Day of Rest?

I have to comment again about the full moon - there is just something about seeing that big ball in the sky. We have often gotten out the telescope to look at it and you can see it rotate, and between each person you have to reset it because it has moved out of view. We are suppose to be like the moon - a reflection of the Great Light in a dark world - moving as He guides us.



I physically and emotionally feel the need for a day of rest ...
Why is it so hard to rest. We have all heard about how we are human BEINGS and not human DOINGS. Yet fear of being called lazy pushes us (a friend once taught me how fear has been a tool used throughout history to our detriment - but that's a whole other topic!). Drive for perfection (can't rest till my house and yard look perfect ... work is NEVER done though). Greed to have as much, if not more, then others around us. For me, its the long to do list that keeps me running, and a fear of being thought of as lazy.

Yet rest is so important.

• Right from the beginning our Creator made that clear. God worked 6 days and rested the 7th - but when did He create us? When did we come into the picture? It was day 6... so the FIRST thing man did was to REST on day 7 with their Creator.
• Ephesians teaches us that in order to WALK the walk, first we need to learn to SIT... "He raised us up together with Him and made us SIT down together in the heavenly sphere in Christ Jesus."(2:6)... Watchman Nee says it very well in his book "Sit, Walk, Stand", I quote it here; "Most Chrsitinas make the mistake of trying to walk in order to be able to sit, but that is a reversal of the true order. Our natural reason says, If we do not walk, how can we ever reach the goal? What can we attain without effort? How can we ever get anywhere if we do not move? But Christianity is a queer business! If at the outset we try to do anything, we get nothing; if we seek to attain something, we miss everything. For Christianity does not begin with a big Do, but with a big DONE. ... we are invited at the very outset to sit down and enjoy what God has done for us; not to set out to try and attain it for ourselves. ... The Christian life from start to finish is based upon this principle of utter dependence on the Lord Jesus. ... Adam began his life with the sabbath; for God works before He rests, while man must first enter into God's rest, and then alone can he work. ..."Nee refers to an illustration of a drowning man, it is only when he rests and trusts his rescuer that then can he be saved. This doesn't eliminate work, it just ensures its done through Jesus and not our flesh.
• My sister, who is battling stage 3 cancer, recently shared with me a doctor that insists on 6 months bed rest if he treats you - regardless of how you are feeling. She had started feeling better, began doing more, and this last month had more fluid taken off then ever before. Her body can't do both, work and heal itself. We may not be fighting cancer, but I think that in our globally traveled, resistent bug world, our bodies could do with some rest to heal and strengthen. (My Usana representative just recently sent me some research on how lack of good sleep can increase inflammation. The long list of health concerns connected to lack of good sleep is too long to ignore. Not DIRECTLY related, because actual deep sleep is a whole other topic too)

I have family that keeps the real Sabbath of Saturday. I also have an Isreali friend who shared with me about how the different groups of Jews keep the Sabbath. Some simply don't go to work. Others will even tear up toilet paper ahead of time. I don't agree with being legalistic, however, our Creator knows how He made us and what we need. A day off, meals prepared the day before, every week ... how much more productive would the rest of the week be!

So today I am resting. I have two coughing and sniffling kids so I am making homemade chicken soup, will go buy some gingerale (I don't have a juicer, and know they won't take ginger straight), and enjoy pampering them a bit - they need a day too. I have laundry to iron, and may or may not continue with the piles in the laundry room - they aren't going anywhere! And I do have meals to prepare for my family, but am keeping it simple, and who knows - maybe there are enough left overs.

Now I leave you today with the only verse I have found that tells me to strive:

"Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and STRIVE DILIGENTLY TO ENTER THAT REST (of God, to know and experience it for ourselves), that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience (into which those in the wilderness fell)." Heb.4:11