Never believe what the enemy tells you. He is, after all,
the Father of Lies. If he tries to tell you any different, think twice before
you believe him. He has built his house, not on our belief in him, but on our
disbelief in anything else. He daily prods us to disbelieve the stories we hear
from the news, from our friends, our family, and even our God, until we start
doubting the very stories we tell ourselves. His best victims are the ones that
trust only him to tell the truth, but this can only happen after they have
renounced their belief in anything else.
Take Sabbath, for example. We are called to take a Sabbath,
a rest from our work. God knows that it is good for our souls, our minds, and
our bodies. So does the enemy. And so, our enemy first attacks by discrediting.
Just like in the garden, he asks, “Did God really say that?” And he starts out
slow. He begins by making us believe that God called us to other things more than Sabbath. He whispers that Sabbath
is selfish, and God has called us to be self-less. He suggests that the people
at work need us to help them. And then he suggests that work itself needs us. It
finally comes to this: we are so weighed down by our belief in our own responsibility
that, when we finally do rest as the Lord called us, we feel as if we are
letting Him down. We don’t recognize our Sabbath for what it is. Sabbath,
indeed, becomes a nice idea that never makes itself reality in our lives. And
by this time, the enemy has won dominion over our rest. After all, what does he
want but to steal the time God has given us, and use it for any other purpose?
If he can accomplish that, he is satisfied.
I have no step-by-step program to fix this. But pray to the
Lord of the Sabbath that he would gift you again with rest. Ask him who rested
after his work was finished to give you his yoke, the one he offers to us. He
has already promised that the yoke is easy, and the burden light. Ask him to
trade you, and when you realized you’ve taken your own burdens on once more,
ask him again. And keep doing it. Forgive yourself as often as he calls us to
forgive others, seventy times seven. And see if our father, who has given his
son for us, will not also graciously give us all things, including the Sabbath
we so desperately seek.
