You can find the video here: https://www.facebook.com/RichlandNaz/videos/239061733912148/
Where do you usually turn when you’re overloaded? What do you do when you’re exhausted, depleted, or overloaded? Do you prop your feet up and veg out in front of the TV? Do you sleep more or try to catch up on sleep? Those things may rejuvenate you physically or even intellectually, but it won’t rejuvenate you spiritually.
The antidote for overload is not how to better manage your time or tasks. It’s not about how to do things in a more efficient manner so you can get more things done. That’s not the problem. The problem is that we need rest.
Remember we talked about sabbath and part of sabbath is about taking time off from the everyday activities and just resting. But resting is not just physical, it’s intellectual and spiritual. You see when we overload, the solution is not a what, it’s a who: Jesus. Jesus didn’t say, when you’re overloaded go to church or come to youth group. He says – come to Me. If you want rest and renewal, the peace you are seeking in a sabbath rest, in the person of Jesus Christ.
One of the primary practices of sabbath is Scripture reading. I get it, we should be reading Scripture on a daily basis, even if just 5 minutes a day. Just like we feed our physical bodies daily, we should be feeding our souls daily as well. I would assume that you don’t eat food once a week and that your one meal is prepared fully by someone else. I think that would be a poor assumption.
Part of being a Christian is a responsibility to nurture our relationship with God. Let me explain it to you like this. Our spiritual lives are like the all you can eat buffet. In the past I’ve loved eating at the all you can eat buffet. And if you think about it, in the all you can eat buffet, there is a lot of food sitting around already prepared for you. And that is just like your Bible that is sitting at home gathering dust – there’s a lot of food already prepared for you.
I know, I know, I know…the thing is simply this, the food is ready – but you have to get up, grab a plate and utensils, fill your plate with food all by yourself. When we take time every day to feed ourselves physically but not spiritually and then we wonder why we make the choices we make and we end up in circumstances that we’ve led ourselves into. Sometimes I simply want to say “REALLY?!?!” You didn’t see that one coming?
So – the art of reading Scripture, especially on the sabbath is something we can all do. And it’s something that is crucial to our spiritual formation and development.
2 Timothy 3:16 (NIV) But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
That last sentence is fairly important because it includes all of us – not just pastors or the Sunday School teachers, board members, deacons, or elders, it’s for every single Christian. Scripture is important and it needs to be part of our daily lives.
One of the wonderful unique characteristics of Scripture is that it can be new – and yet the same. Have you ever read a familiar passage and all of a sudden, something jumps out at you? You’ve read this Scripture before but it seems to be a new understanding, the Word speaks to you in a fresh powerful, life-changing way. That’s the beauty of having the Author – God’s Holy Spirit – living in our souls. He can share with us in a moment what He intended us to know about Him (God) what He has revealed to all of humanity, because He lives in us and through us.
That’s why when we go to the Bible to look for life’s answers to the tough questions; Who is God? Who am I? What is God’s plan for my life? We can know we will indeed find the answers. As we read and allow the Holy Spirit to disciple us through the Word, we come to new understandings of Who God is. We recognize that we are in tremendous need of God’s grace. Not just for salvation, but to live the holy life Jesus calls us to live. And that we are in need of His sanctifying grace, which results in our behaviors to more accurately reflect God the Father.
Reading Scripture is primarily about discovering Who God is and listening to God telling us who He wants us to become. Simply put it’s this – that we would lay our lives down and submit to Him completely.
I believe that we often go through life wishing we could hear God speak to us directly. I wonder if we realize that we actually do hear Him speak to our hearts and lives when we open the Bible and read it. Or that we hear Him speaking to us when we hear a sermon preached or when we are joining in a discussion of a Bible study. We need to more fully realize we are hearing God right then and there through His Word, and that He is speaking the language of our souls.