He Rested On the Seventh Day

The book of Genesis tells us that God created the earth and everything in it in six days, and on the seventh day He rested!

Sunday used to be just an extra day for me, a day to do chores I hadn’t finished on Saturday, or a day to do the grocery shopping or prepare for whatever was going to happen on Monday. I went to church in the morning, but the rest of the day was like any other.

A few years ago the Lord began to work in my heart to set the Sabbath apart from the others days, as a true day of rest. The Ten Commandments say “Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God”.

I found that one reason why I couldn’t keep the Sabbath as a day of rest was because I was missing the first part of the commandment: Six days shalt thou work.

I was resting too much on Saturdays, which meant I couldn’t have a true day of rest on Sundays. You might think it makes no difference, but to me it truly has. Two partial days of rest did not give me the physical or spiritual refreshment that one full day of rest does. Also, my rest on Saturdays tended to be the pursuit of hobbies or even little jobs I wouldn’t normally get to accomplish, whereas on Sundays my thoughts–and therefore my rest–are usually more spiritually focused.

This is not meant as a condemnation to those who do not believe as I do about rest on the Sabbath. Rather, it is a recommendation to those needing spiritual and physical refreshment.

I am not so legalistic that I never lift a finger on the Sabbath. Jesus said that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath, and that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

It is good to have fellowship with the brethren on the Sabbath, even if that means there will be some cooking. But I do try to rest from my normal chores as much as I can, and to fill that extra time with things that refresh body, mind and spirit.

I like to read on the Sabbath. I am refreshed as I attend the evening church service as much as I am able. I like to spend time with my family, and do things with the children that I don’t have time for during the week. I like to eat lunch with other Christian families. Sometimes I even take a nap on the Sabbath, a luxury that would never occur during the week. I like to serve a simple but nice breakfast, as a Sabbath treat for the children, but all meals are kept no-fuss to give myself a break. Last week the Sabbath was cold, and we built a fire outdoors at dusk and roasted marshmallows and sang hymns as a family.

As a busy young mother, it is often hard for me to find lots of quiet time for rest and reflection during the week. But the Lord has set aside an entire day of rest, if we will but take it. A weekly Sabbath rest has been of tremendous benefit to me spiritually these past few years.

Have a blessed Sabbath!