Honoring the Sabbath

What is sabbath?

In Greek, the word sabbath literally means to stop or to cease. Sabbath is a spiritual discipline and practice that God intended for us to do every 7 days for 24 hours. It helps to cultivate a spirit of restfulness for all seven days of the week. I have learned that there are generally four intentions for sabbath. They are:

Stopping: stop working, stop worrying, stop wanting, stop striving

Resting: rest your mind, body, and spirit

Delighting: Celebrate the goodness of God

Worshiping: It is a day not to just chill but to center on God with adoration

Sabbath is not our time, it is His. It is an intentional time to stop, connect, and renew your relationship with Him.

Why should we sabbath? 

“Remember the sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animal, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and alll that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy”. Exodus 20

Seven days of work. One day of sabbath. 

Passages like this one remind us that God designed sabbath. Sabbath is literally blinded into the fabric of this world. It is embedded into creation as a day of rest. He intentionally chose six days of work and one day of sabbath. If we truly believe that God is an almighty and all powerful God, we can also agree that if God wanted to create everything in one day, He would have. But, he didn’t. God did not rest on the seventh day because he was tired but rather to create a routine and pattern for us.

The entire world uses the seven day calendar, not just Christians (think about if that were true though, that is funny). Did you know that there have been times in history when people tried to use a ten day work week to improve productivity? They experienced depression and various issues so they have always returned to the seven day schedule. Neuroscience has shown that the human body actually needs a ‘catch up’ on sleep approximately every seven days. The entire world typically does this on the weekend because that is how God predisposed us to be.

We see the consistency of the seven day pattern throughout scripture:

• For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground . . . And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth. (Genesis 7:4, 10)

• Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory. (Exodus 13:6–7)

• Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.” On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. (Exodus 16:25–27)

God gave many practices for the Israelites to follow but sabbath was right at the center. When they walked away from the true purpose of sabbath and made it simply a religious ritual, Jesus told them “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” -Mark 2:27. 

Exodus 34:21 says that even during the plowing season and harvest we must rest. In more modern terms, it is saying that even when we are incredibly busy, it is still important to sabbath.

While on the field, The World Race has implemented that we would have a day set aside each week for sabbath. At the beginning, I honestly struggled. I searched for things to do to be ‘productive’. I felt selfish and honestly, lazy. I was embodying a spirit of restlessness and unable to actually find genuine rest. I was asking God, ‘What do you want from me today? I don’t have any purpose today. I want to be used by you.’

Our worldly culture says that we should not rest but work until we can no longer. We as Christians are called to be set apart and walk differently.

Over the past weeks, I have somehow cultivated a new spirit of restfulness. Sabbath is now a beautiful part of my week that has provided more time to be with the Father. I have found ways that give me life like taking walks, cooking, painting, facetiming friends, or playing the guitar. Instead of asking God out of a restless heart, I am now asking Him “What do YOU want me to do today?”. I have been delighted by his response. Even Jesus was found doing unexpected things on His sabbath like healing people or picking grain for His disciples. He was doing it for man.

I am still learning how to sabbath well. For example.) Today is my sabbath and I created a note of things to get done, including this blog post. Despite that, I know that I am beginning to create a rhythm and see that God is our eternal sabbath and ultimate rest. I never imagined that I would feel so rested while being away in another country, thank you Lord for sabbath.

What is your sabbath? 

Here are some photos from the past couple weeks of ministry:

Doing house visits- quite literally leaving the 99 for the 1. 

We helped host a graduation for a group of young adults who have been studying to be missionaries for the past 2 years.

After a few weeks, we were able to find a wheelchair for someone in need in Chicaman. 

This is a photo of my team and most of my ministry host‘s children. We are going to miss them dearly.

My ministry host took this photo at a women’s event. It embodies some of the most powerful moments I’ve experienced in the field so far.

This has nothing to do with ministry but it is my new favorite fruit, jocote.

Be well. Love well.

Mags