“A Time to Pause and Rest” – Now Think On This by Steve Martin

 April 1, 2020  

April 1, 2020 Love For His People ministry in Charlotte, NC USA

“But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” Daniel 12:4, NKJV

Over the decades I have learned a few things. One of them is that when you see the world’s culture go one way, you can bet (that is just a saying, so don’t get excited here) the Lord’s way is usually found to be going in the opposite direction.

Consider the word from Daniel given above, where it is written, “many shall run to and fro…” Has it not been, until recently due to government shutdowns, a most common occurrence in most societies these days? Running around, as the old saying goes, “With your head cut off”?

Have you ever been around someone that was going so fast that if you didn’t step out of their way you would have been literally run over?

Growing up I still to this day recall my Grandma Martin yelling at me from our front porch, to stop, when I about 10, as I started mowing our Cedar Falls, Iowa yard on one particular Sunday afternoon. Today we wouldn’t even give it a second thought to not do housework, shop, or anything else the other busy six days we fill our time with didn’t allow to happen.

But she was right, and we are wrong when we labor on what has been lost as a day of rest, given to us to enjoy.

Consider why the Lord Himself, the Creator of the Universe, had recorded in the very beginning, when life on earth began as we know it, “Thus, the heavens and the earth were finished, along with everything in them. On the seventh day God was finished with his work which he had made, so he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. God blessed the seventh day and separated it as holy; because on that day God rested from all his work which he had created, so that it itself could produce.” Genesis 2:1-3, Complete Jewish Bible

If God Himself rested, and He knew it to be a good thing, should not we, as He did?

When we look at Scripture, the foundation of all that we should be standing on and building our life on, we find that there was given a time, each week, to rest from our work, to put down the tools of our trade – the hammers, the pens, the mobile phone, the shopping – and to just rest.

One of the main causes today of so much illness is simply because people have left the commands of the Lord, one of which is “for six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy day,  a sabbath of complete rest to the Lord;” Exodus 35:2, NASU

You say, in your highly enlightened mind, that this doesn’t apply anymore today, that the Lord’s commands are not for us, but only for Jews, religious people, or those who still live in the “dark ages” and are not as brilliant now as we are?

Have you considered that the current forced shutdown imposed by many local and national governments may actually be of the Lord’s doing, causing us to slow down, stop, and consider His ways in the way we have been living?

Do you know that when those given as our example, the Jews in the Bible, the same Bible Christians are to be basing their lives on, didn’t follow the instruction of the Lord, that He forced them to rest, to have a “Sabbath” or more properly said, a “Shabbat” time?

Is it not pride in ourselves that we keep on running around, thinking we are accomplishing all this good through the abundance of activity we have and do 24/7, when in fact in the Lord’s eyes it may amount to nothing?

Is not selfish ambition, demonstrated through our constant push to achieve more, listed among the other evil works of the flesh?

“Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,  idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19-21, NKJV

I believe the Lord has given many of us this “time out” to actually take the time to pause and rest; to consider what we have been doing all this time that has gone by already in our life. Has it been for us and our self-seeking purposes, or has it been for His plans and purposes to be fulfilled through the gifts and talents He has given to each of us, in order to do His thing, and not ours?

Are we working for Him, or have we been working for ourselves?

Take the time to reconsider what you have been doing, while you have been given this time. I believe it is He who has been the One giving it to you. Acknowledge Him in this fact.

So where have you been going? Is it time to re-consider, and seek Him to know? I think so.

Give it a rest. You will be happy, and healthier, when you do.

Now think on this.

Ahava and shalom,

Steve Martin, Founder/President  Love For His People, Inc.

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Now Think On This #496 – in the year of our Lord 04.01.2020 – “A Time to Pause and Rest” – Wednesday, 5:45 am in Charlotte, NC USA