Sabbath: Not Our Way, but the Lord's

    In high school, I deeply valued my Sundays. They were the only days I could do what I wanted without other obligations taking up space in my schedule. I loved my Sundays and deeply cherished them. No homework, no work, just anything I wanted to do. I called my Sundays my Sabbath day because I would go to church and maybe youth group, but the rest of the day would be spent just doing whatever I wanted. That sounds about right, I spend my whole week working; therefore, I deserve one day just doing anything I want to do. The past couple of years have been different. I have really started to become intentional on how I spend my Sabbath days. 

    One thing is that my Sabbath days have started to look different with the frequently changing schedules. There are times in my life when the Sabbath goes from 4 pm Saturday to 4 pm Sunday. I still prioritize church, but Sabbath looks different depending on the time of life. 

    Lately, I have been asking myself how do I find true satisfaction in the Lord? I have the really bad habit of numbing my emotions because my emotions can just be so strong. How do I turn to the Lord in that? I know I am not alone, and there are people around me, but I have been desiring deeper intimacy with God and a passion for getting into his Word. I have spent the past couple of years since my sophomore year going through what seems like a dry season, and now I have this literal fire burning inside of me of desire for the Word of God. 

    Tonight, I was just in awe of the scripture on fasting and the Sabbath. I used Google to help me find passages on satisfaction, which I have been seeking lately, and I came across Isaiah 58. I read this passage literally blown away by it. There is so much in it to unpack starting with fasting and continuing on to Sabbath. I can see that true satisfaction in the Lord comes from emptying ourselves to be filled by him. I wrote this in my journal "The space we give to God can and will be filled with abundantly more than what would ever be filled by our own might". I will be honest filling my time with something all the time is the most comfortable thing I could do. Being silent is uncomfortable, but I have been challenging myself to just sit in silence. 

    After reading about fasting, I saw the passages on Sabbath. I have learned throughout my faith journey that the Sabbath is not just simply doing whatever you want for a day. It is finding joy in the fact that we can rest in the Lord. Isaiah 58:13 talks about keeping the Sabbath honorable by not going our own way, but the way of the Lord. How we rest matters and what we consume matters. Media is something huge that can really dictate how we view the world. Are we being consumed by the media we watch? Are we centering our lives on scripture so that when faced with the "Breaking News" we have a hope in an Eternal God? 

    Out of all the love in my heart, here are some things I have to say about the Sabbath:

1. Sabbath is created to show that we are loved by God before we even do anything. 

2. God created Sabbath knowing we would need rest. Rest is not something we have to earn, but what we need. 

3. Is spending your Sabbath day scrolling social media, or giving into everything you want to do really worshipping God? Is it really resting in him? 

4. Sabbath and fasting is important, but also be sure to check your heart posture to not do it out of boasting or having an outward appearance that does not match your inward appearance. 

As we go into this weekend, I pray you take some time to truly rest in the presence of the living God. Realize that it is God who brings the Living Water that truly satisfies.