Sabbath is a Weapon

“Corrie ten Boom once said that if the devil can’t make you sin, he’ll make you busy. There’s truth in that. Both sin and busyness have the exact same effect—they cut off your connection to God, to other people, and even to your own soul.”

John Mark Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

This quote sticks with me. In fact, it frightens me. Busyness is all too often my friend, keeping me hopping to the tune of self-achievement, bolstering my ego with accomplishments. Could this friend, so welcomed by my generation, be an enemy in disguise?

An idea from a sermon series that Comer preached some years ago might offer the revelation we need: the practice of Sabbath keeping is a weapon.

As I’ve witnessed time and again with my children, the more tired they get, the louder they become. Their bodies, their brain chemistry, their emotions start screaming for relief, for rest. But they don’t come to me subdued and yawning. (I hear some people’s children do this and then might actually fall asleep on their laps. Mine? Not-a-once.) No, they start bouncing off the walls or fighting or wandering around the house with a toothbrush in their hand, forgetting its actual function.

The cure for their chaos is simply rest.

So, too, for me.

Isn’t it the most holy and startling of wonders that our God is a God of rest? After creation, He rested. At the crux of His law, He commands rest. In His promise to the Israelites is a land of rest. When Jesus beckons to the weary and burdened, His offer is rest. The path of salvation and the hope of eternity is only through resting in Christ by faith. (See Gen. 2:2-3, Ex. 20:8-11, Josh. 1:13, Matt. 11:28-30, Heb. 4:9-10, and 2 Tim. 1:9)

Is there any other god or belief system that models such rest? I only know of falsified versions of rest through emptiness of the mind, material comfort, strict adherence to laws, placated spirits, or sacrifice. But none of these bear the true invitation of the Creator who rested nor the secure hope of an eternity of joyful rest.

Only our God is a God of rest.

And so, to enter that rest is to bear His image. It is to trust His sufficiency. It is to find the truest connection of an unhurried soul to its Father. And it is to actively fight against the sins of impatience, worry, pride, covetousness, and discord that raise their ugly heads with much greater ferocity when we are tired.

Sabbath is a powerful weapon of spiritual warfare.

I’m convicted of this. Again. 

And so, I’ll keep this short today and instead leave time for an afternoon nap since I slept poorly last night. Care to join me? The world will carry on without us for a while. 

After all, “No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money [productivity, image, accomplishments, safety, hustle]. Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they?” Matt. 6:24-26, insert mine