My Sabbath

My goodness, I’ve not written a post in quite a while! Life has been life-ing here on my home front and heart - and I’ve been in adult timeout. My Sabbath! It’s been oh, so holy too!

When we keep running and working and doing and going and…well, you add whatever “it” is that you do every day in your life - just fill in the blank. ________________. No matter where you are in life or what season you may find yourself in, I know you must get weary and run down occasionally too. Christians aren’t exempt from getting off course when it comes to priorities and living out the purpose of God well. What we must do sometimes though is to be recalibrated. Hello!

My life verse this season seems to be don’t be “weary in well doing” found in Galatians 6:9. Paul penned these words and I’m sure he lived them out as well. Amazingly enough, God saw fit to encourage us with them by adding them to His Word, along with a promise. You see, whether we’re gazing at Biblical times or our own today, life happens and sometimes our heart needs reminded to beat again. The right way!

We might not have a pacemaker to get our physical heart beating on the right rhythm again, but we all need one to insure our soul’s heart is ticking at the right sequence. Yes, sometimes we just need a time out, space to unwind from all the tangled up lifelines we’ve cast out into this world. Maybe I’m the only one, but I venture to say I’m not - we sometimes need to be still and quiet to allow God to work things out for us and in us. A Sabbath - a space of rest and stillness where we allow Him to re-create in us what is “good” as He did in the very first chapter of our Bible. He does all things well and never wastes a single opportunity to show us His love and power. We just have to be quiet and still enough to notice!

Another Biblical saying I seem to be living out is “in the process of time.” I keep reminding myself, and now you, that God’s got us and at the right time all things will be well if we’ll just hang on and continue to press into Him. It’s not our time however. It’s His! He created and designed the Sabbath as well we plans for our lives. The “weary” verse in Galatians adds that in “due time” we’ll reap if we don’t give up and quit.

Every season brings with it change and I dare say every season needs its own Sabbath. Sometimes a week or even a day needs a Sabbath! We can get so wrapped up with life that we eventually find ourselves running on empty and floundering around like a fish out of water trying to just breathe normal again. We run at break-neck speed and expect to be at peace and excited about life. My friend, slowing down and recalibrating with the Lord is one of the best gifts we can give ourselves. God exampled this to us from the very beginning!

So, my recent days have looked a lot like withdrawing and spending more time at home and with God. Recalibrating a better prayer time, studying His Word on a deeper level, fasting, and not exerting too much pressure to be all things to all people. I’ve needed a timeout, a Sabbath, to allow God to reset some things inside an outside of me.

I hope this makes sense and resonates within you today. Do you need a Sabbath? Are you tired and weary as you go about trying to do good in this life? Life doesn’t stand by and allow us to catch our breath very often. We must make room for a Sabbath! Yours might look a little different from what mine has, but I hope this post will encourage you to have your moment just the same. Don’t keep trying to burn the candle at both ends; we aren’t meant to be worn out and frazzled. That’s a trick of the enemy of our souls; He always offers us a counterfeit of what God has for us. God wants us to have real peace within and to live life well. We can’t be a blessing if we’re continuously pouring from an empty cup.

Today, I speak peace into your life and I pray that whatever season you find yourself in that you will give yourself a timeout and allow God to give you rest and speak peace into your soul. If you don’t take care of yourself, nobody else will…another seasonal saying which keeps popping up in my days. I hope you’ve been encouraged and that you’ll be blessed as you pause to breathe in this precious life and the moments of stillness God has granted to us. Make the Sabbath a regular part of your schedule - go ahead and pencil it in.

Happy Sabbath to you, no matter what day you might be reading this post. Exhale deeply, then slowly breathe in the goodness of God and the life He desires you to experience. He has so many promises for us if we’ll just slow down and receive them. Feel free to share this post with someone you know who may need to be reminded that it’s okay and necessary to slow down for a holy moment.

God bless and keep you, my friend! Happy Sabbath!