Summer has arrived for some of us. For others, it’s coming quickly. When you think of summer, you probably think about finally getting to rest. It’s a chance to chill and breathe a little. Yet, the crazy thing is, we shouldn’t have to wait until summer for this type of pause within our lives.
“…but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your cattle, or the resident foreigner who is in your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.” Exodus 20:10-11
New English Translation
Weekly we are supposed to have a day of rest. An intentional pause from the chaos where we simply enjoy the very life God has given us. However, so often there is this false mentality that Sunday is the automatic government built in Sabbath. Not true in the least.
If Sabbath is an after thought, something that you don’t think about and assume is happening, then I’d say you’ve never Sabbathed before. A Sabbath is supposed to be an intentional pause within your life, a sacrifice even. During the school semester, I choose a day of the week to Sabbath. I approach it that if I give God one day that I would ordinarily use for school to honor His gift of the Sabbath, then He’ll get me through with the few days of the week I have left.
When we let everyone and everything else determine our Sabbath, we’re kinda missing the point. God wants us to take time to work through it with Him, showing that we trust Him to provide for the rest of the week when we give Him a day of our week.
Now, you don’t have to be a Sabbath dictator or anything. I know people who clean on their Sabbath because they find joy in it. Sometimes, I do a whole sink’s worth of dishes on my Sabbath because it helps bring me peace seeing the sink empty. You and God have to determine together what you can and cannot do on your Sabbath. Only you and God know what is truly work to you and what isn’t.
My question to you is this: Are you burned out? Do you feel like you’re on your last leg? My guess is that you’ve never Sabbathed. If God, who doesn’t need to rest, chose to rest after making everything as we know it, then I think a Sabbath is good enough for us.