Work Monday. Work Tuesday. Work Wednesday. Work Thursday. Work Friday. Work Saturday. Work Sunday. Work Monday. Work Tuesday. Work, nothing but work. If you live this way, what have you wired your brain to do? Work. What is the meaning of this life? Work.
Then Christ invades your work world. Now, what does your work programmed brain want to add to your life? A work based religion. Yet, Jesus came to bring us relief from that work based thinking (Hebrews 4:1-3). Jesus was asked in John 6:28, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” His answer was, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent.” Belief in what Jesus did and will do in and through you brings rest!
It’s quite interesting that the 4th Commandment is to have a weekly Sabbath or rest. Six days you would work. And one you would rest. Work then rest. Belief then rest.
I love how one author explained the Sabbath. The Sabbath “uniquely elevated the human being. For nearly all of human history, life consisted overwhelmingly of work. In effect, humans were beasts of burden. This commandment changed all that by insisting that people cease working one day out of seven. It also reminds people that they were meant to be free. Remember that slaves cannot have a Sabbath; only free men and women can. Unless necessary for survival, people who choose to work seven days a week were and are essentially slaves — slaves to work or perhaps to money, but slaves nonetheless.”
God used the Sabbath as a picture of Jesus (Col. 2:16-19), the One who came to set us free from the slavery of work (Gal. 5:1) and to elevate us to sonship (John 1:12). Learn to rest in Jesus throughout your day as you go about your daily work. Learn to take a day off to rest (relax from your to-do lists) as a reminder of what Jesus did and is doing for you – giving you the ability to rest in His love, rest in His provision, and rest in being a secure child of God who knows where they’re heading because of whose hands they are in.
“S”et Free Nowww