By Gillian Bethel
Do you ever stop?
Life can sometimes seem like an endless flow of demands on our time and energy. We just keep going, day in and day out, but we long for a way to get off the treadmill. The good news is that God has already provided a way!
One of Jesus’ most wonderful promises is “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matt. 11:28–29.
This strikes a chord for many of us. While feeling our need of physical and mental rest, we may also feel a deep longing for something more. There’s an emptiness in our life that needs filling. We need to stop and draw breath. We need time out, but time for what?
In the Bible’s story of beginnings, Someone stopped at the end of Earth’s first week and drew a deep breath. Surprisingly, it was God!
After creating everything, including humans, in six literal days, God instituted a rest day—the Sabbath.
He Himself “rested and took breath.”1
Why would an infinite God need to rest?
On that seventh day, two newly created humans, a man and a woman, were with God. It was their first full day alive, and they spent it with their Creator. Every seventh day after that, they were to rest with Him because, as Jesus pointed out, “The Sabbath was made for man.” Mark 2:27. Week by week, God wanted to build a deep personal connection with each human who would ever exist—including you and me.
Resting with God on His day is the way He created us to function best—physically, mentally, and spiritually. Whether we’re tired or not, we need a break and time to “draw breath.”
But also, whether we feel it or not, we need this weekly time of spiritual renewal and close fellowship with our Creator. We’re designed for it!
Nothing else can replace this relationship because of who God is. The Bible tells us that God is love personified (1 John 4:8, 16), and we thrive on His love. Perhaps nothing else can replace it for God either. After all, He made us in His image. Gen. 1:26. We are His much-loved children, created to know and love Him, to respectfully learn from Him, share with Him, and reverently walk with Him. But now there’s a deeper need.
Sadly, the first humans didn’t trust that God knew what was best for them. They disobeyed the only prohibition He gave them and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This broke their close connection with Him and unleashed a cascade of horrible changes. They lost unending life and happiness and faced loneliness, discontent, decline, and death. Those things have affected the whole human race ever since.
God is perfect justice as well as perfect love. When His beloved children had activated selfishness and sin in themselves, this couldn’t be undone by a divine command. It would require God Himself to take the consequences for them and all their descendants. They had broken the infinite law of love, and we’ve done the same. Only an infinite being could pay the price on our behalf.
Whether we feel it or not, we need this weekly time of spiritual renewal and close fellowship
with our Creator.
So, Jesus, the only divine Son of God, stepped in. He had been foremost in creating everything, including us. John 1:1–3. Yet He took on human nature and died a terrible death to pay every human’s penalty for sin. His invitation, “Come to Me,” is our only way out of eventual, permanent death. He’s inviting us to access a new, endless life through faith in Him as our resurrected Savior. This is the light “yoke” that He speaks of.
When we take His yoke, we form a union with Him that changes our mindset from serving self to serving God and others. We nurture this union by spending daily time with God in the Bible. But God’s weekly Sabbath rest is where we find deeper connection with God and Jesus. It’s the time when we can give Them our undivided attention and loyalty—the best day of the week, spent with a Father and Elder Brother we’re learning to know and love.
If we observe the Sabbath the way God designed it, we are renewed in several ways. First, God specifically blessed the seventh day, desiring to come especially close to us on that day. This means we’re not free to choose our own Sabbath day.
Second, He asks us to set the whole day aside for Him—from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. This gives us a 24-hour breathing space to draw closer to Him. How do we do that?
Worshiping individually and with others tops the list. We can also plan God-centered time with friends, family, and others by sharing a meal, studying the Bible together, making home or hospital visits, or making friendly calls or texts. Spending time outdoors in God’s creation is especially refreshing and inspiring, and a favorite with children.
God’s wonderful Sabbath offers us special blessings with no weekday distractions. If we stay focused on Jesus all day, we will sense Him “speaking” to us in His Word, through others, and in nature, God’s second book. This helps us see ourselves and others from God’s perspective and enables us to face our daily challenges with new courage and faith.
Jesus promises that in coming to Him we will indeed find rest for our souls. This redemption and rest is always available. But the enduring Sabbath made for us at Creation is a unique weekly opportunity to deepen that rest and demonstrate our loyalty to Him, our Creator and Redeemer. I invite you to experience this Sabbath blessing too!
Unless otherwise stated, all Bible verses are from the NKJV.
Image credit: Shutterstock.com
Gillian Bethel is the associate editor of Last Generation.