For the most part I planned to rest today, take a break from my labors, after all the government has designated this day in the United States as Labor Day. This is the day off from jobs in recognition of American workers. While I don’t work outside the home, I have a workload that is heavy: home education, writing, counseling, business development, and homemaking are just a few of my duties. I planned to do a little work on my curriculum and fold a few clothes and just spend time with my family. But I got a counseling request—an emergency—and I knew I had to take the request. This was God’s will for me on what I had declared my day of rest. I had been summoned to work on behalf of God in speaking biblical wisdom into this person’s life. I had a God assignment on my designated off day. To rest, the way I wanted to rest, was not God’s plan for me. I had to do what He told me to do on my day of rest.
Remember the woman who had a spirit of infirmity for 18 years and the man with the withered hand that Jesus healed on the Sabbath day, the Jewish day of rest (Luke 13:10-17, 6:6-10)? The ruler of the synagogue after the woman was healed said “with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day, . . .‘There are six days in which men ought to do work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” In this passage Jesus called the man a hypocrite, noting that he and others lead their animals to water on the Sabbath. And in the other passage Jesus said, “I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?” And with these words God sets them and us straight, tells us when we are to work: when you have the opportunity to do good and when you have the opportunity to save life. In other words, if someone is in need and you have the ability or capacity to give, then you work.
Every need is not our need to fill, but that doesn’t mean no need noticed on our day of rest is for us. We must seek God and He will tell us what He wants us to do (Jeremiah 33:3). If God tells us to work, then we work. If our working brings God glory, then we work (1 Corinthians 10:31). Whatever day of rest we choose, even this Labor Day holiday, remember that God is the Lord of the Sabbath, the day of rest, therefore He controls what that day looks like for us (Luke 6:5). And whatever He gives us to do will still feel like rest: “Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.] Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet] for your souls (Matthew 11:28-29—AMP). Our true rest, the one we should always seek, is in Jesus.
My One Thousand Gifts List
#731-740
Flynn cooking lentils to supplement the meal
Justus going to sleep a second night in the row without being nursed
Reading with Nate under the dining room table with a flashlight
Amazing points to my message for LIFT
Missing sleep so I could hear from God in the morning quiet
An impromptu visit with Ruth, Hank and Rianna
The kids running, laughing and being carefree
My much needed chiropractic adjustment
A big branch falling in the backyard when we weren’t around
Justus climbing on my lap so I could kiss him
