Sabbath: A Peace You Can Feel

by Kelly Vonner

My life revolves around God’s holy Sabbath day. Sunday through Friday are filled with the overall busyness of life. With a full week of deadlines, appointments, laundry, dishes, demanding children, and many to-do lists, Friday at sundown is the greatest anticipation of the week. The Sabbath is a yoke that I gladly accept from my Lord and Savior. It is the “burden” of righteousness and truth, a “burden” I could never refuse. The Sabbath brings a peace I can feel. A peace not designed by man, but ordained by God. A peace filled with completeness, wholeness, health, safety, fullness, rest, and harmony. It is a peace absent of agitation or chaos. It is a peace perfected by the Creator; it is a peace that surpasses all understanding.

This peace that surpasses all understanding comes from the author of peace (1 Corinthians 14:33). This peace is personified more and more as we obey the Word of God. “Great peace have they which love thy law” (Psalm 119:165). This peace is accompanied by mercy, truth, and righteousness (Psalm 85:10), and this peace is promised to the faithful servants of God. “I will listen to what God the Lord says; he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants—but let them not turn to folly” (Psalm 85:8). The Sabbath, the peace we can feel, has been blessed, sanctified, and made holy (Genesis 2:2) by the Sovereign Lord. He is powerful in all He does and stands matchless as Lord of all.

“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 11:29-30). The Lord has promised rest for our souls, but for many of us, that promise is not enough. “This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it’” (Jeremiah 6:16). The God of salvation offers us rest, but we would rather be bound by the yoke of sin and death. David, a man after God’s own heart, understands the rest that God wants to lavish on us. “Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him” (Psalm 62:1).

It is my prayer that we desire the rest for our souls, the ancient path and the good way. I pray we desire to hear the words of the Lord saying “Well done”. I pray we desire the Sabbath and the peace and life that it brings. I pray we desire the peace perfected by the Creator….I pray we desire our God.

…Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.

~2 Corinthians 13:11