I remember in the first years of my Christian life, the Holy Spirit first convicted me of "big" things in my life that were against the will of God. They were easy to pick out, and pretty easy to remove. Over the years, He has brought seemingly "smaller" things to my attention. I use the term "smaller" simply because this is the way we see them as a society. Truth is, "secret" or "internal" or "hidden" would all be better adjectives to describe these sins. They are things like greed, lust, pride, envy, and vanity...among others. These are things that could possibly remain hidden from others and often would not be immediately labeled as sins even if they were noticed. Now that I consider this, I believe you would agree that we usually label the RESULTS of these sins as "sin" without acknowledging the root sin. Over time, the Holy Spirit has made me aware of the need to repent of such things.
Now it seems that I am moving into new territory... at least it is new to me.
I honestly have not thought much about actually making a conscious choice to observe the Sabbath. For all my Christian life, I have considered Sunday to be my Sabbath. No one in my life has been particularly hung up on what day of the week is observed as the Sabbath, and since we already go to church on that day, I guess we have defaulted to having a Sunday Sabbath.
But do we really?
I cannot honestly consider Sunday a day of rest for me or my family...or for any of my closest friends. Many times, Sunday is one of the busiest days of the week. I've been working thru this for a few weeks now and am finally ready to try to put my thoughts in print.
I am reclaiming Saturday for my Sabbath. This is the day that I can control what is scheduled. My desire is not to become rigidly legalistic. (I do not need more rules in my life.) Just as I discussed about tithing last week, I am simply moving to live my life more in accordance with God's plan.
God's Word says "6 days you shall labor and do all your work." THAT's where I get hung up. I might want to rest on Monday after work, or go to bed early on Thursday or put laundry off til the weekend. What this leads to is no DAY of rest. I rest a bit here and a bit there. This rest is riddled with guilt because I KNOW there are things I should be doing...so it REALLY isn't fully restful.
This whole train of thought was put into motion several weeks ago when I looked at my schedule from a weekly point of view. I looked at how many hours I had to use outside of work, sleep and church and tried to make a schedule out based on that. I realized that Sunday is a busy day most weeks... definitely not a day of rest.
So my challenge is to make myself be a good steward of my time Sunday - Friday, so that I can rest and observe Saturday as my Sabbath.
Seriously, I'm not going to be all legalistic about this. I'm not going to use it as an excuse to not cook for my family or pick up something off the floor. I'm not going to split hairs about what is "work" and what isn't. I'm not going to refrain from driving or spending time with friends and family. I am not going to sit statue-still in a dark room all day. I'm going to pray about how God would have me Honor Him this day. I'm going to spend Saturdays enjoying what God has given me to enjoy and I am going to use Saturday to spend much needed time in His Word and in Prayer. I am going to REST...physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally.
In light of this change, Sunday will be a day of worship. There are many acts of worship, from teaching, to praying, to serving, to singing and participating in corporate worship as a church body. I think that this will be a welcome change in my mindset about Sunday. I have found myself using "But this is supposed to be my day to rest" as an excuse for a bad attitude about being at church all day on Sunday. (truth hurts)
My thought on this is that it makes perfect sense and is SO totally like God to make things work out this way...
Observing the Saturday Sabbath allows me to be fully spiritually prepared for Worship on Sunday morning. God is a jealous God. He wants to be (and should be) the focus of my worship and the center of my thoughts... especially when I am in Church to Worship.
Rather than rushing into church and feeling stressed and over tired, I will be rested, restored, and filled... and ready to worship.
Then I can spend Sunday preparing myself physically for the week... meal and clothes prep, to do lists, etc. without feeling resentful or guilty.
I think that this is going to make a huge difference in my life.
Bug hugs and much love!
K
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