A Word For The Weary: How Sabbath Changed Our Lives

Have you ever felt pressure to perform, produce, and push through exhaustion? In this soul-refreshing conversation, Ellen is joined by her daughter Taylor Krause (Coffee and Bible Time co-creator) to explore the transformative practice of Sabbath rest—a discipline that's increasingly counter-cultural yet desperately needed.

Taylor shares her own struggles with technology addiction and the sobering reality that the average person spends ten years of their life on screens. What might happen if we reclaimed even a fraction of that time for true rest?

Ellen and Taylor address the dangers of legalism, offer practical tips for different life seasons, and ultimately point to Jesus' invitation in Matthew 11: "Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Ready to experience the transformative power of true rest? Grab your coffee and listen in, then share this episode with someone who needs permission to pause in our productivity-obsessed world. Rest will require intentionality and discipline, but it's a beautiful way to build trust in God's sovereignty and to savor his presence in our lives.

Show notes:  Pastor David Giese (of Village Church of Gurnee) gives a sermon on the Sabbath: https://www.youtube.com/live/MRaB8VxxxYc?si=l6hmoRdFh0n7qjQR

Use code POD2025Q1-Q2 to get 3 months free when you download and register for the Glorify app!

If you are a Christian woman seeking to know God deeper, study Scriptures, pray with and for others, strengthen your faith, and support other in doing the same, this is the place for you! 

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Sabbath Practice
• 5:20 The Challenge of Rest in Western Culture
• 14:51 Jesus and the Pharisees: Legalism vs. True Rest
• 20:16 The Opportunity Cost of Screen Time
• 23:46 Creating Sabbath for Busy Seasons
• 28:41 Finding True Soul Rest in Christ

Transcript

Ellen: 0:04

At the Coffee and Bible Time podcast. our goal is to help you delight in God's Word and thrive in Christian living. Each week, we talk to subject matter experts who broaden your biblical understanding, encourage you in hard times and provide life-building tips to enhance your Christian walk. We are so glad you have joined us. Welcome back to the Coffee and Bible Time podcast. This is Ellen, your host, and today I am joined by one of my favorite people, Taylor Krause. For anyone who doesn't know, Taylor is one of the creators of Coffee and Bible Time, along with her sister, Ashley, and also happens to be my daughter.

Ellen: 0:52

We're here today to talk about the practice that has been so restorative to us, to our mental health and our spiritual walk with God, and that is the weekly rhythm of Sabbath. For any of our listeners who might not know what Sabbath is, it is the ancient Jewish and Christian practice of taking one day out of the week to stop working and rest. This is a spiritual discipline that is not a command for believers, but it is an invitation. In Genesis 1, we read that God spends six days creating the universe, but stops on the seventh to rest and enjoy his work, and in the Gospels we see Jesus doing this very thing. He regularly pauses from his ministry. He withdraws from the crowds, sometimes alone, sometimes with his closest disciples, but he is withdrawing to rest and pray. So if God himself took time to rest from his work and ministry, how much more do we need that rest ourselves? So T let's talk about this elusive sometimes elusive topic of rest. When did you first learn about this practice of Sabbath and what motivated you to start practicing it?

Taylor: 2:19

That's a really great question. I think that the word Sabbath was something that I heard time to time growing up. It wasn't really something that I felt the church really impressed upon me to observe. It wasn't really a topic of conversation a lot, and I think the topic of Sabbath can be pushed a little bit to the margins in our culture. I'm going to speak for the Western culture that we have here.

Taylor: 2:50

I think we do tend to idolize a little bit hard work. I'll say I grew up in a family my mom very hard worker, my dad very hard worker, so I grew up with these two examples of people who really honored hard work. And I would say in our family I think we tend to overvalue hard work and undervalue the need for rest. I feel like my personal struggle in life, ironically, even though I grew up in a household where a lot of people were extremely hardworking, so much so that I felt a little bit like a black sheep, because sometimes I can get stuck in a cycle of doom scrolling on social media and really being bad at time management. I'm just going to put that out there. That is not my strong suit. I'm not an organized gal and so I tend to felt maybe a little bit like a black sheep in the family. And I'd say, in Western culture you don't benefit from honoring the Sabbath, you don't benefit from prioritizing rest. I'd say in the corporate world they probably really want to see every person going above and beyond. They don't want to see people prioritizing mental health or taking time to really fill their cup up spiritually, which I think is the important distinction of honoring the Sabbath for Christians, which I think is the important distinction of honoring the Sabbath for Christians. And the first time that I heard about the Sabbath I mean learned in depth was in college, and that's because one of our introductory courses at Bible school was on Christian living and they talked a lot about spiritual disciplines and Sabbath was one of them. And I will say that the two big important takeaways that I took from that was, first, that Sabbath is not a command and that people don't necessarily have to take a Sabbath every week, but that a Sabbath is really beneficial and that God created it for us to be able to regenerate ourselves and connect with God.

Taylor: 5:04

A lot of people tend to take Sunday as their Sabbath right, where you know you go to church and then maybe after church, instead of shopping or going on your phone or I don't know doing X, y Z, you really take time to be in God's word, be in prayer, have fellowship with other people in church and have that intentional time of pouring into your relationship with God.

Taylor: 5:35

And I'm telling you that I've struggled as much as I am a resting type girl, I think I often neglect prioritizing spiritual rest, which is very, very different from what we think of resting. You know, sitting and watching Netflix and going on YouTube and scrolling on social media and going shopping those are filling ourselves up with things that aren't necessarily spiritually edifying. And I've taken from even this call for you, mom, to talk about resting in this podcast as a good reminder for myself to be more aware of the Sabbath. And, mom, I know that you just recently went to church service where they were really talking about the Sabbath. How was that to hear that kind of preach to the church and how do you think people really took it?

Ellen: 8:31

Well, I want to take a step back really quick before I answer that, because I wanted to talk about my own upbringing and you know, Sundays for us was a time where we did go to church, so we were having that spiritual element. I remember then we always went grocery shopping and then we would come home and I know my mom would rest the rest of the day. At that time in my life I didn't understand the Sabbath or what it really meant or what we were doing. I just was doing it. It actually wasn't until a couple of years ago that we really got talking about it at Coffee and Bible Time and I think it was Ashley that really challenged me to take a Sabbath and I've been really trying to do it consistently ever since then and it has changed my perspective on being able to plan in advance, being able to let go, trust God with what he can do with the six days of the week versus what I feel like I need to do in seven.

Ellen: 9:46

And when we had our service recently, pastor David which I am definitely going to link his sermon in the show notes you have to listen to it it just was really incredible because we're going through five formative practices headed into Easter, and this one on the Sabbath was so, I think, encouraging and something that people really need to hear, especially, like you said, Taylor, from our family's background of work, work, work, work, work.

Ellen: 10:17

I think that if we can let go of that, it's actually very freeing, and I'm talking about both spiritually and resting. So letting go of the things that I have to do for my work and instead using that time to go to church, spend time with the fellowship of the body of Christ and worshiping God in the church setting, and then taking the time for me, at least in the rest of the day, to do things that fill my cup. So that's, I think it's not necessarily, like you mentioned, is just like sitting on the couch, but it's kind of things that, like it might be gardening, like yes, that's like a manual labor, but it's something that I love, I'm interested in, it's a hobby, so I can truly feel like I'm being filled, I'm pushing away burnout and really using that time to regenerate.

Taylor: 11:18

Yeah, and just to piggyback a little bit off of that, it can be easy to think of, like resting on the Sabbath as very rigid. Well, we have to just be praying and we only go to church and we only pray and we only read our Bible and we can't, you know, make a nice meal because that's working and you know extremes. I like what you said, mom, about gardening, how that brings you life, and I actually had a conversation with a recent newer believer who had just given their life to Christ and they were asking me like, well, now that I'm a Christian, does that mean that I can't love all these other things that I used to love, like playing soccer and playing games and hanging out with my friends and you know all this stuff, right? Because they were like, well, if I'm really loving God, then that means that I can't love anything else. And what I would say? Like you said, mom, with the Sabbath, god gives us passions, god gives us hobbies, god gives us things in life that give us joy. They aren't our ultimate joy, but God gives us creativity, because he made us in his image, and gardening is a type of creative activity where you can bring life to the soil, and I think of people that like to create art. You love doing art on your Sabbath, mom. I know that it's a creative way to express your God-given talents. It's a way to reflect his image, and I believe that God can be honored in doing fun activities, if we're doing them to glorify him, if we do it with him in mind and we give thanks and praise. Thank you, God for letting me garden. Thank you, Lord, for giving me the ability to love art. Thank you, God for letting me play music, for being able to write songs, for doing all of these fun things that do give me rest.

Taylor: 13:22

I heard one woman say that she challenged herself on the Sabbath to not do these other you know, quote-unquote restful things like binge-watching Netflix or doom scrolling on social media and TikTok, or going shopping at Marshalls and TJ Maxx and buying everything to your heart's delight. I think that there are some fun things that we do that maybe aren't actually spiritually enriching. We can say that they're not evil, but is it really giving you a restful Sabbath is something that I would ask yourself. If you're listening to this right now and you're thinking okay, I really want to engage in a time of restful Sabbath, what does that look like for me?

Taylor: 14:05

Because I'm telling you, sometimes, when I want to do things for fun, I just want to go to Marshalls and TJ Maxx. I want to browse every single aisle, pick up every nook and cranny that I see there and get myself a good deal. But I would say that for me, a more restful Sabbath would be slowing down, enjoying what God has already given me, tapping into some of those creative abilities that he's given me in music, in art, photography, gardening, and being content and satisfied with what he's given me in music, in art, photography, gardening, and being content and satisfied with what he's given me.

Ellen: 14:40

One thing, Taylor, that you touched on that is really relevant, about making the Sabbath too legalistic is something that Jesus called out in Mark, chapter 2. And I'm going to read verses 23 to 28 so that we can just touch on this a minute. It says, "One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain And the Pharisees were saying to him, 'Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath? And he said to them 'Have you never read what David did when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar, the high priest, and ate the bread of the presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priest to eat.'"

Ellen: 15:35

This passage really struck home with me because it gets to the heart of when rules overtake the spirit of the law. And I think in this particular example, what we're looking at is you know, the Pharisees were calling out Jesus' disciples for harvesting, threshing and winnowing this grain from the field, like that was an act of work and that that was going against the law. But he pulls out this example from King David. When David and his men were desperate for food and nourishment and because their bodily needs transcended the quote-unquote rule of the temple, he was given that bread, and I think we have to just remind ourselves that we don't want to become like the Pharisees in being too much focused on that and then, at the same time, to forget about human needs and be conscientious of that as we deal with other people.

Ellen: 17:18

Do you have any thoughts on that?

Taylor: 17:19

Yeah, it reminds me just of a simple phrase that I feel like I heard a lot growing up and I still really adhere to today is that God looks at the heart, And that applies to every situation, every conversation you have, everything you do in public or in secret, whatever God is looking at your heart, and the same is true for the Sabbath, and so if you are doing something to honor and glorify God, god sees your heart. I think of that other passage in John, where it just so happened to be the Sabbath. I think that this was definitely intentional on Jesus' part.

Taylor: 17:57

He's walking past a blind man. He decides to acknowledge him and heal him. So he spits on the ground, he's rubbing the dirt together in his fingers and he makes mud, and he heals the blind man by putting the mud on his eyes and having the blind man wash the mud off. What do the Pharisees do? Oh, they are on Jesus so fast for healing the blind man on the Sabbath. How ironic is it that the Pharisees are really truly the blind ones in the story, right? The blind man is able to, in the end. Come and see Jesus for who he is, see Jesus's heart, see that he is God. The blind men I'm sorry, well, really, yes, blind men but the Pharisees are so concerned about their own self-righteousness, so concerned about keeping their own extra rules, that they couldn't reflect on their own heart, they couldn't see Jesus for who he truly was, and that veil was not taken from their eyes for them to see who Jesus was. And, of course, these stories are so relevant and important to us today because it shows us that you can be somebody who is very religious, who thinks you're doing all the right Christian-y things, and truly your heart is hard for what God wants for you in your life.

Taylor: 19:27

And I have found in myself that I can be a lot like the Pharisees in thinking, yeah, I'm a good Christian. People think I'm a really good Christian, but God sees through my heart and sees. You know, I have been spending a lot of time watching Netflix and I'm being on YouTube. I spend a lot more time on my phone than I spend really abiding in Christ, and that's been on my heart as of lately.

Taylor: 19:54

I heard a horrifying statistic that just about scared the pants off of me, and that was that nowadays, because of technology, our phones, social media, everything people will spend on the average, $1,000 a month, 10 years of their life on technology. 10 years of your life just straight being on your phone. And I heard that statistic. I'm like I know that that's talking about me. I know that that's talking about me because, as much as I am not proud about technology and how that has very influenced my life, I will be honest about it. I would be afraid to see my screen time, let's just say that. But I think that this is extremely relevant for the Christian knowing, if you just sit and reflect as you're listening to this, what would 10 years of your life spent on your phone? How could that time be used to be impactful for the kingdom of God, for your growth in your relationship with him, for the connection to other people, for using the creative gifts that God has given you and living your life to the fullest? I was really struck by that.

Ellen: 21:05

Oh yeah, that is really a shocking statistic and, like you said and like you said, it's one of those things you learn in economics there's the opportunity cost of what you could have accomplished or done or, like you said, help the kingdom of God in that same time that you were kind of doing mindless activities. So that's a good reminder for all of us, for sure. One thing that I'd like to just touch on briefly is there are going to be seasons in your life where it might be very difficult to truly rest on the Sabbath, and I'm thinking of, like, a young mother who might be listening to this and thinking, oh, it's just almost impossible for me. And I just want to encourage you that number one, that is a season. And number two, if you are going to church, you are spending time with God on that Sabbath day, and I would encourage you. If you don't have a body of believers, that's a place where you can go.

Ellen: 22:17

I know when we used to take our kids to church when they were young, just that time of letting you guys be with other kids and learning about Jesus in that setting, and just that time. I needed that time to worship God and sort of reset for my week and other things too, that you can do is just planning ahead, like. One thing I decided was, on Saturdays, try to make twice as much of one meal so that on Sundays you don't have to cook a whole 'nother meal or have leftovers on Sunday or order in on Sunday to just to give you a little bit of a break from doing some of those 'have to's'. You know you have to take care of your children and that is that's a gift from God that you are able to do that. But don't be discouraged. If you're feeling unrested, maybe you need to ask for help too. Taylor, what do you think about that in terms of now that your sister has a child and you see, like, how demanding it can be every day of the week?

Taylor: 23:41

I am just floored by the amount of energy it takes for a mother to be a mother and of course, you're ignorant to that when you're a kid, you're just living your life. But this past week I've been in Iowa and I'm going to be here for the next two weeks just kind of helping to babysit my sweet little, adorable nephew, Theo. And so I just babysit him a couple times a week for five hours and, holy cow, does he take the energy out of you. He is like ready to play, zooming around constantly, you know, laughing, smiling and looking for you to see him and affirm him and feed him and change him, and I think about Ashley and how. You know I'm only doing this a couple days a week, but for the busy moms out there, I'm like, wow, you need to be extremely intentional about finding little moments to rest and I'm going to say this, really intentional about asking for help, because I mean, I know it's different culture to culture depending on where you're from. A lot of cultures have that built in. You know families around and you're able to ask for help and it's kind of this whole network of taking care of each other and making sure everybody has moments of rest.

Taylor: 25:05

I think for us, because we're all spread out, it's difficult to kind of offer that help to her.

Taylor: 25:09

So she has to make sure that she develops those relationships.

Taylor: 25:13

She has that with her in-laws and they're able to take care of Theo a couple days a week, which is really nice, and also she has a mom's group at church and a group of friends at church that she can go to and have that sort of spiritual renewing.

Taylor: 25:29

Conversations of other people who are in similar stages of life can relate to her, resonate with her, but kudos to anybody out there that is a mom right now, to any of you that are listening that are in the stage of life where you are feeling like you run ragged into the ground and you are just waiting for God to show you that he sees you and that he wants to help give you rest. I think that that's a real place that a lot of people are in. Honestly, even if you don't have kids and your work is running you ragged or school is or whatever, I'm thinking of you all and praying that God will show you his face and that he will show you ways that you can even in a little way experience the renewing of a little bit of Sabbath time being with him and slowing down.

Ellen: 26:26

Absolutely, you know. I just want to, as we start to close up this conversation, I want to pull out and look at Matthew 11, 25 to 30, because I think we need to take a look at you know. How does Jesus make soul rest available to us? And listen to this: it says. "At that time, Jesus declared I thank you, father, lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. Yes, father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Ellen: 27:38

How do those verses encourage you, Tay. And what would you say to those listening about this passage?

Taylor: 27:45

Yeah, run to Jesus. That's my encouragement to you and that's my encouragement to myself. I think we can really kind of trick ourselves into thinking that we are rested when we spend time on social media and spend time watching TV and really we're left more empty than ever. Really, we can only find true rest, true fulfillment, in the person of Jesus, and that takes a willingness to take that step forward into coming towards him.

Taylor: 28:21

My practical application for you in that is to set for yourself a rhythm of prayer to come to God and set intentional times where you are going to have these conversations with God. The more you talk with God, the more the Holy Spirit is going to stir in you to make Jesus more and more a part of your life. And that might be the first step for you in making time for Sabbath, because taking time for the Sabbath is gonna be hard for a lot of us and you don't necessarily have to do it. But what we do see is that the Sabbath is so helpful. God created it for us. He created us with a need for rest and a rhythm to that rest. Come to the Lord in prayer, give him your needs, show him that you want him to guide your heart towards abiding in him.

Ellen: 29:25

Well, thank you, Taylor, so much for joining me today. For those that are listening, I hope that you feel encouraged. We want to challenge you this week to take time to rest. This requires intentionality and discipline, but it's a beautiful way to build trust in God's sovereignty and to savor his presence in our lives. So, Taylor, would you mind just closing us in prayer for our listeners?

Taylor: 29:57

Absolutely. Dear Lord. God, we thank you for this time to talk about you, to be blessed by your word and to think about what it means to rest in you. God, I pray for all those who are listening today that are seeking you, desiring you that you would fill them with your Spirit, renew in them a yearning and a fire to be passionate about you and growing their relationship with you. Give them opportunities to see how they can incorporate rest into their life. Help them, Lord, to be stirred to do that starting this week and to think about how they can spend time resting and filling their cup up spiritually with you. Lord, we pray for this blessing. We ask you to bless us s as we go about this week, Amen.

Ellen: 30:54

Amen, All right. well, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to listen to our podcast. We would love it if you would tell a friend about the Coffee and Bible Time podcast. Have a blessed day.