Seeds of Promise Series by Shenica Graham

Maximizing Ministry Part X.IV – The Fourth Commandment

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INTRODUCTION

God rested after creating all things. He later commanded that a day of rest be incorporated into our lives. God knows the limitations of the human vessel which He made by His own hands (Genesis 1:27).

Consider that there are 24 hours in a day. In a seven-day week, there are (24 x7) 168 hours. We know that God has consecrated the tenth of all things as His offering. Can you think of one day as the tenth of your weekly time? In terms of hours, ten percent of a week is (16.8) approximately 16 hours. Think about it, if you gave God 16 hours of the Sabbath day, you could still get a full 8 hours of sleep. He didn’t even make a tenth of a week be a whole day!

What if you gave God at least a tenth of each day in addition to the Sabbath. If you consecrated 2.4 (24 / 10) hours a day on each of six days a week, and 16.8 hours on the Sabbath day, you would be spending at least ((2.4 x 6 = 14.4) + 16.8) 31.2 hours in devotion to God each week. What a way to stir up the gift! (II Timothy 1:6).

The Fourth Commandment

Scripture Basis – Exodus 20:8-11 “8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:  10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:  11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Does serving God seem like a full-time job? Jesus said that to be worthy of Him, we must love Him more than anything else (Matthew 10:37). What if you meditated on the Lord day and night? If we could let go and not be time bound, exacting minutes and carving out 2.4 hours on the dot (for example), we would only increase our blessing. God want to us take time for Him so that we can reflect on Him and His word. If we do so, we are less likely to sin against Him (Psalm 119:11), and will also gather unto ourselves prosperity and success (Joshua 1:8). 

Remembering The Sabbath Day

Take a Break. Heart disease is one the leading causes of death in the world today. When you fail to recharge your natural battery, stress on the heart is inevitable. Be thankful that God ordained a day of rest. Constant work wears on the physical body as well as the spirit. Sleep deprivation can lead to mental health issues.

Celebrate. The Sabbath day is set apart for the celebration of God who created this and every day. How you celebrate may be different from how someone else celebrates. The important thing to remember is what you are celebrating. You are rejoicing in every blessing from God. You are thanking Him for life and everything in it. It may be that God is less concerned with what day of the week you celebrate in and more concerned with your heart condition – natural and spiritual, as often as you do (I Corinthians 11:26).

Forget The Stopwatch. God is a rewarded of those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). However much time “diligence” takes for you personally, you do not gain much from exacting your time to God. Imagine what would happen if we stopped looking at the clock and just praised God in our everyday lives. There is no need to belabor giving God precisely 16.8 hours on a certain day of the week, as if He deserved no more. Your relationship with God is not an employment contract. God is not your job boss – He is your life creator. We should be willing to impart to Him a relationship, not just a timesheet.

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