Genesis 2:2-3 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
With war drums beating even more intensely in Iran and Syria, we’ve received numerous phone calls and emails expressing their concerns — and understandably so! Nevertheless, even in this climate of anxiety, we are preparing to enter into Shabbat (the Hebrew word for Sabbath) this afternoon. And as we do, we are remembering again, the deep lesson of God’s entering into His rest following the six creation days.
After working for six days – He entered into Shabbat. The word Shabbat comes from the Hebrew verb “shavat”, which literally means “to cease”. Shabbat implies that we need to stop working — stop trying — stop doing…simply, to cease from our own work. We need to simply let go, and let God! In a way it’s different kind of work. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews puts it this way: “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” [Hebrews 4:11] So, this is a “work” of faith, where we are no longer working, but trusting God to accomplish the work He has begun and is perfectly able to complete!
This Shabbat, if you dealing with fear of the future, rest in the fact that YOUR future is already secure in the finished work of Messiah! You can trust Him, in faith, knowing that not a single hair of your head can fall to the ground without Him allowing it!
Enjoy your Shabbat tonight and embrace the profound lesson of the Sabbath – let go, and let God! Remember that the only real rest from anxiety, worry and fear … is found in HIM – Yeshua, the Lord of Shabbat!
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Sometimes it’s very difficult to rejoice in trials – especially when the trials affect ministry! Last week, one of our servers had a database server collapse, but after several days of work, the server is now back online. Although the damage was minimal, the time needed to spend researching the issue and then rebuilding the databases took days.
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