Every year, families work and toil away, saving up for a short period of time where they can rest.
A day, weekend, week, or longer is set aside out of people’s work schedules so that they can get away.
They get away from the pressures of life, the monotony of it’s cycle, and often most importantly, work.
Logically, this is one of the many rhythms of life.
There is a time to work and a time to play.
Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 3:13 that man should be able to “cash in” per say for all their labor.
He writes,
“And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.”
While defending his apostleship, Paul also defends this rhythm and cycle of life as an Apostle.
He asks the following.
“Have we not power to eat and to drink?
Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?
Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?
Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?
Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also?” (1 Corinthians 9:4-8).
Paul goes on to say he does not glory in those things; rather, he lives to reap spiritual reward through the finished Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Nevertheless, logically, he has the power and freedom to take such a rest and indulgence if it were to be. Knowing that no man can judge (Colossians 2:16-17).
God has ordained rest following work all throughout the Bible.
In churches around the world, the same is true.
Men and women toil and strive for the week with the hope of a coming 24-hour period coined Sabbath.
Saying this, let me ask a question of you, the reader.
What if I told you that you could take a rest everyday?
What if I told you that as the Body of Christ, you can have peace everyday and in every way.
The Apostle Paul suggests that this is not such a far fetched idea.
He informs us that God now gives rest and peace regardless of our circumstances.
Our faith is not based on Earthly works to appease God. The only work that means anything in an eternal light is the work that Christ finished (Romans 4:5; Titus 3:5).
And since our work is not of an Earthly matter, neither should our rest be.
This is where we keep the Gospel at the center of our life and like Paul, find our rest in it.
When sealed within the Body of Christ (The Church), the “Lord of peace himself [will] give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all” (2 Thessalonians 3:14-16).
God gives us this constant vacation through His Son Jesus Christ.
Christ did not just come to “save us from Hell” or any other of the true cliches we hear constantly.
He also came to bring forth all the good and righteous things that God desires for man.
Peace included.
Because of Christ we do not have to be anxious about anything and we can go directly to God with our concerns and exchange them for peace beyond anything the human mind can fathom.
This unfathomable peace thus keeps our hearts secure (Philippians 4:6-7).
Life can be lived with peace.
It can be lived beautifully vacationing with Jesus daily. We do not have to wait for the end of the week. God’s power is not bound by time (Psalm 90:4).
Lastly, life is renewed daily in Christ Jesus. His Spirit keeps and preserves us.
In 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 we are assured of this.
“For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
We can live renewed day by day, minute by minute.
A lifelong vacation, free of charge, offered by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Jesus Christ.
God bless!