MATT'S GUEST BLOG

I don’t need a sabbath.  Rest is for wimps.

God must have designed it for weaker, lazier people than me.  I guess I just have more drive than normal people.  I’m perfectly content to work nonstop and sleep 4 hours a night.  Work energizes me.  I’ve found a healthy rhythm of life, in which work is the center point, the place that I pour the bulk of my time and passion.

Or maybe I’m just in denial...

When was the last time you took a day to just rest?  When was the last time you got a day away from your normal environment to get some perspective?  Do you remember?  If not, take a day off!  If you can remember it, didn’t you find it refreshing?  Maybe you even felt like when you went back to the workplace you were more productive than usual.

Does that surprise you?  Should it?

Sabbath was one of God’s many bright ideas.  It didn’t come from the latest self-help book.  It isn’t part of some new age fad.  God Almighty laid it out at the foundation of the earth itself.  It shouldn’t surprise us at all that it actually works.  God didn’t suggest a sabbath to kill your productivity.  He also didn’t suggest it to promote a “working for the weekend” mentality.  He suggested it because he knows what’s best for his kids. (That’s us!)  He suggested it because it is healthy - it is good.  While we’re on the topic, he didn’t “suggest” it at all.  He modeled the behavior in Genesis 2 and he commanded the behavior in Exodus 20 as the 4th commandment.

It’s funny that in a business minded culture we really value hard work to such an extreme that we sometimes reject the need for a sabbath altogether.  Let’s put a stop to that.  Take a break.  Zoom out.  Get perspective.  Listen for God.  Come back refreshed.  I dare you.

DEVOTIONALS

Do you use a devotional book, like Our Daily Bread, or Our Utmost for His Highest, resources like that?  There are so many good reads these days.  One of the popular ones has been Jesus Calling, by Sarah Young.  I had been pretty much a straight Bible reader for my devotional time, just kind of spurned supplemental material.  A few months ago, however, I was given C. H. Spurgeon’s, Morning and Evening.    I found that the subject matter, his insights and writing style really ministered to me.  The readings really touched my spirit.  I am eager to get back into it each day.  

As I thought about it, I realized these devotional books do a great job of connecting God’s truth to life, the everyday things that you and I deal with as we seek to successfully navigate the daily challenges we face.  And they cover all kinds of areas of our realities.  I know we can use different methods in how we ingest the Word of God, but if it has been a while since you have used a Daily Devotional, I encourage you to pull off the shelf an oldie but a goodie, or head to the Christian bookstore and look over some of the new ones.  I really believe it will take your devotion deeper and that can’t be bad!

PSALM 19

The Psalms are an amazing record of the writers understanding of God, His approachability, understanding and power.  In the five books of the Psalms you find it all, pure praise, requests for God to destroy enemies, personal contrition and sorrow for sin, the joy of knowing and obeying the precepts of God.  The Psalmists, in response to all this, express a strong desire to please this amazing God.

I was reading Psalm 19 and was captured by it again, especially the final verse.  David is pretty much agreeing that everything God has to say to us is perfect, his law, his commandments, precepts - all good.  So he concludes with his own commitment to have his words and meditations be acceptable to God.  Here’s what he said.  “Let the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.”

We have God as our audience and should want our thoughts and words to please Him.  Additionally, thoughts and words are so interwoven.  It is from our heart, our attitudes, what we are dwelling on, that words come from.  Do we harbor resentment, bitterness, anger, jealousy, lust, hurt, superiority, or any such thing?  Our words will ultimately betray us and what we say will cause our God to grieve rather than be pleased.   Let’s do a quick inventory.  Would God applaud our thoughts and words so far today?  We love His words.  Let’s be sure He loves ours.