24 Jan God’s Time Out by Tamara Graff
God’s Time Out
By Tamara Graff
Exodus 20:8-11, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
God’s time out prescription, the Sabbath, is not really a suggestion in scripture. It’s a commandment. There are three purposes why God created the Sabbath for our lives.
The first purpose is to reverence God-slow down and honor Him by taking time to worship Him. Growing up, I never had to ask my parents if we were going to church. Every time Sunday rolled around I knew we were going. It was a regular commitment in our lives.
Secondly, God says to rest. He wants you to take a break, so He can cause you to increase. It’s kind of like when we give God the tithe, He blesses the rest. He makes the 90% go further. God knows if we’ll take time to rest our bodies and minds that we’ll be more productive for the week we have ahead.
The Sabbath is also a time to reconnect and reaffirm our love and devotion to one another by eating meals together as a family, talking face to face. We’ve learned the importance of having a time during the week just to let work go, and be together to talk and have fun.
In our family, we take our Sabbath from Sunday evening till Monday evening. We sleep a little later, and have a longer quiet time. We rest, spend time together, eat good food, and in good weather, hang out at the pool. I know it’s really hard to unplug sometimes. But I think we have to work a little harder saying “No” to one more thing “to do,” so we can really rest.
Practicing a Sabbath is more important and needed today than it’s ever been. God wants us to be productive and fruitful people, but he wants us to do it for the long haul. He wants us to finish strong. That’s why He gave us the Sabbath. God didn’t give us a Sabbath to be a burden, so we would have one more thing to manage. He gave it to keep us healthy-inside and out.
Tamara Craff
Faith Family Church
Victoria, Texas
www.myffc.com