Briefing the news on CNN, it was the title of Rachel Rodriguez’s article that caught my attention, “In tough economy, working seven days, becomes norm for some.”   Rodriguez interviews husband/father Rudy Fernandez about him working full time during the week and then a second, part-time job on the weekend. Fernandez “says he'll do whatever it takes to make sure his family is happy and healthy -- even if that means never taking a day off from work.”

You can’t help but appreciate his diligence in providing for his family but it’s easy to see where his reasoning will not accomplish his desired goals. I am fear that “happy and healthy” has never come from a seven-day workweek.

Last week, the worship team led us to see how “happy and healthy” is to place even the most essential of our needs back into the hands of God, and then even confess the areas of our lives that we have taken as objects of stress.

It was the words of a hymn I had forgotten, that this week God used to calm my heart:

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change, He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

(Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, #461)

God has always asked for the “right” to order and provide for our lives.  Really, that’s a part of the Sabbath, giving God the opportunity to provide for us spiritually, emotionally, and physically.  Don’t worry about providing for yourself, leave it to God.  He says so.