Taking a Day Off

On Wednesday evening during the Midweek Service, I have been teaching a verse-by-verse study of Exodus. For the past several weeks we have been taking a closer look at the contents of chapter 20. This chapter contains the Ten Commandments.

When we came to the fourth commandment, Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy, I noted that God gave more specific instructions on this commandment than any of the other ten, I shared three significant applications which I’d like to include here today.

The fourth commandment is all about taking a day off. God says, “Every seven days, you are to take a rest.” This commandment served as a regular reminder that they were people in a covenant relationship with God. They were to remember to stop their regular habits of living and to devote themselves to worshiping the Lord.

One of the main purposes is to prevent burnout. Every seven days, you need to get physically and emotionally and spiritually recharged. That’s the way we’ve been wired. We need to rest. (By the way, “Sabbath” means “to stop” or “to cease.” In other words, stop what you have been doing, i.e., working for a living.) But we don’t just stop what we’ve been doing, God also says that we should keep the day “holy.” (“Holy” means “set apart” or “different.”) That means that God wants us to have a day that is set aside as special to him and for him.

Briefly, here are those three applications from the fourth commandment. First, we should use the day to rest our bodies. We need periodic rest — every seven days. Your body needs time to rest. However, that does not mean that we should treat this day like any other day. The Lord connected the day to holiness, and so should we. Second, we should use the day to recharge our emotions. We need to do this because work can stress us. In order to recharge your emotions, you should include a time for quietness. (How about a Sunday afternoon nap?) You should also include times for meaningful family experiences. You should also recharge your emotions by spending time with other believers in fellowship. You really need all three. Finally, we should use the day to refocus our spirits. Sunday is preeminently a day of worship. You need to recalibrate your spirit with God’s Spirit. Without doing so, it’s really easy for us to get off base in our thinking and living.

Let’s consider how we can encourage one another!

And by the way, take a day off -- for you and the Lord.