SUNDAYS

This was a recent on-line headline: "Linda Lost 100 Pounds By Cheating on Her Diet". Now there's a statement that gets my attention! Many of us struggle to lose weight or even just maintain it so that as the years go by we don't get continually bigger. Well, Linda Roland had the same problem. In fact, she had gone on special diets, even some of the most popular diet programs that we hear are the most effective. However, Linda always gained the weight back, and more. In her fifties, she finally hit a breaking point, and decided to diet her own way and change her lifestyle. She held to a strict diet with restricted calories for 6 days of the week, and on Sundays she rewarded herself and ate whatever she wanted all day long. She found she was able to hold out for the 6 days, knowing that on Sunday she could eat anything she had craved earlier in the week. Now that's a great reward in itself, but the weight loss is an even greater reward!

This reminds me of the sabbath. After 6 days of working and being busy with all the tasks at hand in life, we are to rest from our labors and honor God. We know that God rested on the seventh day of creation, and that He wants us to rest from our labors also.

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 4:9-10

But the Sabbath day is not just for us to rest and be lazy. It was set aside to honor God.

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Exodus 20:8

The Sabbath day in itself is also a reward for us - we get refreshed physically by resting. But there is an even greater reward - that of spiritual renewal. We are given the gift of eternal life in heaven with our loving and forgiving God, by grace through faith in Jesus, who came to earth as a babe in Bethlehem... whose birth we are preparing to celebrate. And during those preparations it is important to remember to take time to rest and honor our God. Every week, no matter how much is on our plate, no matter how many things we feel we need to get done, no matter how many decorations there are to put up and christmas cards there are to write and cookies to bake and gifts to buy and wrap.... remember to take your Sabbath rest to honor Him. So worship with fellow believers, be built up in fellowship, read and study his Word, meditate and pray, and rest in His arms. Let your faith be built up in Jesus who came to earth as one of us, died in our place on a cross, and rose again to set us free. Be refreshed and renewed in body and spirit by the Sabbath!

written by Jan Andersen, refreshed and renewed in spirit