[2020 Vision] The Home: Sabbath Sample

Margin for Rest

Rest requires removal. To truly rest, you must have margin. To have margin, you must remove something from your packed schedule. 

What needs to go in your life? What is on your “Stop doing” list for the next decade? What do you need to outsource, delegate, or just quit doing? What needs to go in your life so that you can have time for Sabbath? 

In the past couple of weeks, I did a small thing that made a big difference. I took some apps off my phone: two news apps and one social media app. Why? I found that I was habitually checking the news. What did this do for my soul? It was constant trauma intake, trauma intake, trauma intake. That's what I was doing, continually hearing about things going wrong or blowing up. 

Here is what has happened in our lives, according to a book called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: "When you bought your phone, you thought you bought a product. But here's what happened, they bought you.” They bought us. A phone is a marketing tool now, a worldview-shaping tool, a fearful thing. 

But I just set the phone down. I said, “You know what? I don't have to check the news all the time. I can know what's going on twice a day, or even once a day, and I'll be fine.” You don’t need to stick your head in the sand, like an ostrich, but you do need to realize what's frazzling you. What app are you depending on? How quickly do you turn to a screen in some way? When you get bored, do you ever just say no? 

We have alternatives. Instead of TV, I can read a book, open up my Bible, or pray to the Lord. I can spend five or ten minutes to ask the Lord to do a great thing. Usually, though, we’re so tired, we don’t have the energy to do that. Instead, we pick up the remote, sit back, and click. We turn on the TV and we just sit. I’ve never left a time of prayer and been sorry I spent that time with God, but I’ve often been sorry I spent time on TV. 

Remove something in your life and allow the Lord to give you rest as a route for knowing God. Rest requires removal. It will bless your family. It will bless your life. It will fill your heart. 

For more information regarding this devotional please follow this link, https://houstonsfirst.org/message/the-home-sabbath