By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.
Genesis 2:2–3 NIV
One of the Ten Commandments was to honor the Sabbath and keep it holy. God gives the example we can follow. In Genesis 2, He rested after His work was done.
What does honoring the Sabbath look like for women today? Some churches practice a literal Sabbath on Saturday and others take Sunday as their day of rest. Some Sabbath-keeping women rest from shopping and cooking, and many women who have to work on Sunday take another day as their personal Sabbath.
But too often we let our Sabbath day become as packed as the other six. We rush to get ready for church, then sing in the praise team, teach Sunday school, and (whew!) go to a meeting over lunch. The afternoon is for running errands, and our evening is spent in a discipleship group.
All those activities are fine in themselves. But when we overextend ourselves every single day, we run the risk of burning out—and forgetting why God created the Sabbath. He did it not so we could have another commandment to keep, but for our own good. Our bodies, minds, and emotions need rest. The Sabbath gives us a chance to take a breather. As we slow down our schedule and quiet our hearts, we can more easily hear from Him.
God, forgive me for taking Your commands too lightly. Remind me that I need to take a real Sabbath, just as You did.
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Related Readings:
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Today’s reading was adapted from Daily Wisdom for Women: 2013 Devotional Collection with permission from Barbour Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Reading was written by Dena Dyer.
I suppose we women are often run ourselves to a deep hole where we can no longer able to climb back up. I used to run myself around as like a super woman, but mind you I was much younger then. After I turned 65 I came to realized I cant run around in “multi-tasking” now I am 75 my body often say to me “oh you go, I will stay home”. Not having to solve every problems is actually good for me. I was running myself to exhaustion. God has mercy on me by telling me to listen to my body!