Pushing Pause (not pushing past it)

Over the last few weeks I've been listening to a teaching series on Sabbath Rest.  It's really interesting to me how many of us find it hard to rest, I mean really rest!  

One thing that struck me from this series was a phrase from one of the sessions on 'not pushing past the pause' - referring to resting before you break!  It made me ponder the question, how often do we push past the pause instead of pushing pause! 

While the Sabbath was made for us not the other way round (meaning it's not supposed to be a legalistic regiment), the point of the Sabbath was always that we rest and connect with God.   

Think about the context of this idea: The people of Israel had just been freed from a life of slavery; 7 days a week hard labour, suffering and struggle.  Then God tells them, commands them actually, take a break on the 7th day and keep that day just for me! 

This was a cultural and mindset shift.  They had been persecuted for 400 years as slaves, and suddenly God is is instructing them to make time for him and do nothing else!   He tells them:

Exodus 20:10 (MEV)
...but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work...

SABBATH meaning intermission or break

WORK meaning business

So often in our lives we just keep going, we make excuses though no slave driver pushes us, and we just don't rest, let alone connect with our Creator.  

In a modern world, particularly for families with children, work commitments, shift patterns  and life as it is, I recognise that it's hard to find a whole day in which to rest, but each of us needs to make time where we do nothing but connect with God, whether that's a whole Sunday, a half hour early each morning, or time taken throughout our day where we down tools, put aside phones, and just fix our eyes and hearts on Jesus.  We were not made to continually slog away at life and work, but in this age of distraction, it's easy just push past the pause until we break ourselves, or find ourselves in a place we could have avoided if we had paused just a bit to listen to and be loved on by the Father. 

My challenge this week is, where do you need to push pause in your life instead of pushing past it!  May you find some sabbath rest where you connect with Jesus!