What does it {truly} feel like to rest? I find I ask myself this question quite often. I don’t know if I even really know what it means to rest. I constantly feel like I am trying to get ahead.. do one more thing before bed.. just get things done. It’s exhausting. Life is exhausting. We were never made to go, go, go. We all need that time to rest. Reset our minds. Re-charge our bodies. Rejuvenate our souls. That’s the way God intended it.
Many of you know the Stull’s are huge fans of Gateway Church. We watch their weekly service nearly every single Sunday at our house, and we love it. And today Pastor Robert’s message really hit home to me. His messages are always powerful, but today it was like he was speaking right to me. Like he {and God} knew this was a message I needed to hear. Today Pastor Robert talked about Taking The Day Off. He hit on what it means to simply take the day off, relax, unwind and not work. It’s about powering off.. Tuning out the noise around you and tuning into your family.. Spending your time enjoying a favorite hobby. It’s got to be scheduled, just like we schedule everything else in our lives.
But, what he really said that made me think twice was: It’s a commandment. It made God’s “Top 10 List.” It’s on the same list as stealing, committing adultery, and killing.
Read that again, and let it sink it. Puts things into perspective doesn’t it? He knew we needed that time. And, not taking that time is deliberately disobeying God and not trusting Him with your time. This was incredibly hard for me to hear. It’s hard for me to just stop. I always need to feel like I’m making progress.. Moving forward.. Working towards a goal. If I’m not making the most of my time, how am I ever going to hit my goal? But you see, that’s when we need to start trusting God and having faith that He will help us be good stewards of our time.
This is something I need to work on each week. I need to give myself permission to shut off. Everyday doesn’t have to be a day of progress. Some days it’s ok to just be. And one day each week — o n e d a y — we are commanded to let every part of our body’s rest. And today, we are doing just that.
