Sabbath

Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God’s people. 

For the person who has entered his rest has rested from his own works,

 just as God did from his. Hebrews 4:9‭-‬10 CSB

The word Sabbath comes from a root that means to cease, desist or rest.  God created the Sabbath for us so we could cease from our own ways and find our rest in him.

I like these ways of talking about Sabbath:

Sabbath rest is thus a call to Sabbath trust, a call to visibly demonstrate in our daily living that we know ourselves to be upheld and maintained by the grace of God rather than the strength and craftiness of our own hands. To enjoy a Sabbath day, we must give up our desire for total control. We must learn to live by the generosity of manna falling all around us. ¹

The sabbath teaches us to trust in God’s strength. Sabbath keeping, therefore, is the perfect exercise to help us deal with anger. Sabbath forces us out of the role of God in our lives. Allowing God to take care of us, we relax and enjoy life. That is essentially what it means to rest. ²

When we come to the place where we can joyously "do no work", it will be because God has become so exalted in our mind and body that we can trust him with our lives and our world and can take our hands off them. ³

Rest. Trust. Surrendering control. These are the core elements of Sabbath keeping. ⁴

Sabbath is taking a break from yourself, from the worrying, striving and controlling and letting God be in charge. This is not just for a day a week, but a lifestyle of daily living in which we are released from our own ways and enter into trust in the provision of God. Let us make the choice every day to practice Sabbath, resting from our own works and trusting completely in God.

Work may be done for six days,

but on the seventh day there is to be a Sabbath of complete rest, 

a sacred assembly. You are not to do any work;

 it is a Sabbath to the Lord wherever you live. Leviticus 23:3

¹ Norman Wirzba, Living the Sabbath, p.38 (Quoted in James Bryan Smith, The Good and Beautiful Life, Kindle version, Location 1043.)
² James Bryan Smith, The Good and Beautiful Life, Kindle Version Location 1049.
³Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, Kindle Version Pg. 174.
⁴ Smith, Location 1053

Omnipotence

 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being. Eph. 3:20

I have been studying the "omni's" - God's Omnipresence, Omniscience and Omnipotence.  These are those very great attributes of God that give us assurance that God is present, He knows what is going on and He has the power to do something about it.  

It is because of God's omnipotence that Jesus can say, "Have faith in God.  Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours." (Mark 11:22,24)

Nothing is impossible with God. He has the power to do whatever he wills.  He has the power to change me, to change those around me and to change my circumstances. When we pray and believe this, we will have our answer.  The answer may not look the way we envision, but we know that when we pray believing, God's power will be at work in us and will accomplish far more than we can ask or imagine. (Eph. 3:20)

May we pray along with Paul, that the eyes of our understanding would be enlightened in order that we would know the exceeding greatness of His mighty power that is working for us so that we can pray in faith believing that we have received whatever we have asked of God.  (Eph.1:18,19) 

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. James 5:16

Living in the Moment

Each moment is a precious gift from God.  We experience God’s presence only in the present.  He wants us to experience each moment and to live each season of life to its fullest. To be “all there” wherever we are. As the prayer for serenity says, “Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time.” He has covered our past and He does not want us to worry about the future because He will be there when we get there.

One thing that can hinder our enjoyment of the moment is regrets and failures that plague us.  Dwelling on our past mistakes keeps us in a state of guilt and shame, and robs us of our hope for the future. 

The Word is clear about how we should handle these negative thoughts.  Bring them to God, confessing all we have done and then receiving by faith the promise of his forgiveness.  If we come in this way, we can be assured by the promise of his word that we are forgiven, that our sin is now buried in the depths of the sea to be remembered no more. 

The Apostle John assures us, “If we freely admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just, true to His own nature and promises, and will forgive our sins and continuously cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  1 Jn 1:9 (AMP)

The Prophet Micah reminds us of the nature of the God we love, “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.” Micah 7:18-19 (NIV)

And Isaiah quotes from God himselfI, “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” Isaiah 43:25

God, even God, is the one who has buried our sins in the depths of the sea and forgotten them. If God has forgotten, how can we continue to dwell on them. As Corrie Ten Boom reminds us, He puts up a “No Fishing” sign reminding us not to dredge them up again.

These are wonderful promises that we can embrace.  Whenever our experience in the moment is being threatened by negative thoughts of guilt, shame, worry or fear let us immediately confess any sin that comes to mind, embrace the promise of forgiveness and cleansing love and move on in freedom to experience the joy, peace and rest He has promised. When we do this we are ready to fully experience and enter into the moment, the season and circumstances in which he has placed us for his glory.

Dear Lord, We need your help to fully experience all that you have for us today.  Help us to bring all of our thoughts into obedience to Christ who has born all of our sins and carried them away.  Remembering your forgiveness, we confess and let go of everything that hinders us. The past is gone and by your grace help us to run the race set before us embracing all the good things ahead for us in the future.  May we live in this moment full of the joy, peace and freedom that you have for us. We rest in your unfailing love. Amen