What the Breathe app taught me about God

I've always been a tech nerd. I love technology. Not sure where I got that from but I've been that way for as long as I remember. So you can imagine the excitement a few years ago when I received an Apple Watch for Christmas. I spent most of the day playing on it, customizing it, and learning how to get the most out of it.

There's an app on the watch called the Breathe app. It helps you focus on your breathing and breathe deeply for a minute at a time while measuring your heart rate. As I read up on it, I learned that studies show that when you stop and focus your breathing and breathe deeply it can relieve stress and improve your focus. This is not new science it's actually ancient practice. The principle of the pause to reflect and remember is as old as the Ten Commandments. The principles behind it are found in the command to "remember the Sabbath day."

As busy Christians its easy for us to get busy doing good things for God and miss the most important thing about God. We can be busy doing things for Him and completely forget all that He's done for us! This is why the Sabbath rest is so important for a Christian. This is what I learned from Exodus 30 & 31.

Highlight:

'The Lord said to Moses: “Tell the Israelites: You must observe my Sabbaths, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, so that you will know that I am the Lord who consecrates you. Observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Whoever profanes it must be put to death. If anyone does work on it, that person must be cut off from his people. Work may be done for six days, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord . Anyone who does work on the Sabbath day must be put to death. ' Exodus 31:12-15

Explain:

God had given Moses a whole lot of specific instructions in the cloud on the top of that mountain. He had laid out the dimensions and the fabrics and materials of the Tabernacle itself. He had given the dimensions of the furniture used in the tabernacle, the way it was to be constructed, how it was to be instructed, who was to construct it. He had given how the priests were to be arrayed, what they were to wear, how to make it, how to wear it, when to wear what, and why. He had given instructions on how to build the ark of the covenant, what to use and what to build, right down to how to make the anointing oil, when to use the anointing oil, on whom it was to be used, a prohibitive against making the anointing oil used for another purpose, and so much more.

Exodus 31:7-11 gives us an inventory of many of the things, "'the tent of meeting, the ark of the testimony, the mercy seat that is on top of it, and all the other furnishings of the tent — the table with its utensils, the pure gold lampstand with all its utensils, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, the basin with its stand — the specially woven garments, both the holy garments for the priest Aaron and the garments for his sons to serve as priests, the anointing oil, and the fragrant incense for the sanctuary. They must make them according to all that I have commanded you.” ' Exodus 31:7-11

At the beginning of Exodus 31, God tells Moses exactly who He has gifted with the ability to do it. He wants specific people doing specific things in accordance to a specific plan. In the midst of all the commands and the specificity of those commands, He drops an incredible word of warning and the timing could not be any clearer. After God gives all these initiatives, He then reinforces the concept of the importance of the Sabbath. It would have been natural for these guys to jump right to work in the midst of the commands of this incredibly powerful God who had been displaying daily miracles for the last 3 and half months. They would have been eager to start and yet God cautions them that His work must be done in His time.

Apply:

We can’t rush the work or we will forget the God who called us to it. Like the Israelites we have been given a task, the Great Commission of making disciples who make disciples. That mission is about evangelism and discipleship. It’s about getting people to follow Jesus and then modeling that intentionally in our own lives so they know how to do it.

Along that commission we must remember that God’s will must be done in God’s time. We cannot get so focused on God’s will that we forget God altogether. This is why the Sabbath is to be observed, we need times of intentional rest where we gather to remember the goodness and mercy and sacrifice of our God. We can get so busy doing things for God that we don’t stop and remember all that He’s done for us. Our rest honors God by stopping to remember all that He’s done and acknowledging that He is the One who is at work. He is the One who has given us the talents to accomplish His work just like the Israelites did.

This rest is a sign between God and us and the next generation so that we will know that God is the LORD (the One who redeems with mighty power). This was the name demonstrated to the people. He is the one who consecrates us. Consecrate means “to make holy and dedicate to a higher purpose.” God is the One who makes us holy and sets us apart for a higher purpose. The higher purpose of knowing Him and making Him known in the world through disciple-making. God is the One who chose us to do this.

Our response to Him making us holy (“setting us apart for this purpose”) is to make holy (“set apart for a purpose”) the Sabbath. The Sabbath rest reminds us of God’s faithfulness but it is also a response to God’s setting us apart. We rest because we have been chosen, because we have been set apart for a purpose. Then He says “whoever profanes must be put to death…cut off for His people.” When we refuse to stop and rest and remember we begin to own it rather than rejoice in the fact that we have been owned. We begin to take this as our own to be done in our own strength, and in so doing we deny the fact that this God has chosen us. It wasn’t our idea it was Gods!

We honor God when we build into the rhythm of our mission a rest to remember who it is that has made us holy. Rest is honoring to God because it reflects that He is the Initiaitor of our holiness, not us and our ability to accomplish it on our own. It’s no accident God gives them all these commands and instructions and then reminds them of the Sabbath. We have to build in seasons of rest and remembrance after seasons of labor and hard work. This is a non-negotiable and the church is responsible to observe this.

The next verse talks about how it is to be done generationally. The Sabbath is not just about your rest but about teaching your kids to remember these things as well.

Respond:

Jesus help me to acknowledge Your calling and setting us apart by building periods of rest into my life to remember. Help me to breathe. Help me to remember. Help me to celebrate.