Rest, in today’s world this is something we don’t seem to get enough of. Everywhere you look there are magazine articles and news stories about how we as American’s are living stressed out lives. We structure our kids’ activities and spend every waking minute pushing more activity into our lives. Not being a native to Duluth I have been amazed about the role sports, particularly hockey plays in many families. From late fall to early spring families are planning their entire weekly schedules around practice and games. No time of week is out of bounds. Even Sunday morning is a good time for hockey practice and young players have out of town weekend tournaments. Rest, God chose the 7th day to rest, but we do not allow that for ourselves. What would it mean to be free to rest in God, even one day a week? For many of us it would be soul nourishing.
When the people of Israel were given rest, as God directed Moses, it meant freedom from enemies, fighting, and always being on guard for an attack from their neighbor. It was part of the covenant God had with his people but what did God expect in return? Joshua 22:5 tells us we are to “love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments, and to hold fast to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul”. I think if we were to try to live in response to God’s gift of rest, we would find that what God asks of us does create rest within our hearts and minds.
Lesson 8 — The Place of Rest
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