Hi how are you today? After a couple of busy months, I am having a well deserved break this week. I think I just need to sleep, eat and take some relaxing walks. How are you going?
This week I want to talk about rest. Rest is really important as is adequate sleep. Because of the world we live in, busy seems to be a medal we wear around our neck with pride. The problem is there is a difference between busy and striving.
We can be busy in God operating in His strength and in His ability and that may be okay for a season. However we were never meant to strive under our own strength. This is where burn out can come in.
Even God mirrored busyness when He created the world. Look around you- all of this that we see and much more that we can’t see was created in six days- that is what the definition of busyness should be.
However, notice what God did after that- the seventh day He rested. This was a principle that God put into place for us to follow. One day a week, we need to take time out from work, including house work and have a chill day. In the modern world we live in, this is more essential than ever.
But God didn’t stop there. He then implemented feasts throughout the year for generally a week at a time and rest was meant to occur then too. But this was more than rest, it was a celebration. How often do we take a rest and celebrate? Probably never!
Let’s have a look at these feasts. Leviticus 23 in the Message Bible is the chapter where they are all listed. Verse 3 is first and it is what I have mentioned above- every week; rest on one day. The rest are:
- Passover and Feast of Unraised bread together- starts on 14th day of first month for seven days. On the first day and last day, do no regular work. This could happen on any day in the month and was in addition to the sabbath rest.
- First fruits- on the first day of harvest – bring the first sheaf of grain and do no ordinary work.
- Feast of weeks or Pentecost- end of the grain harvest- bring an offering and do no ordinary work
- Feast of trumpets- blow the trumpets and do no ordinary work
- Day of Atonement- repent and do no ordinary work
- Feast of Tabernacles- live in booths for a week and do no ordinary work on the first day or the seventh day.
In Deuteronomy 16 in the Message Bible in verses 16 to 17, it states:
16-17 All your men must appear before God, your God, three times each year at the place he designates: at the Feast-of-Unraised-Bread (Passover), at the Feast-of-Weeks, and at the Feast-of-Booths. No one is to show up in the Presence of God empty-handed; each man must bring as much as he can manage, giving generously in response to the blessings of God, your God.
Three times a year, the men must appear before God at the place God says. This means that most of them needed to travel and stay for the whole time. It was a time of rest, celebration, feasting and spending time with God.
What if we did this? Would we then have the strength to go back home and continue with what God told us to do. It may help us today. Try it and see.
This week if you are feeling burnt out or stressed, take some time off if you can and rest. You will feel so much better.
Bless you and keep living the life God intended.
Karen
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