When It's Time to Get to Work

A couple of days ago, I wrote about how God's Sabbath instruction had freed me to really relax on Sunday afternoon instead of worry about all the things on my todo list (read it here). Last Monday I experienced the other side of that coin.

I work from home. I wasn't feeling very good. I had the house all to myself. Nobody but me knew how I would spend the day. There's nothing wrong with taking a day off if you need one, of course, but I was really just feeling low energy and unmotivated. Then I remembered Exodus 34:21, which had given me the freedom to relax on Sunday: “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest."

There it was: "six days you shall work." It didn't say "six days you shall feel motivated," or "six days you shall find yourself deeply invested in work you are finding invigorating." It just said, "six days you shall work."

That was just enough to get me going. I started plugging along. The day was never easy, but I did my work. I felt more like a plow horse than an artist most of the day, but I did my work. Even though it was tough in the middle of the day, when I looked back at the end of the day, I had to admit it was a pretty productive day after all and I did some pretty good work, to boot!

This, again, reminds me of Jesus' own example of the power of the scriptures in our lives. When tempted by Satan, Jesus didn't go all zap-bam-miracle-man on Satan. That would not have provided an example we can follow. He brought the scriptures to bear on the situation. The scriptures brought the power to overcome and move forward.

Have you ever intentionally and in faith brought the scriptures to bear on a situation? It really can make a difference. Not like pixy dust that suddenly makes everything all sparkly and magical. But it does bring the power of God into the situation. Try it. It works.