At home I never understood the Sabbath and honoring it. We live in a country and world that places such an emphasis on the rush of life that the concept of rest being a spiritual discipline is a foreign thought. It’s normalized and almost glorified to squeeze the most out of every second of every day or to only considering a good day a productive day or to constantly strive to have more, do more, and be more. 

While striving and hard work are good and beneficial, we must not forget to rest with our Father. We must not forget that the Lord created or worked for 6 days and rested for 1. We must not forget how to slow down and simply just sit with God. 

We are so consumed by our clothes, experiences, money, phones, work, and the fast pace rhythm of life that we often forget. We forget that our God is so dang good that he actually wants us to remember to seek rest. Every other religion is checking a box, reaching a mark, pleasing something, someone, or some god. But we get the absolute JOY of having a Dad that has set a model of rest. No boxes to be checked, no marks to be meet. 

He loves us so much that He deeply wants you and I to slow down and sit with Him. He wants you to set aside any and all distractions to fully be with him. 

The word Sabbath (Hebrew: Shabbat) means “to stop” or “to delight”. The purpose of Sabbath is to stop and spend time delighting in and with the Lord. A day of Sabbath will look different for every person. Some may go on a walk, have a family game night, paint, dance, cook, see a friend, sing, laugh, etc. As long as you are doing “anything to index your heart toward grateful recognition of God’s reality and goodness.” 

I challenge you (if you don’t already) to take a day this week to slow down, to stop and delight. I encourage you to live from a place of rest, not live for a one day of rest.

Finding how you Sabbath will be trial and error. A couple good questions to ask yourself are “is this restful?” and “is this worship?”

I’m trying to figure out how I Sabbath best, trying to figure out how I can best steward this day to be a day of restfulness that stretches into the week. A day where I feel revived and most connected to God. 

“True restfulness, though, is a form of awareness, a way of being in life. It is living ordinary life with a sense of ease, gratitude, appreciation, peace and prayer. We are restful when ordinary life is enough” 

If you decided to begin the practice of Sabbath  I would love to hear how you choose to Sabbath in the comments section. 

Exodus 20:11 - “Remember the sabbath day by keeping it holy”

Mark 2:47 - “Then he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.’”