Yesterday at the supper table we all got to talking about the Sabbath. I asked my boys what day is the Lord's Sabbath? The answer is Saturday according to Genesis 2:2-3. So I asked them, why, in America and as Christians, do we observe it on Sunday then? The answer to that is because Jesus rose from the grave on a Sunday and because of that, the first church met on the first day of the week according to Acts 20:7. We have carried this tradition on today and in America we observe Sunday as "The Lord's Day" and our day of rest. But we are slowly losing that.
The big question now would be, are we sinning by not observing the sabbath, the day of rest, on Saturday? Paul, in Romans 14:5-6, says that it doesn't really matter which day we hold as a sacred until the Lord, that we should each do what we feel convicted to do. The important thing is that we continue to follow God's design and have a day of rest.
For myself I have made Sunday my Sabbath. I had to. I did this not quite 10 years ago. I was finding myself being rushed on Sunday mornings trying to get all the chores done and get my kids all ready to go out the door for church was too much and my attitude showed. I had surrendered much of the rest of my life to the Lord's original design and found rest for my soul there, so I figured it would be the same in this instance. It has been lifechanging. Sunday morning are no longer rushed. Sunday's themselves are relaxing and I look forward to them. On Saturday evenings, I make sure everyone has plenty of hay and water to make it through Sunday. I do go out and do a welfare check on everyone and take care of any immediate needs, but otherwise, we all enjoy a day of rest as the Lord commanded.
Now consider that, the Lord commands us to take a day of rest. Why is that? Because if He didn't, we would work ourselves to exhaustion, and we are seeing that now. My husband and I were talking about that just recently. He is a worker, but he has come to the point of his life that he wants to work to support the family, not to support his employer. He doesn't want to have to work a lot of overtime because he wants to be with us, his family. He wants set hours so he can schedule a life outside of work; and those jobs are becoming harder to find. I think this goes back to how our public school system works. From a young age we are teaching these kids to work hard at school all day long and then take more work home at the end of the day. What is that teaching them? That the work never stops.
I heard a saying once: You can get more done in six days with God, than in seven without God. That is so very true and our entire nation would benefit if we as individuals would return to the Lord's original design. For He is very plain in His description of the sabbath in the following verses:
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Exodus 20:8-11
Do you see that, even the animals are to be given a day of rest. That means your horse needs a day of rest as well. Rest is good for the mind and body of everyone. In fact, I was working a horse just the past week that had very sticky feet. It wasn't until this third week that I got the feet unstuck and it was evident as when I was sending her in the groundwork she took off at a lope. I didn't ask for it, but she would take off at a lope every time I asked her to send to the right or the left. I decided to get a video of this for the owners. It took me less than 5 minutes to get the camera set up, and the horse got the chance to stand and rest during that time. When I picked her back up to go back to work for the video and she was much quieter. Her feet were still moving freely, but she wasn't so wound up that she was loping off, but she was still moving off with engergy.
Just those few moments of rest did her a world of good. Imagine what a day of rest could do for you. Do it, if for no other reason than because the Lord commands you.