One thing that the World Race asks of us is that we participate in the Sabbath. So every seventh day is our sabbath day. Today was our first. I cant imagine a better place to start a new discipline such as sabbath then Byron Bay Australia. It is truly a beautiful place, green, beautiful beaches, cool temps in the evenings, and fresh air. Lets do this. But wait, aside from reading Exodus 20: 8-11 to us, we did not get any further instruction. They encouraged us to seek the Lord and find out what the sabbath means for us and what it will look like this year. Not everyones Sabbath will look that same… but I like directions and instruction, where do I go from here??? As I sat down to begin my quite time I started by reading the commandment. Its funny how we constantly are encouraged to follow the other commandments but this one tends to fall to the wayside. God only gave 10 and yet I choose to ignore one?! So my interest and desire were peaked but what next? I wanted to go to my concordance but I have my travel bible not my larger study bible and so there was nothing. I wanted to google it, but I had no wifi…. What do I do? I began skimming over different books of the Bible where I thought I might find more insight but I did not. I said, ok God please show me something about the sabbath in your word so I can understand and execute. I open my eyes and turned the page to find the header, “The Sabbath!” Haha God is good and Im so glad he gave me that little moment. Exodus 31:13 This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy. What an awesome reminder. Just the simple act of choosing God over work and normal activity will be sign to everyone of His Holiness. Reading further I ended up in Hebrews 4:9-11 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. The reminder that we are created in his image and this is something He did and we should mimic. There is no better place to find rest than in God. Not just physical rest but spiritual, emotion, mental, sign me up! Do I know exactly what my sabbath day will be each week? No not yet but I am excited to dive deeper and grow in intimacy with Him and figure it out together. For now it looks like being out enjoying His beautiful creation, lots of prayer, being in His word, and participating in praise and worship (this was done at night, at the beach, with a cool breeze, under the stars, with sound of the waves, enjoying God’s beautiful creation … no better way!) So please join me in prayer for that. And if you are someone who does participate in the sabbath please share any thoughts and suggestions!
