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.
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
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
