Is there one thing you purposefully leave undone specifically because you are a Christian? In other words, your non-Christian friends are pretty much all into it, but you stay away from it because you are a Christian?

For example, do you take a day off a week without feeling guilty about it? I guess it would depend on your personality, but for those of us who tend to find our identity and self-worth from our productivity, it is very difficult to do. We associate our worth with what we do. Therefore, when we take a day off (if we do), we feel less valuable.

In giving us the Sabbath law, God wanted to spare us from drawing our value from productivity. “Do not bring a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your forefathers.” Jer. 17:21

Why would “Take a day off” be a command? Couldn’t God simply leave it up to the people to decide for themselves if they needed rest? Why make it into a law? (The 4th Commandment out of 10!) It wasn’t simply because God wanted people to rest. But it also was a way for people to display their trust in God. God will be active and provide when people are inactive and trusting in Him. Here, people would be displaying their faith in God by NOT doing what the world was doing – working 24/7.

I’m sure many Jews disregarded it because they didn’t like the feeling of falling behind. Some didn’t know how they would survive if they only worked 6 days when they barely squeeze by working 7 days. Some just wanted to earn an extra so that they can store it up for later use. But to this, God simply says, “Just trust me and do nothing!“

In a sense, that’s the gospel – Doing nothing. We did absolutely nothing to achieve our salvation. Jesus did it all! And sometimes, doing nothing is the hardest thing to do. Where is it that you need to be inactive? Where do you need to rest and surrender?

Rest in God. Sometimes, your greatest trust in God is shown by doing nothing!

PH