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Yield To Rest
Electing the president of the United States is a weighty decision. Stepping into the voting booth, especially if
it’s your first-time voting, can feel overwhelming. The thought, “What if I pick wrong?” may come floating, unbidden into your mind, leaving you feeling the weight of the potentially life-altering vote you’re about to cast. The U.S. presidency is a tremendously important position with global and historical implications, and we get to
cast our vote.
These big moments produce anxiety and maybe it’s appropriate. But what about the anxiety we feel in other less significant moments?
it’s your first-time voting, can feel overwhelming. The thought, “What if I pick wrong?” may come floating, unbidden into your mind, leaving you feeling the weight of the potentially life-altering vote you’re about to cast. The U.S. presidency is a tremendously important position with global and historical implications, and we get to
cast our vote.
These big moments produce anxiety and maybe it’s appropriate. But what about the anxiety we feel in other less significant moments?
For example, a teacher asks to see you after class and you’re not sure why. Or you receive an ambiguous DM from someone you’re close to, and it feels off. Maybe, you realize halfway to school that your shirt has a stain on it, and it leaves you anxious about what your friends will say. Are these moments, though important in their own way, significant enough to warrant anxiety?
God understands how our physiology works, He made us. He knows about our fight or flight response, how our eyes dilate, and our stomach suddenly feels empty. He knows that the first thing we’re going to do when we get to school is head to the bathroom to remove the stain or fidget uncomfortably until we find out what the teacher wants or feel the weight of the vote we’re about to cast. He made us to be responsible; to take ownership of ourselves and care for those around us and to do important work in the world. We have been made to “fill the earth and subdue it.” But because of sin we cannot do this work perfectly and the places where we fail or are limited produce anxiety.
In other words, before sin, we had a job to do. But then sin came into the world, and now that desire to work is twisted, just like everything else. God knows this too, so He commanded us to, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11)
God knew in our sin we would try to take on too much and bury ourselves in burdens we were not designed to carry so He commanded us to rest. But it was not just a command, it was also a gift. How are you doing, with the sabbath? Do you feel free to take a day to rest amid everything that needs to happen? Are you able to let go of the anxieties, big and small, that attempt to overrun your inner thoughts?
As we heard last week, “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
God desires that you would come to Him to find rest for your weary soul and let go of all the things you cannot control, that you might find peace in His presence now. If you want to thrive, you’ll need to yield to both God’s command and His gift of the Sabbath? Then, even on election day, you can find rest for
your soul.
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God understands how our physiology works, He made us. He knows about our fight or flight response, how our eyes dilate, and our stomach suddenly feels empty. He knows that the first thing we’re going to do when we get to school is head to the bathroom to remove the stain or fidget uncomfortably until we find out what the teacher wants or feel the weight of the vote we’re about to cast. He made us to be responsible; to take ownership of ourselves and care for those around us and to do important work in the world. We have been made to “fill the earth and subdue it.” But because of sin we cannot do this work perfectly and the places where we fail or are limited produce anxiety.
In other words, before sin, we had a job to do. But then sin came into the world, and now that desire to work is twisted, just like everything else. God knows this too, so He commanded us to, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11)
God knew in our sin we would try to take on too much and bury ourselves in burdens we were not designed to carry so He commanded us to rest. But it was not just a command, it was also a gift. How are you doing, with the sabbath? Do you feel free to take a day to rest amid everything that needs to happen? Are you able to let go of the anxieties, big and small, that attempt to overrun your inner thoughts?
As we heard last week, “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
God desires that you would come to Him to find rest for your weary soul and let go of all the things you cannot control, that you might find peace in His presence now. If you want to thrive, you’ll need to yield to both God’s command and His gift of the Sabbath? Then, even on election day, you can find rest for
your soul.
Westminster Christian School, located in Palmetto Bay, Florida, is a private, college-preparatory school for children from preschool through twelfth grade.