"If because of the Sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord honorable, and honor it, desisting from your ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word, then you will take delight in the Lord and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; and I will feed you the heritage of your father Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."
-Isaiah 58:13-14
-Isaiah 58:13-14
Isaiah 58 has been the Scripture which I've been digging into and meditating on for the last two days. It is titled, "Observance of fasts." Ironically, this chapter ends with the observance of the Sabbath. I believe the Lord ordained the Sabbath to be a tithe of our time. It is one day, 24 hours, that is to be designated to doing nothing but seeking His will, and abiding in Him. Though this should be done every day all day, I believe this is the call to a day of purposeful rest and solitude. It was never intended to be a day where you can't lift a finger, it is a day designed to rest in His presence. Yes, we are to abide in Him continually, but that abiding is in the midst of the mundane and the earthly. The Sabbath was designed to understand the call in Psalm 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God; that I may be exalted among the nations." (NKJV) But, the NASB says it like this; "Cease striving, know that I am God..." There is a difference between the two and neither is holier than the other, but both work and rest are a necessary duty.
When I was reading this Scripture for the second time, I was sitting with a very dear friend of mine, and this passage hit her as hard as it hit me. Ironically, we spend the majority of our Sundays together. Traditionally, we go out to eat after Sunday service and then decide what form of activity we want to do thereafter. It is mostly a time for socializing and busyness. After digging into this passage, we both felt it impressed in our hearts to change the course of our Sundays and designate Sundays to be our Sabbath. Not sure exactly what that'll look like yet (I threw out some suggestions, but we are prayerfully considering everything) but I know that Scripture reading and prayer is a key component to it.
I would like to challenge you to prayerfully considering designing a Sabbath for you and your family. Much work is done in vain. Just look at the writer of Ecclesiastes and the pharisees during Jesus' earthly ministry. As we begin to discover the Sabbath together, I will keep you posted and updated. :)
When I was reading this Scripture for the second time, I was sitting with a very dear friend of mine, and this passage hit her as hard as it hit me. Ironically, we spend the majority of our Sundays together. Traditionally, we go out to eat after Sunday service and then decide what form of activity we want to do thereafter. It is mostly a time for socializing and busyness. After digging into this passage, we both felt it impressed in our hearts to change the course of our Sundays and designate Sundays to be our Sabbath. Not sure exactly what that'll look like yet (I threw out some suggestions, but we are prayerfully considering everything) but I know that Scripture reading and prayer is a key component to it.
I would like to challenge you to prayerfully considering designing a Sabbath for you and your family. Much work is done in vain. Just look at the writer of Ecclesiastes and the pharisees during Jesus' earthly ministry. As we begin to discover the Sabbath together, I will keep you posted and updated. :)
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