Words of Wisdom from The Daily Office - Part 10 (final)

A twitter feed I follow posted a link yesterday to a blog with the following quote from a book entitled The Church that Never Sleeps:

Sometimes God will allow tough times to come at you immediately when you're following a dream because He wants to find out up front if you can withstand them.

That makes sense only if you don’t think about it.  If God is omniscient (all-knowing), then what in the world does He need to find out?  He already knows!  Unbound by time, He already knows the outcome of every big endeavor every believer who will ever walk the face of the earth will undertake … and whether they can withstand the tough times.  It’s a nice thought, but it unintentionally denies God one of His key attributes.

There may be some who are wondering how long I will continue just parroting the words of others rather than coming up with something original to share in my Musings.  I sometimes wonder that myself.  (The above thought was original, by the way.)  Solomon was right, though, when he wrote in Ecclesiastes that there is nothing new under the sun.  To think that a profound thought that comes to me has never come to anyone else is a bit arrogant.  But that doesn’t keep me from trying to think deeply.  Reading the deep thoughts of others helps.

Today’s entry will be the last that I will share from Peter Scazzero’s devotional book The Daily Office.  This one was written by Lynn Baab in her book Sabbath Keeping:  Finding Freedom in the Rhythms of Rest:

The Sabbath teaches us grace because it connects us experientially to the basic truth that nothing we do will earn God’s love.  As long as we are working hard, using our gifts to serve others, experiencing joy in our work along with the toil, we are always in danger of believing that our actions trigger God’s love for us.  Only in stopping, really stopping, do we teach our hearts and souls that we are loved apart from what we do.

During a day of rest, we have the chance to take a deep breath and look at our lives.  God is at work every minute of our days, yet we seldom notice.  Noticing requires intentional stopping and the Sabbath provides that opportunity.  On the Sabbath we can take a moment to see the beauty of a maple leaf, created with great care by our loving Creator …

Without time to stop, we cannot notice God’s hand in our lives, practice thankfulness, step outside our culture’s values or explore our deepest longings.  Without time to rest, we will seriously undermine our ability to experience God’s unconditional love and acceptance.  The Sabbath is a gift whose blessings cannot be found anywhere else.

That’s enough to think about for now.  The peace of Christ to you.