Sabbath

"Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest."
-God to Moses to the Israelites, Exodus 34:21

We don't really like to rest. Here in modern-day America, the land of the 60-hour workweek and the million hobbies, we've lost sight of sabbath. We're a pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps culture, and you don't get ahead by taking a day off, especially not on a regular basis! But it's repeated over and over throughout Scriptures, and I see very few reasons to argue with this one.

You need rest. It's a fact of life. Your relationships need you to rest from the daily grind. Your walk with the Lord needs you to slow down from time to time. Your work will improve if you set it aside and come back later. And, I guarantee you, whatever is so urgent that it demands all of your time will most likely burn away as chaff in the scheme of eternity. Money, hobbies, the pursuit of anything other than the Lord-- they are all good things, but only when they are in their place. Even in the busiest season, it will be worth your time to give some of your time back to the Lord.

This commandment is probably the least touchy of all of them: "Take a day off." Who gets upset when they hear that? And yet, somehow, we lose this one. Are not all of the Lord's commands for our own benefit as well as for His glory? Are they not all worth following?