“… And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest” (Psalm 55:6, KJV).

I was thinking about this verse a while ago during a particularly overwhelming period. I thought of how ideal it would be to take time away to be alone in a quiet place. Maybe take a trip to the seaside, ideally somewhere warm and sunny, where I can drown all my worries in a beach somewhere. If only, huh? As I thought about it though, it got me thinking, what if I didn’t need to fly away to be at rest? What if I could be at rest right where I was? What if I lived my life in such a way that, despite the pressures and challenges of daily life, I remained at rest?

How?

If I intentionally and deliberately set aside time to regularly fellowship with God, to rest in Him, to be re-energised by Him, then I can be at rest. In other words, by observing a Sabbath. The word Sabbath is derived from the Hebrew word ‘Shavat’, which literally means ‘to rest’. It was a pattern set by God Himself, when He not only rested on the seventh day, but blessed it and made it holy (Genesis 2:1-3).

Exodus 31:13 (NLT) says “Tell the people of Israel: ‘Be careful to keep my Sabbath day, for the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant between me and you from generation to generation. It is given so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy.”

Ezekiel 20 (NLT) reiterates “And I gave them my Sabbath days of rest as a sign between them and me. It was to remind them that I am the LORD, who had set them apart to be holy.”(v 12); “and keep my Sabbath days holy, for they are a sign to remind you that I am the LORD your God.” (v. 20).

The Sabbath was clearly very important to God, which was why He was so keen on His people observing the Sabbath. Reading about how seriously God took the Sabbath makes me realise that I need to take the Sabbath more seriously as well.

Why?

The Sabbath serves as a reminder that God is the one in charge, not you or me. Because if we believe God is in charge, then we can truly allow ourselves to rest. And that is a sign that we trust God, His plan, His design, His will. It also shows that we honour Him (Isaiah 58:13). It is a reminder that He is the LORD our GOD, and taking out that time to rest in Him acknowledges that fact.

When we practice and meditate on this reminder consistently, we are less likely to get to the point where we are so overwhelmed with the daily motions of life that running away seems like the best option.

However, getting to that stage requires complete trust in God, and complete trust comes from a place of fellowship. As we trust God and obey His Word, we give Him the opportunity to display the benefits of His presence and His power in our lives. In doing so, we realise something very important: God can more than make up for the time we set aside to rest in Him. He can bless us with far more than we would have gotten if we had trusted in our own might, worked continuously, and become so busy that we could not make out time to fellowship with Him. As Psalm 127:2 says, “It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones.”

Amos 9:13 (ESV) illustrates what can happen when God is at work. It says “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the ploughman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.” The NLT puts it this way, ““The time will come,” says the LORD, “when the grain and grapes will grow faster than they can be harvested. Then the terraced vineyards on the hills of Israel will drip with sweet wine!” He goes on to talk about bringing the children of Israel back to their land, restoring them and firmly planting them there. Indeed, there is a way God can restore the time we set aside for a Sabbath, to fellowship with Him, to the point where we would be far more productive than if we had used that Sabbath time to work. Can you imagine having blessings coming at you so fast, you can barely even track or count them? Can you imagine have your efforts yielding results even before you finalise said efforts? That is an example of grain and grapes growing faster than they can be harvested.

Incidentally, even fields were to be given a Sabbath. Exodus 23:10-11 (BSB) says, “For six years you are to sow your land and gather its produce, but in the seventh year you must let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor among your people may eat from the field and the wild animals may consume what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and olive grove.”

As Ovid said, “Take rest; a field that has rested gives a beautiful crop.” You might have heard of fallow farming and the benefits it affords – replenishing the health of the soil and increasing its nutrient levels, combating weeds, preventing the spread of pests and other disease-causing organisms. Not to mention that the farmer gets to have a break and rest from all their toil. As I reflected on the benefits the soil gets from fallow farming, the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13 came to mind. In that parable, our hearts are likened to soil. Do you recall the one type of soil that enables the seed planted in it to grow and produce a crop yielding far more than that which was sown? The good soil.

Having a Sabbath is therefore a key way by which we can make our hearts become ‘good soil’. Indeed when you think about it, how can we really be fruitful Christians when we don’t set aside time to rest in God, to meditate on His Word until it is so engrained in us, nothing can pull it out or choke it? Just as fallow farming prevents the spread of weeds, pests, organisms which cause diseases and ruin soil and crops, taking a Sabbath rest prevents or halts the spread of that which causes harm to our souls and stops the good seed of God’s word from germinating and yielding a bountiful harvest.

Observing a Sabbath also enables some of God’s promises to come to pass in our lives.

Psalm 147:3 (NLT) says “He heals the broken-hearted and bandages their wounds.” Imagine trying to wrap a bandage around someone’s wound. Now picture that person running around and jumping all over the place. All you want is for them to sit still so that you can bandage the wound properly, but it’s not happening because they won’t sit still. Because of their constant activity and inability sit and rest for a bit, binding the wound becomes hard to do properly. Sadly what then happens is that those wounds become worse. God wants to heal our wounds – emotional, mental, physical. If only we would take the time to rest in Him and enjoy the blessing of healing He can give to us.

When we set aside time to hear from God, another promise He gives us is this: “For I will give you the right words and such wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to reply or refute you!” (Luke 21:15, NLT). We may not be farmers, but God, through His Holy Spirit in us, can give us the wisdom we need for our daily life. The Holy Spirit can teach us how to do anything and everything better, from parenting, to craftsmanship, to writing, to business, to academics, everything! The Lord said this about Bezalel in Exodus 31:3-5 (NLT): “I have filled him with the Spirit of God, giving him great wisdom, ability, and expertise in all kinds of crafts. He is a master craftsman, expert in working with gold, silver, and bronze. He is skilled in engraving and mounting gemstones and in carving wood. He is a master at every craft!”

That same Spirit of God is in us today! (Romans 8:11). It doesn’t matter which job or task we want to do, He is full of ideas that can help us work smarter rather than harder. Ideas that can ease our stress. Ideas which give us lightbulb moments that make our lives so much easier to navigate daily. Ideas that would eliminate the need to run away from our present lives! If only we would pause to spend some time with Him and soak up some of His immense, profound wisdom. Afterall He is wisdom personified. And He has the power to lead and teach us as we implement His ideas. As the famous hymn goes, “O what peace we often forfeit, o what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.”

To illustrate the benefits that come from pausing to rest and fellowship with God, I’ll give an example from the Story of Moses in the Old Testament. In Exodus 14, the Israelites were between Pharoah’s army and the Red Sea. There were two reactions possible. Verse 12 notes the reaction of people who, possibly due to the very difficult situation they were in, may not have had time to fellowship with God. They may not even have been allowed a Sabbath rest. Sadly the effect of this shows in their reaction, which was one of fear and dismay. They said, “Did we not say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone so that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness”(BSB). They could not even conceive a better alternative than servitude or death. Oh how painful! Unfortunately this is what can happen to our minds when we deprive ourselves of times of communion with God.

Moses on the other hand, had spent a lot of time communing with God, and he had a completely different reaction: “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.” (Verse 13, NLT). Some of us in that situation may have panicked and tried to come up with a plan to either fight or quickly build rafts to allow as many people as possible to start crossing the Red Sea. Alas, the stress of the futility of drafting our best plans, not to talk of trying to implement them, would be enough to make us want to run away and hide.

However when we rest in God and depend on Him completely, He can supersede the best plan even the most intelligent human can dream of. I mean how many human beings would have come up with the idea of parting the Red Sea, and more importantly, had the power to do so?

Another example is in the New Testament, in Luke 5. Jesus spent a bit of time in Simon Peter’s boat and taught from there. Simon was one of those who was there with Jesus and happened to listen to Him speak. When Jesus had finished speaking, He gave Simon a simple instruction on how to catch fish. You have to understand that on the surface, it would have appeared ridiculous. Simon was an experienced fisherman, Jesus was a carpenter, a craftsman. Yet He was giving Simon instructions on where and how to catch fish. Thankfully though, Simon obeyed. Remember that they had toiled and fished all night and caught nothing. But following that time with Jesus, time spent listening to Him, and crucially obeying, Simon caught so much fish that his boat started to sink! This is what taking time to commune with God can do.

“…But the people that know their God shall be strong, and do exploits” (Daniel 11:32). Resting in God allows us to get to know Him intimately and consequently do these great exploits which He has called us to do.

Practical Steps to take

There are different ways to enforce the practice of a Sabbath in our routines, just as there can be different types of Sabbath. We can make out time for a yearly Sabbath, a weekly Sabbath, a daily Sabbath, an extended Sabbath for a time, or even a Sabbath at various points during the day. Not all of us may have the opportunity available to some in academia or other fields to take a sabbatical (Sabbath, Sabbatical…see the link?). However we can set out blocks of time to rest in God and fellowship with Him.

What do we do during such times? We remind ourselves of our dependence on Him. We express our dependence on Him through prayer, worship, continuous fellowship, studying and meditating on His precious Word. We can also literally lie down to rest, or carry out an activity that allows us to enjoy the pleasure of God’s presence, either by ourselves or with loved ones. It can be running, going on a walk, sitting still and observing God’s creativity in nature, or just sitting still. It can be taking out time while waiting for a bus or train, or during a journey to focus solely on Him. The beauty of fellowship with the Holy Spirit is that it can be done anywhere! And after we have spoken to Him, it is sometimes during such activities we may hear Him speak to us in turn.

Taking this time to rest also gives us a chance to re-centring ourselves in God. During our busyness, there is a possibility that our focus may shift slightly. Or maybe even more than slightly. Then challenges edge their way into the centre and try to shift God to the side. Or shift us away from the centre of God’s will. Imagine being in a car journey and having an object in the centre of your car arm rest. Then picture getting to a bumpy section of the road. What could potentially happen to that object? It may move around a bit and lose its earlier position. Sometimes we can be like that object during busy or challenging times. As such, it is crucial to move back to that position where we are at the centre of God’s will and God is at the centre of our lives.

I need to emphasise though that the Sabbath should not become a legalistic tradition. Rituals are useful as long as we do not make them into idols, attributing our blessings to them, or forgetting that they are a means not the end. Jesus makes a key point regarding this in Mark 2:27-28 (NLT). “And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”” And in Matthew 12:7-8, NLT, “But you would not have condemned my innocent disciples if you knew the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”

Prayer

I pray that we will receive the grace, the strength, the wherewithal to set aside time each day, each week, each month, each year, no matter how little to start with, where we can really rest in God and commune with Him. As we do so, may we experience the true refreshing that we can only afford through God, and the joy and power that comes with His presence. May we enjoy the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s lavish love, and the sweet fellowship of the Holy Spirit, now and forevermore. Amen!

P.S.: My next blog post reflects on the fulfilment of the Sabbath. I will lead into it with this verse:

Matthew 11:28-30 (MSG): Then Jesus said, “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Image source here.