There are times when the Lord brings a repeated lesson to me. When I sense He's trying to get my attention, I lean in to listen carefully, like a little girl sitting on her Daddy's lap. When I read the title of this chapter, I smiled. He has brought this same message to me several times over this past year. It has been a year of many changes, and I believe He knew I needed to hear it more than once. Each time I hear it, I learn more about His tender love for us.
The Hebrew word Shabbat means "to cease, to stop, to pause". As the Lord delivered Israel out of four hundred years of slavery in Egypt, He knew their mindset would remain as slaves. Work, pressure, and performance under the hand of a cruel ruler was imprinted into their spirits. Knowing this, and with intimate care of His children, He introduced Sabbath among the Ten Commandments: "Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God, in it you shall not do any work." Exodus 20:9-10. On the seventh day, they were commanded to cease, stop, pause and step away from work. The purpose? To give unadulterated attention, worship and praise to the Lord their God. This would give them rest and break the yoke of their slavery mindset.
Much like the bondage that continued to hold its grip on the Israelites as they didn't embrace "shabbat" through Sabbath rest, we can hold onto our slavery to "work, pressure, and performance."
This chapter teaches "not every good thing is a God thing." Our Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will teach us what should remain, and what needs to go from our schedules, if we simply ask Him. To cease our schedules for fervent, specific prayer, to stop to drink from His Word, to pause to hear His voice brings rest. It realigns our work, our ministries, and our time to His will for us.
Aptly, "fervent prayer is like a sharp pair of scissors that cuts us loose". Sisters, He cuts us loose from the bondage of pressure-filled schedules not for freedom's sake, but to give us liberty to wholly worship and praise the Lord our God. Ceasing ... stopping ... and pausing to pray reclaims peace, rest, and contentment.
CEASE, STOP, PAUSE ... SHABBAT!