Sabbath from a Trying Too Hard Life & Faith

A couple years ago I adopted the practice of picking a word for the upcoming year. In the last weeks of December a word appeared over and over again in various ways. Different variations, but still the same resounding meaning. Stillness. Rest. Sabbath.

Not pure solitude, not self-care, and not silence – but the Psalm 46:10 kind of stillness. The raphah kind of stillness. The lowering of the hands, ceasing to strive stillness of rest.

Sabbath rest, not found in numbing or escapism of television and social media, not even in a good book. Rather, the kind where one communes with God in a moment of pure ordinary life. The kind of ceasing to be all the things for all the people and the peace in meditating on His character and word.

A selah moment of Sabbath. A pause, rest, letting it sink deep.

A sabbath from a trying-to-hard people-pleaser and a sabbath from a trying-too-hard faith.

Lowering my hands from still feeling like I have to-do, to earn God’s love. To stop fighting His hands, His discipline, His compassion, in order to sink deep in the heart and true rest of God.

In Leviticus, the Sabbath or solemn rest was a crucial aspect of the Israelite feasts. It was a reminder to stop striving and to find rest in the one who would come to redeem them. We are invited to find rest in the One who has already redeemed.

Without rest we miss the rest of God, the rest He invites us to enter more fully so might know Him more deeply.

Mark Buchanan

This year, I want to learn how to rest. How to sink down deep into the character and peace of God. I want to learn how to lower my hands so He can just wrap me up in His. Learning to rest and praise Him not for what He can give or do, but for who His is and what He has already done.