"For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men..." Titus 2:11
"He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water."
The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree,
He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Those who are planted in the house of the Lord
Shall flourish in the courts of our God.Psalm 92:12-13
“He shall flourish…He shall grow…He shall flourish in the courts of our God,” says the psalmist. “Shall” is a word that looks ahead. With great anticipation, “shall” declares that the future looks bright.
I have a friend who returned on furlough from a difficult assignment. After three years of intense struggle to establish a beachhead of righteousness in a pagan city, his spiritual vitality was drained. He and his family, though still in love with the country and the people that God has asked them to serve, did not have any “shall” left in them. They were worn out, beyond hope, despairing of life and desperately in need of Sabbath.
An amazing thing takes place when we Sabbath. Hope is restored. We begin to look ahead instead of behind. Our perspective begins to be God’s again instead of all the mistakes and failures of the past.
My friend is having his hope restored. With enough rest, he will begin to look forward to the work that awaits him in his adopted country. As he spends time with the Lord of the Sabbath, his heart will again look forward to the “shall” of God’s plans.
But it takes wisdom to know when to stop, doesn’t it? And once you have stopped, it takes faith to be quiet and rest. That is why God told us to Sabbath on a weekly basis. Because we all need our hope restored.
Sabbath, you see, puts the “shall” back in our hearts.
