Week 6: Rested
Weekly Chapters: Leviticus 21 - Numbers 10
Passage of the Week: Leviticus 23:22
Adjective:
In state of:
Refreshing quiet of sleep
Refreshing ease or inactivity after exertion
Relief or freedom
Period of inactivity
Mental or spiritual calm
Additional Meanings:
Breather
Vacation
Ease
Idleness
Break
Calmness
Cessation
Father God
As I prepare to read Your word, prepare my heart for learning, open my eyes to Your teaching. Lord, open my mind, open my heart, and let me breathe in Your word. Allow the understanding of Your word to speak to me.
Amen
Authentic vulnerability:
Rest always seems so elusive, doesn’t it? We watch our children nap and are jealous. We see a baby sleeping in their parent’s arms and wish we could sleep so deeply. Our dogs, our cats, they know how to rest so much that they would be unnatural without it. Yet, here we are pushing ourselves, our bodies, our minds to keep going. We deprive ourselves of sleep either because we pack in our schedules or we over-schedule ourselves. We put a value on doing rather than on being.
Overstressed, overstretched, and overdone. Over it. But, we were not made to go without rest.
In points of stress, I become a whiner, a complainer, an all-around abysmal person. And my health suffers.
There was a time when we did rest, weekly, in God. I remember growing up and setting apart time in church with God and now our entire week pushes into onto our time with God. I am so guilty of this. Running here and running there, kid's sports, grocery shopping, doing, doing, doing instead of being in God, present with Him.
What is your Authentic Truth?
Bible Study:
We find rest mentioned in the Bible many times from Genesis where God sets apart the 7th day for rest to the multiple times He mentions it in our reading this week. Sometimes it is called rest, but often Sabbath. Rest is synonymous with resting in God’s presence and with God in thankfulness to Him and in celebration of His gifts and His presence. When we deprive ourselves of rest, we deprive time in God’s presence. Our bodies were meant to rest. We require it. Not just the daily evening rest but also the weekly rest and reflection.
God presents us with festivals in which to celebrate God and His gifts. God set apart the festival as a time to celebrate God and rest—do no work, do no striving. God gave us a schedule in which to do so because as a colleague says, "what gets scheduled gets done".
In Leviticus 23:22 God even mentions rest or margin in our daily life by instructing us to leave the margin of our fields, as you would have margin in your paper, to the poor and traveling. How do we get this same margin in our lives? How do we incorporate rest into our day?
Since God instructs us to rest on the 7th day, He is essentially asking us to create margin in our life to celebrate him. If we look at this mathematically, he is asking us to create margin/rest in 1/7th of our time on earth, or 14.2%. Almost 15% of our time dedicated to God. I know that I fall short. It is a stretch for me to reserve 15 minutes, let alone 15%. If I look at my waking hours (24-8=16), 15% would be 2.4 hours per day or my entire Sunday. Honestly, I cannot say that I give God even close to this time.
In Leviticus 25:18, God says If you want to live securely, we will follow His directives. In this passage, He is speaking of the year of Jubilee. Which, after the 7 cycles of full one-year rest of our work in the field for 6 years. In this God says trust me and I will provide for you in the prescribed rest.
Our bodies, our minds were made for rest. Without rest, we act just like, well, big babies. Rest is not only sleeping, but also clearing one's mind, creating the room, creating a margin in our lives like the margin on a piece of paper. Rest comes in many forms: it is of course sleep, but also decluttering our life from overactivity, overeating, and overworking. Rest is Sabbath. Sabbath was created for us.
When we continue to strive and toil, are we doing so because we have faith in God and want to celebrate Him? Are we trusting in God to care for us? Or are we giving in to the peer pressure of striving?
Father God
I know I miss the mark on spending time in rest and celebration with You as commanded in Leviticus and as prescribed by You for a fulfilling and satisfying life. Forgive me for my selfishness and my putting others in front of You. Give me the strength to let things go so that I can focus on You and Your gifts. Lord, I need You in my life. I need Your blessings of sanctuary and peace that only You can provide. Thank You for Your grace in my humanness and help me be more of an example to my family. Give me the courage to speak of my need for Sabbath with You.
In your name, Amen.
Homework:
· This week, give in to God and rest in Him. Try for 15 minutes of pure rest in God, speaking to God, entrusting Him with your life. Allow God to enter for a straight 15-minute time period. Work on banishing other non-God related thoughts to enter. Use this time to pray to God, praise Him for His blessings. It will not be easy as other thoughts on what you need to do will enter your mind. It may be easier to journal your prayers to God.
· The Israelites as a group celebrated God on the Sabbath. They entered into festivals in celebration of God. Positive peer pressure is just as effective as negative. Enlist someone to support you in your efforts to create more God-centered time in your life.
