A DAY OF REST AND REFLECTION

Gen., 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from his work of creation.

I am deeply convinced that this is one area that we, the body of Christ, must pay attention to. We have somehow convinced ourselves that it is okay to treat the Lord’s Day like any other day of the week. We no longer see it as a day set apart by the Lord as a day of rest and worship. We fill up the Lord’s Day with so much activity and distractions that we scarcely even know the Lord is in it. For many they have to go back to work in order to rest up from the busyness of His day. Many of the things we do are good things, maybe even necessary, but I wonder what the Lord thinks about all our busyness. How can we spend quality time with the Lord when we are so preoccupied with other things? When was the last time you spent the Lord’s Day in quiet reflection and rest?

Whether you honor the Lord on a Saturday or a Sunday doesn’t matter. Whatever your conviction is about the day to worship the Lord, do you really do it? Do you set aside a day in your week to rest in the presence of Christ for renewal? Do you focus on Him in worship? Or, do you justify yourself filling up your day of worship with activities and work that you could and should reserve for other days? When was the last time you spent quality time with the Lord for a whole day?

The Lord set aside a day for rest from his labors and proclaimed it to be holy. He told us this for a reason. He set an example for us to follow. Is it any wonder why so many of us struggle in our walk with Him? Is it any wonder why so many of our churches are struggling? If we fail to honor the Lord with a day of rest and reflection on Him, we can’t expect him to bless us in the rest of our lives.

One more thought. I wonder what would happen if the church were to set aside a day in which nothing else was on the agenda but to rest in the presence of the Lord. I wonder how many people would show up or stay around for such a day. Could we stand doing nothing for a whole day but to rest and wait on the Lord? Maybe we should fast from all of our busyness sometime and see what might happen. I suspect that we would sense God’s presence in a way we haven’t before. The Lord will not renew our strength as long as we are too busy to wait before Him.