Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
God is all about rest! Do you know that one of 10 commandments literally says, “take a day off!” God referred to it as the sabbath. On the Sabbath, no one worked. No one lifted a finger to do anything that was considered “work”. If you happen to be staying in a hotel on the Sabbath in Israel, you will notice that the elevator is programmed to stop on every floor because pressing the elevator button is considered “doing work” or “breaking the sabbath.” HUSBANDS!!! This means you biblically get to escape the honey-do-list by citing the sabbath (just saying) 😉 
One of the first questions we ask when we start a conversation with someone is, “How have you been?” More often than not, the answer I get is, “been busy.” Being busy has somehow become a status symbol in our society. If we’re busy we’re important, if we’re not we feel useless. The American culture has become a busy culture. I’m not necessarily referring to a 16-hour day, 7-days a week job. It’s more of allowing ourselves to be pulled in a dozen different directions. Are we becoming chronically and terminally busy?
Robert Morris suggests that “we Americans haven’t yet gotten around to creating an English word for working oneself to death, but we’ll likely need one soon. I’d suggest sabbath deficiency syndrome.”
I’m by no means advocating for laziness. In fact, the Bible speaks against all sorts of laziness and idleness. For some of us (including me), any kind of downtime is spent on our phones. The Sabbath is like the forgotten commandment. God himself modeled rest. Jesus rested. The sabbath is a gift from God and so many of us do not enjoy it. I encourage you to take a day off from your busy week and be intentional about rest this year.
The Psalmist (Ps 62:5) reminds us to speak to our souls and say, “Find rest my soul, in God alone”. I’m sure that extra money can pay off your student loans faster. I’m sure those medical bills are racking up. I’m sure we have to hustle to either make ends meet or sustain our lifestyle choices but I promise you that you will be more effective and productive in six days with rest than seven days without it. Your kids need you to take that extra day. Your husband/wife needs to spend time with you on that day. Your heart can benefit from less stress for 24 hours. Your spirit needs the word. CHOOSE TO REST IN GOD.
Listen to Laxmi as she brings us the devotional today
Resources:
Download Prayer Guide
If you missed the message on Sunday, Pastor Ashish spoke about the importance of praying first. I strongly suggest that you go listen to it as we begin this 21 day fasting and prayer. Let us resolve to always PRAY FIRST in everything we do. Listen to the message HERE
Here is a Worship Playlist you can listen to – 21-Day Fasting Playlist
I appreciate this so much. I’ve been dealing with money tragedies and issues, and the feeling of being cheated or taken advantage of makes me spike up, get angry at the world, and stop trusting everything and everyone around me. God is telling me to stop focusing on, in all honesty, relatively minuscule problems and just shift my attention. I let go of that anger, righteous or not, and I just get to embrace a path to move forward.