Could you imagine if the world truly honored the sabbath? I remember growing up alot of stuff was closed on Sundays, not just Chick fil a. We went to church Sunday Morning, came home for dinner and went back Sunday night. The entire day was about Jesus. When we first moved to the south I planned a family trip on a weekend. On Sunday, our last day, the town i had planned for us to explore was a Ghost town. Just about everything shut down on Sundays.
Now we squeeze in one morning service, and skip Sunday school for convenience, if we even go at all. Now i have my own issues with organized religion, man made time schedules and putting God in a box. Clocking in and out of our religion. But these festivals and days of worship were built into the system from the beginning and for a purpose. To make time and space where the people could reflect on God, remember where he brought them from and pull them back to him, some weekly and some yearly. Why? I think it's because God knew how quickly we forget.
When life gets busy, God is usually the last thing on our minds. He knew how quickly we would forget the Red Sea once we're standing in the Promised Land. How quickly we forget manna once we're eating the harvest. How quickly we forget our desperation once we're comfortable. We say He's first. But our calendars tell the truth.
I don't want to clock in and out of my relationship with God. I don't want religion on a time card. But I also see something in these chapters that convicts me, If I don't intentionally create space for Him, something else will fill it. Because when life gets busy and it will...God shouldn't be the last thing on my mind. He should be the One my schedule bends around. The Sabbath isn't about shutting down businesses anymore, it’s about shutting down distraction. It's not about a ghost town on Sunday, it's about refusing to let my soul become one.
God knew we would forget.
So He built in reminders.
The question isn't whether the culture will honor the Sabbath. We need to stop expecting a sinful world to honor God they don't know. We need to let a broken and lost world see a light that never goes out. We need to live out the example for others to see so that it will draw them to him.
So The question is... will I? Will you?
Will we create space? Will we pause? Will we remember?
Because if we don't build it in to the structure of our lives....The busyness of this world will squeeze Him out.
And I don't want a life where God gets what's left. I want a life where everything else moves around Him. I don't want to forget this time in Leviticus and what I learned through this time of purification and closeness with him. When life calms and moves past the hardship and the stretching I don't want to forget him.
Love Pastor Mandy
Ark of Hope Ministry
@ArkofHopeDailyDevotions.com
Daily reading Leviticus 23-24
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