Rest and Renewal

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. Hebrews 4:9-11

The spiritual practice of sabbath keeping means to pick one full day a week to do no regular work. (It is Friday night at sundown in the OT and Sunday in modern Christianity. Any consistent day that you can get off work is good!) God designed and consecrated the sabbath for our own good. The sabbath is made for rest and renewal; the growing closer to God and to the people God has blessed us with. Most of our church is retired, so you may say to yourself, “what’s the difference between my days?” Well, I would encourage you to be intentional that on the sabbath day you don’t fill it up with household projects or errands. Take a longer devotional time, go out to eat with a friend, nap, pray through our prayer list or world news. Sabbath serves as a reminder to us and for us that our worth as God’s beloved child is not wrapped up in how much we produce, our work, or accomplishments. Also, God does not want burn-out for his children. Notice the warning in the last section of this scripture? Doing too much for too long is not good for us. We need breaks. Rest is blessed. Keep the sabbath holy!

In Christ,
Rev. Elyse Milligan Nielsen