Trust Him to Sustain

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt but the Lord your God brought you out with his strong hand and powerful arm. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to rest on the Sabbath day. 

Deuteronomy 5:15

Imagine you're a little, ten-year-old boy and your dad is tasked with moving a couch or chair. You want to help, but find yourself straining and struggling only for your dad to tell you that he got it and you can step away. You step away and nothing happens; the chair doesn't come plummeting down because of your lack of contribution. Your dad doesn't start to show signs of strain as you stop working. Actually, it looks like it's easier for him to carry this burden without you. Although, the only way you realize that was by stepping away.

As slaves in Eygpt, the Israelites’ protection, provision, and self-worth were directly tied to their ability to work. Work was how they got by. Work was how they stayed alive. Work was how they made it. Now, they receive the liberation they have been crying out to God for and He tells them to chill out on the work. Still, they aren't going for it. As free people, they turn the command to pause on work into a burden in itself. They create extra rules to make sure they don't work. They start to judge others by how they don't work. They have whole arguments and discussions about the stress that comes from not working. Does that sound stupid to anyone else? You were forced to work, someone tells you to rest and you have a problem with it? So stupid, but it sounds a lot like us.

Let's pause and look at the story of Adam and Eve. God made things on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Then, He made humans on Friday and, on Saturday, invited them to rest from His work with Him. Did you catch that? God did all the work Monday to Friday and invited people to rest from that work on Sabbath. Adam and Eve did nothing. They couldn't have, they didn't exist until the day before. Even so, they were invited to rest in the provision and protection created by God's work. We often don't get that Sabbath is not us doing something for God. It's God turning our attention to what He consistently does for us. God tells us to stop stressing about work and rest so we can be reminded of what He does for us. Rest is a trust exercise so we realize we were not sustaining ourselves in the first place.

I recently wrote a devotional about Philippians 4:4-7. 

“Rejoice always. Again I say rejoice. Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember the Lord is coming soon. Don't worry about anything instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done, then you will experience God's peace which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you rest in Christ Jesus.”

I wrote about how Paul urges us to rejoice and give thanks because it is the gateway to a special peace that will guard our hearts and minds—our thoughts and emotions. How does this work? Because rejoicing in the Lord and giving thanks forces us to remember what God has done and who He is. In remembering, you literally cannot stress. When you remember God healed you from cancer before, you don't stress when you see another lump. When you are worried about another bill, the stress dissipates when you remember the miracle money that came to your account last time. When you don't know how you will make it, remembering the God who never failed you gives you a special peace. We think the Sabbath is a reward for a job well done or a week of hard work, but if we look at the story of Adam and Eve, it's actually the start of our livelihood. We come alive in the rest created from His work. We rest because He did the work. We don't get rest because we earned it, rest is created when there is no more work do to. We often overwork for a bill that is already paid. Jesus has done it all. The God who created the universe with a word has asked you to enjoy this world with him and you're stressing. He already did the heavy lifting and will not allow any weapon to prosper. He has won. Be strong and courageous. Be of good cheer. He has overcome. You can rest in that! 

The Jews made the Sabbath a burden by focusing on the exercise and not the goal. They made rules on how much a person could walk on the Sabbath instead of remembering the God who gave them the power to walk. The Bible says to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Remember. This is how you keep it separate. This is how you keep it special.

There are two extreme camps: those who never rest and those who lie to themselves about resting. If you don’t remember the last time you took the time to breathe and relax and be refilled, you need a Sabbath. And if you have been stressing all week just to go to church and stress there too, you haven’t been keeping Sabbath either. Rest! Stop worrying! Let go of your burdens. Stop worrying about what you need to accomplish and rest in what He has accomplished!

By stepping away from the couch in my story from the beginning, ten-year-old you noticed you weren’t even the one carrying it in the first place. God wants us to step away from work as a reminder that we weren't sustaining it in the first place. Stepping away reminds you that you can fail. Stepping away takes the pressure to be good enough for your family or dreams. Stepping away reminds you who was really doing the work. Stepping away reminds you who God is, who you are to Him, and what He has consistently done and promised to do for you. 

Remember, you were slaves. You have a predisposition to rely on your own ability to succeed. I know I do. I'm a workaholic sometimes. I put my value into what I achieve. That's why it's so hard for me to slow down. Yet, keeping the Sabbath means trusting God enough to slow down. I don't have to be ahead of the curve. I don't have to be the best. I don't have to overwork. I can rest because He is doing the work for me. 

Remember, the Sabbath was not made as a burden. It wasn’t made as something you have to do for God. It was God opening rest for you. Trust God to supply and sustain. And that's the gospel. 

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