Keeping the Sabbath

”So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.“ Genesis‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬-‭3‬

”You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but on the seventh day you must stop working, even during the seasons of plowing and harvest.“ Exodus‬ ‭34‬:‭21‬

The world makes us feel guilty for turning our phone off to distractions, doing what we feel called to do, not doing anything at all, turning down plans & standing up for our weekly schedule for the sake of keeping the Sabbath holy. Well, praise God that the Sabbath is a command & not a suggestion. What Jesus is saying in these pieces of scripture above is that after 6 days of work even GOD HIMSELF RESTED. The best part about this day is that He proceeds to offer it to us as a gift. He blessed the day & then made it known that the 7th day is HOLY. This means He set it apart from all of the other days of the week so it SHOULD look different. He made it sacred, deserving of respect & observance, a day that we as believers should partake in just as we would communion, loving one another & living righteous lives. In Exodus, He goes on to explain that we already have 6 other days to do what needs to be done, ordinary work, but demands we put everything to a halt once the 6th day ends, even in the busy seasons when your car sales at work are at a high, the big event you’ve been planning over the entire year is next week & your bills aren’t going to pay themselves.

The Lord asks us to give Him this day. He asks us to acknowledge His presence when life is busy & slow down COMPLETELY even just for a day. Why? Because He deserves it. He has given us everything: His life, our life, opportunities, our job we need to shift our eyes off of for a day & the laundry & cleaning that can wait until tomorrow if it means more time in His presence.

We forget that God is greater than us & we can never outwork Him no matter how hard we try. We forget that the actual fruits are produced in the moments of waiting, listening, rest & solitude. We forget that it’s an entire process that God created & there’s no way around it than through His purpose. We forget that if God needed rest then there is absolutely no excuse for us not needing rest as well.

There’s a parable (simple story used with illustration) that Jesus speaks about in Matthew 12 regarding the Sabbath. The story starts by Jesus noticing a man with a deformed hand while He is out walking. It’s evident that this man needed a healing miracle. The Pharisees who were so stuck on living strictly by the Jewish laws & hoping to have a reason to accuse Jesus of breaking a law asked Jesus, “Does this law permit a person to work by healing on the Sabbath?” Jesus responds in verse 11 as such, “If you had a sheep that fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn’t you work to pull it out? Of course you would. And how much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Yes, the law permits a person to do good on the Sabbath.” Jesus proceeded to heal the man’s hand & the Pharisees were not exactly happy, in other words they called a meeting to figure out a way to kill Jesus.

There are things that God calls us specifically to on the day He has set apart. He calls us to dwell, abide & delight in Him all while being in tune with His spirit & opening our ears to His commands. He doesn’t want us to sit on the couch with a bag of chips & binge watch our favorite Netflix series until our brain feels fuzzy & we wake up Monday morning overslept in a blur. He wants us to experience rest IN HIM. He’s asking us to trust Him with just this one day in being extra intentionally led by His voice for the entirety of it.

Sabbath looks different for everyone. We’re all made very different, SURPRISE, so the way God calls you to rest in Him on the Sabbath probably looks different then the way He’s called your best friend, pastor or parent to rest. For me, it varies by the season & the place I’m living. Because I live with 12 other people at the moment, Sabbath looks like staying home while everyone is out, spending a lot of time in the word, sitting & listening to worship music & searching for new songs of all genres, doing laundry because cleaning calms me, praying, napping to catch up on sleep, cooking myself a meal, writing my thoughts, watching a movie on Netflix (or 10 minutes of it, if you really know me, you know what I’m sayin!) & whatever else God calls me to & is restful for my soul. Most of the time, I know that I need to post a blog, reach out to supporters regarding fundraising, post on Instagram to keep peeps updates or text friends & family back but to be completely honest, after 6 full days of go go go, I am beat. I abstain from doing the things that feel like a chore on the Sabbath because God called me to rest. I’m in the process of learning to trust that the unfinished projects will still be taken care of by my Lord when I submit & abide in Him on the day He asks me to. God is showing me that making calculations or designing a fundraising newsletter for supporters right in this moment will not help me financially, God will help me financially when He allows & only then.

Others may think we are crazy, lazy & full of excuses. But practicing the Sabbath is not an ancient practice that was ever supposed to be forgotten about. If you’ve fallen out of rhythm or maybe never intentionally practiced the Sabbath, I encourage you to start. It may be difficult in the beginning, fear of missing out may arise, feelings of unproductively or loneliness may come over you but all of these are only feelings that don’t actually hold any truth over your real circumstance. Intentionally rest in the Lord once a week & watch as your cup begins to overflow into your everyday, providing you a genuine endurance & ability to experience the joy of the Lord. Dan Allender says in his book on the Sabbath, “The sabbath is in invitation to enter delight.” Receive this invitation & try it out for yourself.

Convicting thoughts I’ve heard (probably from John Mark Comer):

• If you can keep a once a week date night with your significant other, why can’t you keep one with God?
• Practicing Sabbath is like practicing tithing (a percentage of your paycheck). It’s offering God a portion of what you have, a day of your week in faith that the return will be better whether that be on earth or in heaven.
• The world will not fall apart if you stop. The world doesn’t need YOU to keep going.
• People say that the Jews have kept the sabbath for 6,000 years but the Jews will say, “The sabbath has kept us.”
• Adam woke up into rest after the 6th day on which he was created. His first day was a day of rest. He woke up learning to operate from rest.

Practical steps from The Handlebar Podcast on Keeping the Sabbath:

The Handlebar Podcast – Keeping the Sabbath

PRACTICE the Sabbath – mark it on your weekly calendar

PLAN the Sabbath – loosely schedule out what your day will look like so you don’t get distracted on your laptop or end up taking your normal work calls

PROTECT the Sabbath – turn down invitations to plans that the Lord is not calling you to or that are draining, it’s okay to say “no”, mark this day as completely busy in your schedule ahead of time so you plan around it always

Love always,

P