"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." (Genesis 2:2)
This verse has caused such a stir within the world of religion it is crazy! We have just read through the creation account, wherein God envisioned in His mind what He wanted, fashioned and spoke it forth out of the ether of swirling chaos and darkness, and breathed life into it. When He had completed all He had envisioned, the Bible records that He rested. I can't tell you the number of sermons I have heard preached over the years by ministers explaining that God finished all He was going to do and is merely watching from afar in a rather laissez-faire mode. While it does say He ceased from His labor and rested, the Bible is very flamboyant in its portrayal of God in an active role in the affairs of mankind.
In the next act (theatrically speaking) we see God creating man and telling him to go forth, multiply, subdue the earth, and have dominion over it. Through the millenia we have seen God again and again supernaturally intervene on behalf of mankind, so we know He is still active within the world - only now it is through His servants. I don't want to pursue that train of thought any further at this moment. My main thought for today is rest.
Just as God rested on the seventh day, so He has commanded us to set aside one day a week to spend with Him. No work. No commitments. No struggling. Just rest.
Having worked in a variety of career fields over the course of my lifetime I have seen many fatigued people. As a law enforcement officer I often grew weary from the constant fight against crime. As a combat U.S. Army veteran I knew the overwhelming feeling of battle fatigue many times. In both white collar and blue collar careers I have often felt the weight of fatigue. Deadlines, sales goals, long hours, a driving boss, etc, all have caused many of my peers to fall under the pressure. Yet one group of men and women within which I have personally witnessed this the most is that of the clergy. Men and women who have answered the call of God on their lives are driven by their deep desire to serve their communities and their churches - often to the point of sacrificing their families, their marriages, their children, their friends, even their very health and lives.
My heart goes out to my pastor friends as well as my evangelist friends. The pastors who grind it out day after day in their individual parishes, answering phone calls at all hours of the day and night, visiting the sick and home-bound, driving endless miles to be at the side of someone as they pass from this life, plus the responsibility of providing spiritual meals multiple times a week for their flocks, managing the "business" of the church, et cetera ad nauseum. They have little or no time away from the hustle and bustle to spend time with their own families, get away for some peaceful rest and relaxation, or just shut down for awhile. I have witnessed pastors literally dying in the pulpit preaching during a service, others who have gone home after a particularly long day and died in their beds from fatigue, and many who have been brought near death as their health suffered from the load.
My message today is - rest. Pastors in particular, but all believers in general. We have this temple in which to live. It is our only contact with this world, yet it serves also as our means of reaching out to our Father in heaven. I plead with you, my friend, PLEASE take care of yourself - mentally, spiritually, and physically. This may be a rather moot point in some of your minds or a total waste of time for me to encourage you in this way; however, I have lost far too many friends in the ministry as well as well-meaning brothers and sisters in Christ because they failed to heed to directive of God to rest.
We all have responsibilities - aging parents, needy children (of all ages), friends who are in want, and communities that need Jesus. God has given us six days in which to work, but on the seventh He has called us to go aside and rest in Him. Please heed the call before it is too late. The day of the LORD is soon upon us and the pressure will only get stronger. If God sent an angel to take care of Elijah when he was fatigued and if God sent angels to minister to Christ after His temptation, surely He will care for you and me. Let Him. Rest, my friend.
Be blessed.
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