Sabbath. What is it? Why do we need it? And is it still relevant?
When the concept of taking a weekly Sabbath crossed my radar for the first time as an adult, my eyes could not have rolled harder into the back of my head. The Old Testament is called that for a reason, right? It’s old. As in irrelevant. Surely the seemingly outdated laws, covenants, and everyone’s favorite, genealogy, didn’t apply to my life in the 21st century.
In short, I couldn’t have been farther from the truth. As I began to realize how narrow my perspective was and how small the box was I was trying to shove God into, I knew something needed to change. I kept trying to change God and His role in my life to meet my needs and wants rather than changing myself to meet His. There was my problem. I was trying to put the Creator of my known universe into a box and living my life completely oblivious to the guidelines (box) He created for me.
My box for Him was deeply flawed and crafted out of a place of selfishness and the need for control. His box for me was created with all the love, care, and intention in the world so that I would have a safe and nurturing environment in which to grow, bloom, and thrive. Once I realized this, I opened my hands and exchanged His box for mine. The first step was acknowledging the problem, but the second which could be considered more important was submission to His design.
As I sat with this new concept of submitting to my box, I realized that the only reason it felt restrictive and claustrophobic was because I had never sought to understand my own limitations or accept the fact that all humans live with limits. I had never tried to understand the “why” behind God’s design and in so doing had failed to understand the purpose behind my own existence.
As I sat in a chapel in Chiang Mai, Thailand, our group was asked this question: Why were you created by God? I thought the answer was pretty straightforward. It’s to serve Him, right? How wrong I was. God didn’t create me or you because He wanted something from us. He created us because He has something for us. The sole purpose of our existence is to be loved by God. And with that, the box I thought I had submitted to crumbled. It wasn’t a box at all. It was a haven – a spiritual greenhouse where I could be filled directly in the presence of my Father.
With this newfound revelation and insight, I knew I needed to re-examine His design as it’s explained in the Word. As I walked through pieces of scripture, I continued to circle back around to Sabbath.
I was annoyed. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the Lord, but the last thing I wanted to do was spend a full day each week memorizing scripture and reading my bible and fasting and praying. It sounded more like a prison than anything. It didn’t feel like the freedom He promised. I wanted something more – not to fall back into a pattern of religion and checklists over relationship.
I read a book earlier in the race called Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Barton. Basically, I skipped the chapter on Sabbath, skimming it for brief summary-worthy content because at the time I still felt Sabbath was irrelevant. Now I was hungry to know more – desperately hopeful that my fears about what Sabbath should look like weren’t true.
As I poured back over that single chapter, I felt relief wash over my soul. Once again, I had everything totally backwards. Sabbath is the polar opposite of a prison or checklist.
There aren’t set rules to taking a Sabbath. It doesn’t mean spending 24 hours in prayer or putting on a somber face and sitting in silence and solitude, although it could if that’s where your soul finds rest. When God created the universe in 6 days, He followed it with a day of rest. I doubt He fasted and prayed to Himself. No. Day 7 was a day of delight. He relished in the goodness of His creation.
Sabbath is a day of rest, relaxation, peace, joy, and full contentment. It comes at steady intervals – one day a week. Your spirit begins to crave it. It becomes a rhythm, as close as a heartbeat. It isn’t so much something you do as something that happens to you. Sabbath is a deeply personal encounter with the Lord in the things that make you, and I do mean uniquely you, happy.
For me, each Sabbath looks drastically different depending on how my week went. Sometimes, all I need is a day where I can nap and sing Disney songs. Other times, it looks like hanging out with friends and having game night. Even still, it could look like pouring over scripture and being lavished by the Father in silence and solitude.
Imagine 24 hours where no alarms go off, no meetings are scheduled, no plans have been made, and all that lies before you is possibility. There is a certain sense of wonder that comes with a blank page and Jesus – allowing yourself to be led by your deepest desires rather than shoving them into the recesses of “one day” in your agenda.
To be clear, rest is not just an absence of activity. Rest is actively seeking things that leave you full. Watching Netflix for 14 hours straight might be physically restful, but you don’t walk away feeling Spiritually amped up and closer to God.
Sabbath is a day of rejuvenation for your soul. It’s where the filling of David’s cup in Psalm 23 came from. It’s where Moses saw the glory of God and descended the mountain with a radiant face. It’s where Jesus found the deep rooted strength to walk out of the Garden of Gethsemane and submit to the cross. Sabbath is our filling up so that we can then overflow onto the world around us.
I still struggle from time to time with protecting the space for my Sabbath. Opportunities come up that are definitely fun but not restful and it’s tempting to say yes. Sometimes on the race, we get propositioned with ministry opportunities on our Sabbath and it is difficult to say no to something that is so great.
What I’ve learned about living with my human limitations is that I’m not God (shocker) and don’t even come close to His realm. Even Jesus who literally was fully God observed the Sabbath and rested at regular intervals. He took breaks from ministry and turned people away. He didn’t heal every sick person, He didn’t cast out every demon, He didn’t cleanse every leper. He too lived with limits.
When we fail to allow ourselves to be filled, what do we really have to pour out? Is it worth pouring out if it isn’t coming from a place of fullness and abundance in Christ?
Sabbath isn’t a waste of time. It’s a vital part of your ministry. It’s the work behind the reward at first, but then you come to realize that Sabbath is the actual reward.
The fruit of pouring out of abundance is the blessing of rest. We stop trying to save the world by ourselves because we realize we aren’t the savior. We are simply a part of the purpose of creation: to be loved by God.
Reflection Questions:
1. What are your current views on Sabbath?
2. What has stopped/is stopping you from regularly observing a Sabbath?
3. What tangible things in your life create a rhythm of chaos rather than a rhythm of rest?
