The Commandment with the most written about it is the one commanding rest.
Exodus 20:8-11 CEV Remember that the Sabbath Day belongs to me. You have six days when you can do your work, but the seventh day of each week belongs to me, your God. No one is to work on that day—not you, your children, your slaves, your animals, or the foreigners who live in your towns. In six days I made the sky, the earth, the oceans, and everything in them, but on the seventh day I rested. That's why I made the Sabbath a special day that belongs to me.
Rest doesn’t come naturally to us. In order for us to truly rest we have to trust that God will take care of things for us. Since we refuse to rest, as God commands, no matter the reason, thank God He has put a mechanism in place that signals us that it just may be time to slow down and obey.
Shabbat is the original Hebrew word for our English word sabbath. It comes from the root Shin-Beit-Tavand means “to cease, to end, to rest.”
When we are operating at an unrealistic pace we have no intimacy in our relationship with God because we don’t spend time with Him. We are always in a hurry working for God, and not spending time with Him. When anybody criticizes us or pulls our coattails. about our pace we get angry and say stuff like; “The devil never takes a day off”. Well “I’m not sure the devil is supposed to be your example.
Have you ever felt like the more you do the more there is to do? It seems as if the pile keeps getting higher rather than lower; the working hours get longer and longer although you’re working harder and harder? All of us have been there and some of you may be there now. You have gotten yourself on a treadmill and you’re running at an unrealistic and unsustainable pace.
God doesn’t want you to accomplish everything all at once. He wants you to learn to pace yourself as he uses the circumstances of your life to help you mature little by little. While God is growing your business, he’s growing you. While God is growing your children, he’s growing you. While God is growing your career, he’s growing you. For you to grow, you must learn to rest in God’s goodness.
Psalms 127:2 CEV It is useless to get up early and stay up late in order to earn a living. God takes care of his own, even while they sleep.
Some people think God only smiles on them when they’re working, praying, or doing “spiritual” things. But God also smiles on you when you rest. Your heavenly Father enjoys watching you sleep and rest. He created you to need rest. Even God rested! Are you busier than God?
Exodus 31:16-17 CEV Every generation of Israelites must respect the Sabbath. This day will always serve as a reminder, both to me and to the Israelites, that I made the heavens and the earth in six days, then on the seventh day I rested and relaxed.
Why did God rest and relax on the seventh day? It’s not because he was tired, because God doesn’t get tired. He was modeling what he wants you to do: Stop work and relax, keep a Sabbath, and rest in God’s, goodness.