Sabbath is about rest, but it’s also about sanctification.
Tag: relationship
God knows our need. He has designated the very zip code where we reside. Our requirements are not unanticipated. The springs are already in place, ready to be signed over into our keeping. The question is, will we draw near and ask in faith? Will we recognize God as our source and make our requests known to Him?
We affirm our identity as farmers and shepherds, as stewards and nurturers, not mercenaries or brawlers. We are here: saved and being sanctified for the Kingdom purpose of growing something good. And that good begins in us. We start in the four small chambers in our own chest and then we branch out from there. We are asked to approach this fallen firmament with an agrarian mindset: we are planters not combatants.
Healthy, sustained relationships flow in forgiveness, in both the giving and the receiving, alike.
The Israelite priests had crafted Sabbath into a burden by legislation and should-nots but maybe the heart of Sabbath is less about legalities and more about fellowship? Maybe it looks like changing our pace for twenty-four hours and being loved on as God’s kids?
We tend to look outward instead of inward, don’t we? We tend to focus on the faults of others – which we have no control over – even though we still have a long ways to grow ourselves. There’s enough going wrong within our own frames to keep us busy until Jesus comes back.
Choosing to forgive a betraying spouse is perhaps the most bitter pill a wife can swallow. It requires arduous effort. But if we don’t or won’t forgive, the cost is far greater than our marriage. We can wind up cutting ourselves off from the most rewarding/redeeming relationship of all. We wind up despising when we are created to delight. We stand outside when we have been invited to come close. We thrash about in angst when we could be set free to soar with grace.
Sin glimmers like Egypt from the wilderness: the far-off promise of something easier, but when we get close enough to lay hold, it’s something altogether different than we expected and it’s too late to turn around. Sin is a trap and we are creature caught in it’s clutches. Egypt is not as it seemed.