The Sabbath Practice: Delight
John 15:11 (NLT) I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!
Richard Foster: The decision to set the mind on the higher things of life is an act of the will. That is why celebration is a discipline. It is not something that falls on our head. It is the result of a consciously chosen way of thinking and living."
Genesis 1:31 Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day.
Genesis 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.
Dan Allender: "The Sabbath is an invitation to enter delight. The Sabbath when experienced as God intended, is the best day of our lives. Without question or thought, it is the best day of the week. It is the day we anticipate on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday - and the day we remember on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Sabbath is the holy time where we feast, play, dance, have sex, sing, pray, laugh, tell stories, read, paint, walk, and watch creation in its fullness. Few people are willing to enter the Sabbath and sanctify it, to make it holy, because a full day of delight and joy is more than most people can bear in a lifetime, let alone a week."
Marva J. Dawn: "Observing the Sabbath gives us the opportunity to be as careful as we can to fill our lives with beauty and to share beauty with the world around us. When we observe a day especially set apart for beauty, all the rest of life is made more beautiful ... In a larger sense, the whole practice of Sabbath keeping makes me feel more beautiful."
Isaiah 58:13-14 (NIV) If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honourable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Discussion Questions
Does joy come more naturally to you? Or is it more of a struggle for your personality?
What did you think of Marva J. Dawn’s claim that we “don’t know how to feast because we don’t know how to fast”? In what ways would the rest of your week need to change to set apart the Sabbath as a special day of delight?
Are you in a season of joy or sorrow or both? What does Sabbath- keeping feel like for you at this moment in your life?
Closing Prayer
Loving Father, help me to live this day to the full, being true to you in every way.
Help me to give myself to others, being kind and generous to everyone I meet.
Help me to love those who don’t know you, proclaiming Christ in all I do and say.
Amen.