Rest

You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of complete rest, an official day for holy assembly. It is the LORD’s Sabbath day, and it must be observed wherever you live. Leviticus 23:3

FROM THE BEGINNING, God established an ongoing pattern of work and worship. God rested on the seventh day and invited Adam and Eve to do the same. Every seventh day would be a day to rest in who he is and what he accomplished in his creation, a time set aside to enjoy with him the goodness of all he had made. Then when God called his people out of slavery in Egypt, where they likely worked seven days a week, he instructed them to stop their work on the seventh day so they might assemble for worship.

The Sabbath was never meant to be a burden but rather a gift of God to his people. When we set aside work for worship, we demonstrate to ourselves, our families, and the world around us that God is worthy of our glad worship and that we find our home among God’s people. But more than that, we live out our very real trust in God’s provision for our needs with six days of work, not seven.

Lord, I confess that our family has not always accepted the gift of your Sabbath in its glorious fullness. We’ve put other activities before gathering with your people. We’ve been more concerned about what we will have for lunch than our need for the feast set before us at your table.

Give us the grace and resolve we need to change our deeply ingrained ways of spending this day that belongs to you. Give us wisdom on how to make adjustments out of love for you without capitulation to legalism. Develop in ________ a delight in the Sabbath as a demonstration of trust in your provision and delight in your Word and ways.