Devotionals December 9

Slow Down and Rest

“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter.” Exodus 20:9-10 NKJV

God knows us so well. He can see the store owner reading this verse and thinking, “Somebody needs to work that day. If I can’t, my son will.” So God says, Nor your son. “Then my daughter will.” Nor your daughter…“I guess I’ll have to send my cow to run the store, or maybe I’ll find some stranger to help me.” No, God says. One day of the week you will say no to work and yes to worship. You will slow and sit down and lie down and rest.

Still we object…“What about my grades?” “I’ve got my sales quota.” We offer up one reason after another, but God silences them all with a poignant reminder: “In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.” God’s message is plain: “If creation didn’t crash when I rested, it won’t crash when you do.”

Repeat these words after me: It is not my job to run the world.

1 of 365 devotionals in Grace for the Moment, Volume II, by Max Lucado