God’S Economy

Have you ever heard anyone use the phrase, “God’s economy?” If you have ever heard a sermon at church about tithing, the pastor may have used the phrase. He probably said that God could do more with our 10% than we can do with 100%; that is God’s economy. What if we took that concept and applied it to the fourth of the ten commandments? What if we believed and trusted that God could do more with the one day of Sabbath we give him than we can do with the seven days in a week? When is the last time you took a 24-hour period and practiced Sabbath? I am of the belief that we should refer to it as “practicing” because it may take us a while to figure it out.

           When I spoke to one of the ministry leaders I interviewed, he spoke about Sabbath and what it meant to him. He said, “I need one day a week where I can be in silence.” Another person said, “I use Mondays for my Sabbath because my Friday and Saturday is so stressful as a pastor making sure that everything is ready for Sunday.” The word Sabbath means to “cease from.” I think ministry leaders can struggle with this concept because Sundays are an important day of the week. When I was on a church staff, I had Friday and Saturday off. So, if I came to church on Sunday tired, it was nobody’s fault but my own. I learned to take one of those days and use it to rest and Sabbath. As I worked to finish school over the past two years, I had to remind myself weekly that I need that one day to set aside my work and enjoy a Sabbath.

           As Jesus was teaching his disciples about the Sabbath, he wanted them to understand that it was created for them. It was not about religious rituals; it was created for them. God created the holy day of the Sabbath for man to enjoy what God had created and enjoy the intentional rest in which God himself had participated. Sabbath is part of the healthy cycle of life. Even in the Old Testament, the people would give the land a rest every seven years. There are some great principles here for us to learn; we can’t keep going and working and trying to achieve without taking some time and observing a day every week from which God intended us to benefit.

           In God’s economy, we will be able to achieve more in six days, as we observe a Sabbath in our lives than we would be able to achieve in seven days, ignoring what God intended us to enjoy.  Don’t get caught up in the lie that our culture sometimes perpetuates; believe God’s promise of the fact that he created the Sabbath for you.

Believe that He can do more with six days than you can with seven.

—John

P.S. In the coming weeks, we will have other people writing the blog for this page.