Ringtail Cats and Rocking Chairs - Pt 4

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:12-14 ESV).

The last principle to implement is the true nature of freedom. We can take an illustration from the story of wild horses in Texas. If you look at some old maps of Texas, large sections of those maps are labeled “wild horse desert” or just “wild horses.” This land was once home to an estimated 1 million wild horses. They were known as Mustangs. Tragically these horses that numbered so large are all but extinct in the wild. The only place to see large numbers of wild horses are on government storage pastures. In fact, we spend millions of dollars each year in an attempt to protect them from those that would round them up and domesticate them, or worse, merely turn them into food for our dogs. They have had their freedom taken away in the name of protection. That might be what you think I am attempting to do in our little series about a day of rest. It does, at first glance,” seem to just be another rule we need to follow. Of course, it is for our own good, but it sounds like another “law”. Actually the opposite is true. Taking a weekly day of rest declares our freedom. Freeing one day a week from the tyranny of the urgent and the never-finished to-do list reminds us and those around us that we are no longer slaves. The original recipients of the command to rest one day in seven were reminded that the Lord rescued them from slavery in Egypt (cf. Deuteronomy 5:15). But for Israel — and for us — redemption from physical bondage was merely a picture of the greater freedom from sin and death (vv. 15-23). We see more clearly than did Israel that we “were called to freedom” (cf. Galatians 5:13), and therefore our cause for remembrance and celebration is greater. We take a day of rest not by obligation, but out of a greater desire to pause, to remember, to look forward, and to worship. Declaring that we freely choose to celebrate freedom is a message sorely needed by those who are enslaved to the obligations of busyness and who feel like they cannot escape the tyranny of burnout. That is the real message of the church, not the endless tasks or jobs we need to fulfill in the name of the church. God is not limited to our level of participation in the work of the gospel. God’s grace is no dependent on our ministry. We must recapture the freedom found in the difference between “I gotta…” and “I get to…” do what needs to be done. Recapture your freedom in Christ. Take a day every week to be with Him!