24 hour
period. The Sabbath principle was an
attitude…a way in which His children were supposed to approach life …a principle
for freedom. It was a tangible way
for God to draw boundaries in the hearts and minds of His children. The Hebrew word for Sabbath is Shabbat which
means to cease, stop, pause and come to
an end. The Ten Commandments were
boundaries that God drew to ensure that His children didn’t become enslaved to
something else once He freed them.
Why is it that God brings freedom into our lives in one
area only for us to become enslaved in another area? Left to our flesh, our inclination would be
to one-up God’s freedom with another
form of enslavement …to busy ourselves where God has freed up space…to be drawn
to overdo and overthink things. Many of
the things where God has brought us freedom are things He originally gave us as
blessings. We have been given our
children but we obsess about their health, their schooling, and their
appearances…Lord, give us a Sabbath in
those relationships. The Lord has
blessed us with a job, but we become workaholics…Father, give me Sabbath away from my
toiling. God gives us a loving
partner, but we obsess whether they still find us attractive…Lord, give us Sabbath in our heart. One of the statements from Priscilla this
morning is a great question to ask ourselves.
‘Are we so addicted to striving that we cannot even enjoy
relaxation?’ She follows up with a
powerful warning about not living in the boundaries of God. ‘Anything we have been given to enjoy outside
of the boundaries in which it was designed to flourish will cause chaos,
catastrophe, destruction and disaster’ Breathe. We must
stop worrying about everything...we must cease
the busyness of our hands... we must pause and relax in the
love and freedom God has given us...and most importantly we must come to
an end of ourselves.
Galatians 5:1 states that ‘It is for freedom that Christ has set us
free. Stand firm, then, and do not let
yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.’
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