Amy Boucher Pye

Category: Sabbath and rest devotionals

  • Weekly Devotional: Right Paths (4 in Sabbath and Rest series)

    A lovely local path for me is next to a brook. An oasis of peace in a suburban area.

    He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Psalm 23 (NIV)

    Have you noticed that sometimes we put a huge amount of effort and energy into a project, but it never moves past the planning stage? While other times something just barrels into existence, without much of our insight or care? A Christian writer friend noted this principle as she reviewed the past year. Seven projects that she had cultivated had all fallen flat, but three were birthed without much advocacy from her.

    I thought about this Christian writer as I read through Psalm 23 recently, for I realized that God’s guiding us along the right paths can mean that we spin fewer plates. If we trust him and his word, including his admonition to take a Sabbath rest, we trust that he’ll lead us the right way for the other six days, whether through our paid employment, volunteer work, caring for children or grandchildren or loving our neighbors.

    Another Christian writer friend faces a change in her working circumstances as one of her regular sources of income comes to an end. Can she trust the Lord to lead her by the quiet waters as she considers the way forward, knowing that the true refreshment to her soul lies only in him? And that he will be faithful and will lead her to the right projects for his glory and praise – and her well-being?

    We all face the challenge of which words we’ll believe – the quiet whisper of the Good Shepherd as he beckons us to follow him, or the fear that can bubble up in our soul, or the skeptical views that colleagues or family members might cast our way when we announce our purposes and plans. May we hear and heed the still, small voice today.

    Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, I want to believe that you will lead and guide me, but sometimes I struggle. Give me faith and help me to believe. Amen.

  • Weekly Devotional: Rule Number Four (3 in Sabbath and Rest series)

    Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. Exodus 20:8–11 (NIV)

    God gave Moses the law as his best plan for his people – not only to bring himself glory, but for the good of his children. That is, he designed his commandments for our benefit. After the first three commands to honor the Lord God above all else, he moves to the fourth – to keep the Sabbath holy.

    The Lord here writes in stone the principle that he has embodied from right back at creation – that six days are for work (work being good and coming before the fall of humanity), and the seventh day for rest. He rested, and he wants his people to follow his lead. He wants them to remember his deeds and set apart the day as holy.

    The fourth commandment sheds more light on the Sabbath principle, designating that all observe it – daughters and sons, servants and free, citizens and foreigners. To take the day off requires preparation, just as the people in the desert had to gather extra manna on the day before. The Lord wants his people to learn how to plan ahead, so that later they can reap the rewards.

    In the West, we’ve largely lost the culture of keeping Sunday special. Shops are open, enticing us to browse and buy, and children’s activities encroach more and more, meaning that parents have to decide between, say, their child going to a birthday party or attending church. To observe the day – to fill it with soul-feeding activities – requires us to stand against the cultural winds. We might need to find a creative approach to celebrating Sabbath, including taking off a day other than Sunday (which is especially true for those who work on a Sunday, such as ministers or health-care professionals).

    How can you plan for this week’s Sabbath?

    Prayer: Lord God, help me to understand how you designed this command from so many years ago for my flourishing. Amen.

  • Weekly Devotional: Bread from Heaven (2 in Sabbath and Rest series)

    Manna reigning from heaven on the Israelites, circa 1250, Maciejowski Bible

    “Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days.” Exodus 16:1–30 (NIV)

    The Lord God rescued his people from slavery in Egypt with dramatic measures as he sent down the plagues on the hard-hearted Pharaoh and he parted the Red Sea for the Israelites to escape the Egyptian army. But the people of God had a short memory, for as they wandered in the desert, fueled by hunger, they began to despair, saying, “Oh, if only we had stayed in Egypt.”

    The Lord, not tiring of their complaints, devises a solution – he sends quails and sweet-tasting bread from heaven to feed them. Their only work is to gather the riches set before them, enough daily bread for the day. And for the celebration of the Sabbath, the Lord instructs them to gather on the sixth day enough for two days.

    We see in the Lord’s provision and instruction his love for his people. Not only is he establishing a seven-day week (some biblical commentators believe the Egyptians held to a ten-day week), but he provides a day of rest for all classes of society – including the servants and slaves. He knows their limitations and provide them with a way of living that will help them to thrive. But do they listen? No – some gather too much during the week, and the bread turns moldy. Others go out on the seventh day, looking for food but not finding any.

    How are we like the Israelites? Do we understand how God gives us not only bread to eat but meat to feast on? Do we stop and rest, acknowledging that he is God and we are not? May today we ask Jesus, the living bread, to fill us with his sustenance and help us order our lives according to God’s wisdom and plans.

    For reflection: Read through the story again, this time imagining you are a slave girl in the story. How does the shift in perspective shed light on the narrative?

     

  • Weekly Devotional: God Rested (1 in Sabbath and Rest series)

    Time for a new devotional series! I unintentionally took most of the Easter season off from posting – I think with my work on my MA studies along with the usual deadlines and lovely family life, I’ve been exerting more than I realized. I have about three more months of intensive work on the MA, and then – Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise – I’ll be done.

    It seems fitting on many levels, not least for my own personal season, to explore the theme of Sabbath and rest. It can be a forgotten or overlooked command, but God wants us to switch off for our own good. Join me for this week’s introduction and first engagement with Scripture.

    “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30). So says Jesus, our friend and our example, the One who not only redeems us but gives us life.

    After the fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden, sin and disease came into our world. Now we find it hard to rest, forever tempted by the distractions of our devices, the pain of unfulfilled hopes and dreams, the physical ailments that plague us. We wake too early in the morning, longing for sweet sleep, or find we can’t switch off our minds at night. We need the rest Jesus promises.

    Part of achieving this rest flows out of our own planning and preparation as we approach the Sabbath. During this series over the next months, we’ll see how God created the Sabbath as a gift to us, as a means of giving us a rhythm of work and rest, for he knows we are his fragile human creation. As we set aside as holy one day for worship of the Lord and the enjoyment of his gifts and people, we begin to realize just how we need this time to renew and recharge. We are not machines that can keep on running; we need to stop and acknowledge our smallness in comparison with his greatness. He is God and we are not.

    And as with Jesus’ words above, as we accept God’s command to rest, we see that it’s a gentle yoke and a light burden. The benefits are great as we learn to feast and switch off and enjoy true recreation – that is, the renewal of our souls and minds and bodies. We see rest as a life-giving gift.

    I pray your love of the Sabbath will increase ever more as we engage together in a journey through God’s word, seeing how he created us and formed us, and how much he loves and adores us. May this pattern of living be one that gives you life.

    Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. Genesis 1—2:1–3 (NIV)

    Many of us associate the word Sabbath with a killjoy list of restrictions: no shopping, no work, no, no, no. But what if we saw the Sabbath as a thing of joy as we imitate our Creator and find rest for our bodies, minds and souls?

    Reading the creation account may sound all-too-familiar, but as you do so today, think about the story from God’s point of view – well, as much as you can, being his created one. God, in the beginning, forms the heavens and the earth. Then the light and dark; the skies and the earth and waters and dry land; the plants and vegetation; the sun and the moon and the stars, the living creatures, the livestock. And he sees that it is good. Then he makes humanity in his image, giving them authority over the earth and animals, and he sees that it is very good.

    As this story reveals, being the Creator is part of God’s nature; it flows in and out of him. And we are the pinnacle of his creation, formed in his image, called to create and collaborate with him. We are to rule over all the creatures, whether in the air, sea or land, and to cultivate the vegetation for food.

    Made in God’s image, bearing his mandate, we are also called to rest as he rested. Had Adam and Eve not disobeyed the Lord in the Garden of Eden, I’m guessing our ability and desire to rest would come naturally. But with the consequences of the fall of humanity, we live in an imperfect world. And now we can struggle to switch off and find true Sabbath rest. May we, with the help of the Holy Spirit, find a spacious place to rest today.

    Prayer: Creator God, you have made me in your image. Help me to reclaim the ability to find your peace and release as I rest in your love. Amen.