Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Then he said to them, ‘The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, January 16, 2024
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Rules—and rest—are a gift. God didn’t create human beings just to have an excuse to try to make their lives difficult by giving them a million little micro-managing expectations. We are created in freedom—expressions of the divine creative love of our God. We are created in God’s image—to be co-creators with God, to live in relationship with God and our fellow human beings, to have life and have it abundantly.
Rules, laws, guidelines, basic moral expectations are ways for us to experience flourishing with and among our neighbors. God does not call us to rest for the sake of enforcing some arbitrary show of control over our lives. God calls us to rest because rest is absolutely critical to our flourishing. When we don’t get adequate rest, our physical health suffers. Our mental health suffers. Our ability to have grace and love for our neighbors suffers. Conflict becomes inevitable and challenging to overcome. When we take action to conform our will to God’s will for us, we are, counterintuitively, more free than if we simply do whatever we want when we want. God’s will for us is that we live in harmony with all of creation: that we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbors (human and non-human) as ourselves. May we always remember that God’s rules are liberating.
When have I resisted God’s directive to rest? What was the result?
