Hebrews 4:9-11 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
My wife had a realization the other day and wanted to share her thoughts with you in today’s devotion.
She says, “Being a perfectionist myself, I’ve spent much of my time and energy in this life making myself and my belongings appeal to the senses -- in other words, look perfect, sound perfect, feel, taste and smell perfect. I want my house to sparkle and smell fresh, my and my family’s clothing and hairstyles to be on the up and up, I want my words to sound intelligent and funny, my meals to be tasty and beautiful. I want my work in the ministry to be perfect too. And when I’m not busy making sure those things are all in place, I spend my time and energy wishing I had more time, energy and resources to make them so! I admit it is extreme and it’s a matter which I must daily submit to the Lord. But most of us have some element of perfectionism in our lives. What caused us to become that way is another story. But here is what I believe the Lord is showing me about the business of perfection. When we’re busy spending our time and energy “perfecting” ourselves and our earthly belongings, we miss out on a huge blessing. We miss out on gaining God’s perfection, not only for ourselves and our earthly belongings, but for our heart mind and soul. And when we miss out on that, we’re missing out on a piece of heaven.”
Charles Swindoll said “Business (busy-ness) rapes relationships. It substitutes shallow frenzy for deep friendship. It feeds the ego but starves the inner man.”
Let’s examine ourselves today. What are we busy doing? Let’s stop this weekend and enjoy Shabbat -- enter into a deeper relationship with Him! God is standing by, just waiting for us. He has so much to show us and so much to tell us, if we would only stop giving our time and energy to earthly (and often fruitless) things and give a moment of it to Him!
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Another great preacher whose writings I love to read is John R. Rice. He wrote, "I once imagined I was in Heaven, walking along with the Angel Gabriel. I said, "Gabe, what is that big building over there?"
In the modern world, the work ethic is, achieve and produce by working longer and harder! The focus is on getting results through human effort -- we've become product oriented and the bottom line is......the bottom line! But God's way runs contrary to this approach -- His way is much more oriented toward process and relationship rather than performance and production.
The writer of Ecclesiastes was aware of cycles in nature, how they repeat themselves. Some have noticed another interesting historical cycle which awakens our awareness at this time of year. The dates April 15th-21th contain an interesting pattern. This is a time frame which has seen the birth of much havoc in the world. Historically this is when the birth of Rome and the Roman empire took place, the birth of Napoleon and more recently the birth of Hitler and Nazi Germany occurred.
As Israel celebrates Yom Ha'atzmaut – Independence day – Israelis are often reminded of the price that was paid for freedom. But today, in that spirit, I want to recall a time when a heavy price was paid for a translation of our Bible.
A friend writes: "My father did some pretty nasty things to me. But at the end of his life, as I kneeled by his bedside, I told him how thankful I was for every good thing he had done and every way he had blessed me, and there were many. We were good friends when he passed away." One of the greatest regrets you can avoid at the end of your life is the failure to praise others when they deserved it, (and even when they didn't).
Of course, the celebration of Passover for believers normally emphasizes the revelation of our Passover Lamb -- the Lamb of God, Yeshua, who was delivered up, a Lamb without blemish, and sacrificed in our place as an offering for our sins. As Israel celebrates deliverance from slavery, we celebrate deliverance from the bondage of sin. We celebrate knowing that death no longer has power over us since we pass from this temporal world into the eternal when we die.
In the eleventh century, King Henry III of Bavaria grew tired of court life and the pressures of being a monarch. He made application to Prior Richard at a local monastery, asking to be accepted as a contemplative and spend the rest of his life in the monastery. “Your Majesty,” said Prior Richard, “do you understand that the pledge here is one of obedience? That will be hard because you have been a king.” “I understand,” said Henry. “The rest of my life I will be obedient to you, as Christ leads you.” “Then I will tell you what to do,” said Prior Richard. “Go back to your throne and serve faithfully in the place where God has put you.” When King Henry died, a statement was written: “The King learned to rule by being obedient.”