My Faith Meets My World: The Sabbath is Rest

My Faith Meets My World: The Sabbath is Rest

Seventh Day Sabbath
Every seventh day, my husband and I heed the command, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh-day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, not your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." Exodus 20:8-11. We worship together at our church.

G, Kenneth. "bbsunset.jpg." Pics4Learning. May 2000. http://pics.tech4learning.com.

Friday Preparation
On Friday, preparation day, we prepare our hearts and homes for the Sabbath, which begins at sundown Friday evening, and ends Sabbath evening (Saturday night) at sunset. (from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your Sabbath. Leviticus 23:32.) It's so awesome to come home from work on Friday and feel the cares and burdens of the week slip away in expectation of a wonderful Sabbath rest.

Sabbath Reflection
Sabbath is a time for reflection. I think about the direction of my life, how my week went. I get to talk about it (with more time than I usually have during the week) with a Friend who loves and cares for me. "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord." Jeremiah 29:11-14. Not only does He care for me, but He has the power to change my life and my heart, and give me the strength to live my life more like Him. "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and you will keep My judgments and do them." Ezekiel 36:26-27.

Family
Sabbath gives me time for my family. Seems like society these days really struggles with time for family. On Sabbath we have time to each all three meals together. Sabbath also strengthens our commitment to have family worship together during the week. It gives us time to be together, to share stories of our week and how God has blessed us or how we need His strength. We don't listen to the radio or turn on the TV. We forget our work and our cares and focus on time with God and family.

Service
Sabbath is a time to serve God and my community too. "Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out. . . If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord." Isaiah 58:6-7, 13-14.

The Sabbath is a Sign

The Sabbath is also a sign of His rest, that I can rest being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in me will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6.
It's also an evidence and sign that I believe in God. "Keep My Sabbaths holy, that they may be a sign between us. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God." Ezekiel 20:20, NIV.
It's a sign that God sanctifies or cleanses, purifies, sets me apart as His. "Moreover I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I the Lord sanctify them." Ezekiel 20:12, RSV. I don't have to work my way to heaven, I rest in His salvation and accept what Jesus did for me on the cross.
It's also a constant reminder that God is Creator, and that He can recreate my heart and life in His image too! For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." Exodus 20:11. He created me! He has a purpose for my life on this earth.

Kronkvist, Asa. "bok1.jpg." Pics4Learning. February 2000.
http://pics.tech4learning.com.