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Space to Exhale

Rest.

That sounds so good, but it’s really difficult for a girl like me. Even when my physical body is at rest, my mind rarely is.

I feel like I’m always juggling balls in my brain. My family’s needs. Home demands. Work projects. The to-do lists never stop.

Yet the Bible makes it very clear that we are to honor the Sabbath day and pursue rest. Literally we are to hit the pause button on life once a week and guard our need to rest. Guard it fiercely. Guard it intentionally. Guard it even if our schedules beg us to do otherwise.

But why?

There are honest, personal reasons we need to observe the Sabbath that will be unique for each person. There are private conversations we need to have with God. We all need to pause, to sit with God, and ask Him to reveal some things to us.

We read in Isaiah 58:13–14, “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord.”

When I consider these words, something occurs to me—it’s not just a day for me to give to God. It’s a day God established for me. He wants to give me something if only I’ll slow down enough to receive it.

The Sabbath isn’t merely a time to be observed; it’s a time to be preserved. It’s a time to rediscover our joy in the Lord.

I need this. I want to be a preserver of this day—one who is determined to protect this day of personal preservation and rediscover the delight of God.

The observer remembers to rest.

The preserver rests to remember—to remember that it’s all about God.

The observer remembers to rest and pause on the Sabbath day in order to follow a rule.

The preserver does more than follow a rule. She follows God’s desire and embraces His purpose in the rest. She spends one day a week letting the fresh wind of God’s rest blow through her, cleaning out all she’s been taking in during the week with a purifying soul exhale.

It’s all about pausing and connecting with God without the distracting chaos of our everyday routines. For one day a week, we step out of the fray and let God direct our day according to His rhythm, not ours.

God’s rhythm preserves a space in us to hear His voice, reveals the places we’re off track, and prevents us from being filled with unnecessary clutter. Quiet rest allows us to see the places where we’re going our own way, the areas where we’re more self-pleasing than God-pleasing, the idle words that need to be reined in. During the downtime, we can deal with the mental clutter and focus on the ways of God.

The Sabbath makes this possible.

Taking one day for rest gives my soul the freedom it so desperately needs. Freedom to breathe. Space to breathe. Inhaling and exhaling in a gentle rhythm set by God.

Dear Lord, space to breathe—this is what I need today. Thank You for showing me how important it is to create a place for freedom and rest. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.