LD 38 - You Can Be Freed from Restlessness

Saint Augustine was right to call human hearts restless. That's a sad word. Restless people are constantly active and unable to settle or relax as a result of anxiety or boredom. Restless people roam; they traverse but do not arrive. They desire but do not achieve. They covet but do not obtain (James 4:2).

The fourth commandment can be a cure for our restlessness. It offers to focus our labors so that we use our energies profitably on the first day of the week and the remaining six. And it promises to worn-out, weary, aimless people genuine rest in this life and in the life to come. Truly the fourth commandment should delight us (Is. 58:13); it is the first law in the Decalogue that is put positively!

The fourth commandment is unique in that it teaches God's eternal will through a form—the Jewish Sabbath—that has been fulfilled in Christ. So "we are bound to the Sabbath … as it respects that which is general, but not…that which is particular" In general the fourth commandment teaches how to order our energies for God's glory. In the first three commandments we have learned who to worship, how to worship, and the language of worship. Now we learn the routine of worship. The fourth commandment does not give us a day off from diligence. It focuses our diligence. God's Sabbath command was meant to free his people from their ordinary labors to allow them to work at worship so that they might find their rest in God. How do we practice Sabbath diligence?