“Sabbath” is from the Hebrew word Shabbat : ‘to stop’
The sabbath is about spending time in the presence of God where we can rest in him, delight in him (and his creation etc.) and worship him.
We can do this alone, and in community! Sabbath is so much more than church on Sunday.
We can delight in and worship our Lord as we we eat together, walk in nature, read, sing and spend restful, quality time with our friends and family.
◦ When we do this we remember God and the creation story – we imitate him as he rested. And we remember that, in Jesus, we have our eternal hope and rest (Hebrews 4:9-11)
◦ When we do this, we give God the chance to speak to us, refresh us and restore our mind, body and spirit.
◦ When we do this we acknowledge that God alone is master of our time.
Can we find new ways of being intentional by breaking into our time and our lives to stop and rest? Can we go without scrolling, shopping, media bingeing etc. for 24 hours?
For me, this takes surrender and God’s grace. I can’t do it by my will alone – I just crash and burn! Keeping the Sabbath is a gift!
“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” – Mark 2:27
We can take small steps towards this goal if a 24 hour period seems impossible. The aim is to embed new habits into our daily lives. We can have faith that the God who made us and loves us just as we are, will help steer us through this new season.
Go Deeper
We mentioned on Sunday that we would share some resources to help you do this.
One resource, used by Benedictine monks in the 500s, is a ‘rule of life’. Don’t freak out when you hear the word ‘rule’ – remember, the Sabbath is a free gift(!), not something to be weaponised or feel guilty about if you don’t do it “properly”.
A ‘rule of life’ is totally personal to you, it’s about building those habits that we have already talked about and can be changed/adapted through different seasons of life. We encourage you to have a go at building your own, don’t think too deep about it – you can change it next month if it doesn’t work. This isn’t about trying harder, it’s about surrendering to God, to his Spirit in you and allowing him to transform us from the inside out.
Want to know more about it? Check out this podcast: https://renovare.org/podcasts/lifewithgod/episode-56-steve-macchia-rule-of-life
Here are just 3 examples of what a rule of life might look like (taken from https://ruleoflife.com)
myRULE: Kimberly Fick’s Rule of Life | 2019
myRULE: Warriner Family Rule of Life
myRULE: Steven Petersheim’s Rule of Life | 2020
Other Resources:
Books we recommend: “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” and “Practicing The Way” by John Mark Comer
The Bible Project video we showed on Sunday: https://youtu.be/PFTLvkB3JLM plus a whole Bible Project podcast series on Sabbath if you really want a deep dive: https://bibleproject.com/podcast/series/7th-day-rest-sabbath/
