Dear Family and Friends,
 
Have you ever returned to work after a weekend off or even a vacation, and not felt refreshed?
 
I have – – many times. I could never understand why until studying another set of verses from the book of Hebrews.
 
As previously mentioned, Hebrews was written to a group of Jewish Christians living under suffering conditions.
 
The first 13 verses of Hebrews 4 is subtitled A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God.
 
It stresses the importance of rest in times of turmoil. It also reveals that rest is much more than stopping our daily tasks and work.
 
My friends, we need more than physical and emotional rest from our work.
 
To truly end the restlessness on Mondays or times of turmoil, we need to enter into a deep inner rest.
 
“There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.”  Hebrews 4:9-11 NIV
 
Let’s spend our time today on the how to get that rest called Sabbath-Rest.
 
We’re all familiar with God resting in Genesis.
 
“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” Genesis 2:2 NIV
 
Most think God was ‘resting’ just as we would rest after a long day of work.
 
We consider rest restorative. God’s rest is so unlike ours.
 
God rested not to recover. He came to rest – stopped working – because He was satisfied and pleased with His work. After each day He said it was good. It was finished.
 
This is what it means to rest, to truly lay something down with this feeling deep down inside that there is nothing more to be done.
 
This is the kind of rest we need to enter into. It’s called Sabbath-rest.
 
To better understand Sabbath-rest it’s important we understand a few aspects of the Jewish Shabbat or Sabbath.
 
The focus of Shabbat is not on what we’re giving up because of prescribed restrictions.
 
The focus is on what we’re gaining by entering into the holiness of the day.
 
Let’s not forget that the fourth commandment is: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy…” (Exodus 20:8-11 NIV)
 
To understand the importance of this commandment, consider that it is the first to follow those related to the Lord, and the wordiest of the commandments.
 
Shabbat points us back to our Creator. Our rest mirrors God’s own rest at the end of the creation process.
 
“Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”  Genesis 2:3 NIV
 
Shabbat honors the image of the divine in us, and reminds us that there is more to us than our work.
 
Shabbat is also designed to commemorate the Exodus.
 
You may be thinking that the Exodus has nothing to do with us. On the contrary, we are just as much slaves as the Jews were in Egypt. (I’ll have more to say on this later.)
 
Let me close by sharing one other aspect of Shabbat.
 
It’s a day of communion. A day to be observed together.
 
And because it’s a day that occurs with or without us, weekly schedules revolve around Shabbat. Not the other way around.
 
The Sabbath is a day for communion and a day for self-reflection. But most of all it’s a day to spend with our Lord.
 
My friends, if life is getting you down, I pray you enter into God’s rest.
 
In love always,