Devotionals for September 13, 2024
"The Worth of Work" sermon series continues this Sunday at 9:00 & 10:45am. Make plans to join us!
READ
Genesis 2:1-3
"So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.”
"So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.”
REFLECT
Some runners training for a marathon have adopted a strategy whereby they run until they pass out from exhaustion, then when their bodies awaken they get up and run some more. Christianity is not that way.
John Bunyan wrote this: “Run, John, run - the law commands, but gives me neither feet nor hands. Far better news the Gospel brings - it bids me fly! and gives me wings.”
As Christians, we are called to embrace rhythms of work and rest, to run with perseverance and to rejoice in stillness. God established this pattern in creation. He inverted it in the gospel - declaring that we are to first rest in the perfect and finished work of Christ, then to run in faithful obedience. And He calls us into his rest today, knowing that His grace is sufficient and His power is made perfect in weakness.
John Bunyan wrote this: “Run, John, run - the law commands, but gives me neither feet nor hands. Far better news the Gospel brings - it bids me fly! and gives me wings.”
As Christians, we are called to embrace rhythms of work and rest, to run with perseverance and to rejoice in stillness. God established this pattern in creation. He inverted it in the gospel - declaring that we are to first rest in the perfect and finished work of Christ, then to run in faithful obedience. And He calls us into his rest today, knowing that His grace is sufficient and His power is made perfect in weakness.
APPLY
Q: What kind of image do you have in your head when you think of God “resting”?
Q: How do you incorporate rhythms of work and rest into your life’s routines?
Q: Are you watching someone close to you work to the point of exhaustion? If so, consider reaching out to them with this passage and encouraging them to try a pattern of work and rest, even just for a week, to see how it might impact them.
Q: How do you incorporate rhythms of work and rest into your life’s routines?
Q: Are you watching someone close to you work to the point of exhaustion? If so, consider reaching out to them with this passage and encouraging them to try a pattern of work and rest, even just for a week, to see how it might impact them.
SING
PRAY
"And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one."
Lord, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses that have gone before us, resting now from their labors. Give us the grace to one day join them as we by faith before the world confess your name. Jesus, be forever blest!
Lord, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses that have gone before us, resting now from their labors. Give us the grace to one day join them as we by faith before the world confess your name. Jesus, be forever blest!