Holidays...

I’ve always believed that God commanded us to rest because he knew that our commitment to him and our love for the lost would drive us to work for him until we drop. I think that an annual holiday falls into the category of legitimate rest.

Of course people like Booth and Railton (who never took holidays) were constantly breaking down. Railton, in particular, was confined to bed as a result of nervous and physical exhaustion on more than one occasion (sometimes for months on end!).

Holidays are good for several reasons; the following are just a few of those reasons.

Like Christ’s frequent sojourns in the desert - holidays provide us with quality time when we can be alone with God – while the children build a sandcastle – we can close our eyes and meditate on God (with no interruption from a phone call or an email).

Holidays afford us time to read – we can chew over some solid stuff whilst sitting in a deckchair (I remember one year on holiday I got through Finney’s systematic theology).

From my experience our demons don’t follow us on holiday but are geographically bound – I have no biblical evidence for this it is an assumption made purely from experience. I’m still involved in spiritual warfare on holiday but the battles are invariably different.

So for the next two weeks I’m legitimately holidaying in Seasalter (just along the south coast from Whitstable). I’m reading Finney’s ‘Lectures to professing Christians’ and (hopefully) the same author’s ‘Revival Lectures’. I’m also expecting a positive time of close communion with God.

My good friend Carol Young told me once that during a time of prayer the number 8 came to her in relation to me – our last day on holiday will be 08-08-08 (rightly or wrongly) I’m expecting great things from this holiday J

Love and prayers

A