Read: Exodus 20:1-11; Matthew 22:34-40
The teacher asks, “Do you like rules?” Students scrunch up their faces. You hear them answer in a variety of groans and negative comments. Then, one brave soul tentatively speaks up, “I like rules.” The student explains, “At a red light, I am glad rules hold back half of the cars so the cars with a green light are free to go.” In his eyes, rules are a good thing: a gift.
After 400 years God’s people are finally free from the unmerciful Egyptian rulers. Pharoah’s rules are not a gift. His laws are selfish and punitive. He intends to break people down, not build them up.
Unlike Pharaoh, God is infinitely wise, good and loving. His designed laws to build us up as individuals and as a community. Like the student’s red light, God’s rules are most certainly a precious gift.
I struggle with one of God’s “gifts” on a daily basis. For example, what about the Sabbath, the day of rest?? There are SO many things I need to do. I never seem to be finished. The American way is to constantly be busy. Exhaustion is a way of life. How can we honor God’s gift of Sabbath? Priscilla Shirer points out in Breathe: Making room for Sabbath, “Sabbath is not a legalistic list of things we cannot to do on Sunday and it is not limited to Sunday.”
Sabbath is a mindset, a lifestyle. Sabbath is taking time to stop; to resist the urge to “do” for a period of time. We open up space to “be” with God so we can see and hear Him more clearly. In stopping, even when our tasks are not done, we trust God. He alone is our Provider. We are not to be self-reliant. Sabbath is focusing on Him, rather than the tasks He has given us. He rewards us richly when we use his gift of Sabbath.
What about you? Do you see Sabbath as a gift from God that you use on a regular basis? What keeps you from focusing on God regularly? Has busyness become an idol? Do you daily practice exhaustion, rather than life in Christ? Ask God. What can you put down, creating spiritual, mental and physical space dedicated just to Him? How much do you love Him to rest in Him?