Listening to the Holy Spirit:
Work is a gift of the Father. To tend to responsibility is nourishment to the caregiver. Tasks required and completed give satisfaction. Challenge to strain, allows gift and talent to release. I gave the garden before the fall. To care and complete was the joy; effort yes, but great delight is in the hearty work of one’s hands. Also was given rest, as the day of slumber fuels, that the next can be worked with all diligence and strength. The good of work becomes curse when no rest is given or taken. As the rest of the night is required for the day, so too the rest of the day is required for the six. In the absence of either, there is loss to the next. Do not toil out of season; it does not avail. My will is for you to rest, that what is good may bless and not harm. The Law was given that man would prosper, not to restrict what is good, for all good is spoiled in hoarding, and the hoarding of work for wage is the sickness of many. Rest, that my Word will again bless.
Gen 2:3 (ESV) – So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
Heb 4:9-10 (ESV) – So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
Mark 2:27 (ESV) – And Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
Rest. At one time it was a commandment, to take one day’s rest in seven. It was called the Sabbath. It was the last day of the Jewish week, otherwise known to us as Saturday. Among other things, the Sabbath was to be a reminder to the Jews that they no longer had to work seven days a week, as when they were under the whip of the Egyptians, and that Sabbath reminded them of the freedom that was brought to them by God through Moses.
Later, after the Resurrection occurred on first day of the week, Sunday, the Christians began to celebrate that day as “The Lord’s Day”. It was a day to come together and worship and celebrate the freedom God brought to them through Jesus, and eventually, through many centuries, that became the Christian’s day to rest as well. So much so, that Sundays were the only day given from employers to allow their workers to rest, recuperate, and worship with their families.
In the early 1900’s, the Jewish population, not believing the resurrection, wanted their traditional Saturday day of rest, and when it was granted, that is where our current “Weekend” came about. In fact, it was Henry Ford in 1926 that began shutting his factories down for both Saturday and Sunday for his workers.
Now there has been much debate over the years of whether or not Christians should work on Sunday. Some say it is still a sin, equivalent to dishonoring the Sabbath. Some claim the Sabbath rule has been eliminated for Christians, and some Christians groups believe Sunday is not the right Biblical day to rest, and have gone back to resting and worshiping on Saturdays.
The truth is, many of us love our work, and we could go seven days a week without complaining. There are others that work seven days a week because they feel they must. Here’s what I know; Biblically, God’s original design for man was to set aside one day a week to rest and recover, and for many years now, study after study says it is actually more efficient and healthier for us if we have the appropriate amount of down-time. Too few breaks reduce our productivity, and too many breaks did the same.
God said, early-early on, the best balance for our maximum production is to set aside one of seven, and I find it humorous that almost every study since, more or less backs up that one-in-seven ratio.
So, if you want to be your best, and you want your employees to be their best, maybe consider God’s wisdom in the matter, as His Word works efficiency in you, today.
