The Real Deal

So tomorrow (Monday) is my Sabbath. My day off. No work. No thinking about work. Just rest. Spend time with God. Blog. Sight-see. Playstation 3. Talk to friends and family on the phone.

Tomorrow is going to be tough though.

It is going to be tough because I really NEED to work tomorrow. This upcoming week is probably the busiest week project wise that I have had here in La Paz. I have something due or something going on pretty much every day and by taking the day off tomorrow I am not progressing any of these projects. I am losing time.

And for the first time I feel the real sacrifice of the Sabbath.

The true meaning of the day. The purpose of the Sabbath is to rely on God to provide me with seven days of provision when I only work six days. It is to rely on Him to show up and help me with the projects that I have to do this week. The purpose is to say to God that yes my projects are important but they are not as important as You. You take priority. By taking tomorrow off and resting in Him I am saying to Him yes, I have a lot to do this week, but it is not worth sacrificing my time with You and my rest in You.

Each week we have an opportunity to tell God that He is more important to us than our work. But it is definitely easier said than done. The demands of this world seem to have a way of destroying our rest in God. And in my case the “demands of this world” are projects that assist ministries advance the kingdom of God.

So in my case God is telling me to not worry about assisting ministries advance the cause tomorrow. He is telling me to stop and delight in Him. He is telling all of us each week to not worry about the demands of our jobs for one day so that we can connect with Him and receive rest and renewal for our soul. I think tomorrow could be a test. A test to see how sacred this Sabbath day is going to be for me. The other weeks have been easy because my work load was still pretty light but not this week. And I believe that the true test comes when the work load is heavy.

It just tells me a lot about who I am as a human when God tells me to take one day off and yet I struggle with that when things are busy. I mean…He gives me six days to work each week and I struggle stopping for one? It is the same thing with tithing I think. God only asks for 10% to be given back to Him yet we still struggle. We see things from the wrong perspective. We should say things like…Wow – I get six days to work each week. Wow – I get to keep 90% of the money God gives me.

What a God.

I don’t know what will happen with all of the projects on my list this week. I am going to work today to get as much done as possible.

But what I do know is that I am not going to give in and work tomorrow. I am going to rest in God and trust that He will give me the time, energy and creativity to complete what I need to do starting Tuesday morning.

I encourage you. Try to have a Sabbath day each week where it hurts you. A Sabbath day when business suffers. When you fall a little behind. Because if you do, I believe that you will be setup to experience the amazing provision of our awesome Heavenly Father.