To be Holy.

Gan (garden) in Israel, 2009.

After creating the world, God rested.

He also deliberatly commanded us to rest every seventh day, in order to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

Holiness. Rest. Remember.

All very important ideas in the Bible.

God requires of us to take a day, once a week, to set apart and seperate, allowing us rest. But not rest like our culture defines it. These days, rest means fun. Rest means being entertained. Rest means ease.

But I think the rest that God is referring to is the kind of rest that leads to holiness.

Rest that looks back.

A time cut out to gratefully remember what the Lord has done, a time for study and being quiet and listening.

Resting the mind so that God can speak into it.

Because a sabbath is not meant to entertain, it is meant to sanctify.

To focus our minds aright and refresh them, repositioning our hearts and our thoughts back to our creator.

For He alone can give us true rest.

And holiness comes from no other place than His presence and His voice.

God created rest to center us, to bring us back to Him each week, and to set us back on the path of righteousness, again and again.

So stop sometime this week, allow yourself to rest, remember what God has done, and listen. Be still and know that He is near.

And do it because He told us to. Do it because He knows what's best for us.

Do it because it brings Him joy.

Our God. Our creator.

Longs to give us rest.

Let's walk with Him for a while.