If you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable…not doing as you please…then you will find joy in the Lord.  Isaiah 58:13-14

If you’re finding it increasingly harder to concentrate, you’re not alone. Our world today often leaves us taxed mentally, frazzled emotionally and impatient with others.

You’re dealing with more in a single 24-hours than humans ever have. The internet may run 24/7/365 but you and I were never designed to. It’s past time to obey God by appreciating the first gift He ever gave to man—the gift of rest.

As architect of the human system, God He wrote into our code the rhythm of six on and one off.  Rest isn’t the opposite of work—it’s work’s partner. That’s why God instructed us to regularly take what the Bible calls a Sabbath Rest. The two Hebrew words that are used to describe it carry meanings of stopping work and of a restful settling down. It’s a rest that acknowledges our physical humanity but also our spiritual beings that need regular refreshment in God.

God modeled the 6 and 1 pattern for us by creating for 6 days and then resting on the 7th day.  A restful state is what He designed for us here and now and, permanently, in heaven. The Bible says, “God’s rest is there for people to enter” and also there is “another day of rest still to come” (Hebrews 4:6,8).

What isn’t work for you, renews you and gives you space to think about the heavenly rest and the love of the rest Giver?

“Those who first heard this good news,” about God’s rest, Scripture says, “failed to enter because they disobeyed God.  So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today” (Hebrews 4:6).