Monday, November 27, 2017

Rest. God Commands Us to Rest.


This message is directed at those who work hard to minister to God, but we all need to learn why God gave us Sabbath Rest.

Some of us do not need to rest simply because we don't do anything, but I know of a few people out there in ministry, that might be burning themselves out.  Some may be in full-time ministry every day 24/7, and some may be working full time at a secular job and trying to minister when not at work.  I admire both of these ministers of God because they are true workers who sacrifice all for the sake of the Gospel.

One of God's commandments is to have a day of rest and yes, that even means from ministry.  A good example of why God wants you to rest if found in Leviticus 25:4.  In this verse, it tells the Hebrew nation to work the land for six years and on the seventh to let it go fallow.  Do not plant or harvest from that land.  Why? It needs to rest.

When you continually plant a crop on land, the nutrients are taken out of the ground and it will produce less and less.  To let it rest a year allows those nutrients to get back into the ground and refresh it so that the field can again be fruitful.

When we work seven days a week in ministry we are taking spiritual nutrients out of ourselves and our work produces less fruit and the job requires more and more of us to keep it going.  God commanded us to rest so that the Holy Spirit can refresh us and make our lives more fruitful.

A Sabbath rest is not a useless time of doing nothing.  It is a time given to God so that our lives are more fruitful and filled with the Spirit of God.

Photo by Jean-Pierre Brungs on Unsplash

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