God says that one day a week we are to stop working so we can spend focused time worshipping. While everything you do, say, touch, and feel should be an act of worship to God, He makes it very clear that we are to reserve one special day a week for Him.
Labor is a gift from God, but we have taken this gift from God and distorted it. We have taken work and morphed it into workaholism. God says if you're really going to discover what this life is all about, you've got to jump off the treadmill once a week and take a break.
God tells us something that the production analysts of corporate America are calling a new discovery: we should rest at least once a week. That's something that God said thousands of years ago, and it's been in the Bible for us to see the entire time.
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I want you to think about your life right now Do you have a time each week that you stop working? Do you ever just break away?
A good friend of mine attended Cornell University for his undergrad work. He told me that when he enrolled, he made a commitment to himself and to God to obey the fourth commandment at all costs. My friend made the commitment not to study or work on Sunday — ever. He dedicated that one day each week to worshipping God. So every Sunday he attended church, prayed, read his Bible, and meditated on what God was teaching him. And as hard as it may be for many to understand the effectiveness of that kind of schedule, my friend graduated number one in his class — at a renowned university that graduates thousands of people every year; students who study seven days a week, many of them more than twelve hours a day!
To many people, my friend's commitment may seem like laziness, an excuse to do nothing. But setting aside that day for worship and rest is critical. It helps us get the most out of life in ways we can't even imagine or understand. That one day a week is time God has given us to connect with the people in our lives, recharge our own batteries, and worship Him. How? By doing some simple yet powerful things. When it comes to that day of leisure, try:
• Taking a relaxing walk to the park with your family.
• Inviting your neighbors over for dinner.
• Turning off the television and reading the Bible for an hour.
• Getting outdoors and enjoying the amazing beauty of nature.
But no matter what you do to enjoy that day, thank God for it. He tells us to commit one full day a week to prayer, worship, rest, and the enjoyment of God's creation — only one day. Are you doing that? Or are you on the go seven days a week, 365 days a year? God even set an example for us to follow when it comes to leisure.
Have you always done everything you were told to do? Of course not! We don't really like to do something without knowing if it works. We want to follow an example set before us. We think, If I can see something in action, then it must work. And it's only then that we step up and do it ourselves.