Sabbath: One of God’s Greatest Gifts
We’ve spent the last several weeks discussing how to push beyond the most common limitations to excel in leadership. You may remember my “Why Rest Shouldn’t Always Be Relaxing” post a few weeks ago, where we considered how we could pursue greater rest by embracing activities that may not be “relaxing” in the traditional sense but provide a greater return in the form of rejuvenation and restoration. This is one of the greatest rewards rest has to offer – true rest invigorates us and gives us the energy and strength necessary to continue pushing ourselves to do hard things.
There is another form of rest that is essential, although it’s quite different from the type of rest we discussed before. This form of rest is more in line with the practice of the Sabbath, which we read about throughout the Bible. In the Old Testament, God commands the Israelites to observe a regular Sabbath day each week where they rest from the work of the previous six days.
Although Jesus pushes back on some of the expectations surrounding the Sabbath, he isn’t admonishing the concept itself, but rather the false narratives people had developed. As Jesus says in Mark 2:27 (NLT), “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.”
In other words, God created the practice of the Sabbath to be a gift for His people. Ultimately, practicing the Sabbath is an act of trust. As human beings, we are hardwired to desire control, and we often feel a sense of worry when we lack control. We may perceive that we are, in fact, controlling the situation with our worry, but we’re really only creating more stress and anxiety for ourselves. This is why Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, reminds us that none of us by worrying can add a single day to our lives (see Matthew 6:27 and my blog post on this verse).
When we take time to observe the Sabbath, we are acknowledging that God is in control of the world – not us. In the book of Exodus, God promises to provide the Israelites with two days’ worth of manna on the day before the Sabbath. He instructs Moses to caution the people about going out to gather manna on the Sabbath, but some people disregard Moses’ words and choose to look for manna anyway. In response, God says to Moses, “How long will these people refuse to obey my commands and instructions? They must realize that the Sabbath is the Lord’s gift to you. That is why he gives you a two-day supply on the sixth day, so there will be enough for two days.” (Exodus 16:28b-29a, NLT)
My question for you this week is simple: what if God has given us the Sabbath as both an incredible gift and a real-life opportunity to cultivate and demonstrate trust? In the high-pressure, fast-moving world we live in, this is a foreign concept for many people. We often feel the need to continue grinding and producing so we don’t fall behind or get passed up by others. What if we could change the narrative and remind ourselves that God is our ultimate provider? How would this change our hearts and deepen our faith?