September 25
Psalm 23
1 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
Some people have a hard time figuring out how to take a day off. Or even take some time to rest after the day of work is done. Needing to be doing something all the time. A day off is time to do a different type of work. Yard work, house work, repairs, renovations, projects of some sort – these become our time off of our work. Maybe even feeling guilty if we take time to do nothing but rest. Even feeling we have to take less time for sleep.
David speaks of time of refreshing and rest. Time where we sit with God and we just are. Not lots of doing, but time to be. An idea that sounds great, but we act like it would be wrong to actually do this. Spend time where we are not doing, but being with God. The original idea of Sabbath rest. To be with God, without having to let work and obligations get in the way.
Adam and Eve walked with God in the garden. Tomorrow we will look at God’s beginning of Sabbath. But it may be that our Sabbath rest is walking with God in the woods, the fields, or down the road. Maybe our Sabbath rest is sitting in the chair with a book. We might find our Sabbath rest playing a game with kids or grand-kids. Finding our rest in God is part of our purpose in life. Our being with God.
It is not that it has to be a certain day, even though we never officially moved Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. It is having time where our place is with God alone. Not having the distractions of the world and our lives get in the way. Finding places and times to be just with God. The table is set before us. Will we take the time to sit at the table with our God?
Song – Peace Be Still
Prayer
Almighty God, give us such a vision of your purpose and such an assurance of your love and power that we may ever hold fast to the hope which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.