Stirring Our Affections: SABBATH (Daily Encouragement Series)
Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing. (Psalm 100:1–2)
Do you ever have something that you really like but rarely enjoy? I know we can’t go for a little now, but how often do you hear people say they don’t go to the beach when it’s a mile away? People literally fly from all over the world to come here and the majority of people who live here don’t drive a mile to enjoy this amazing gift. We have a neighbor who has a demanding job in which he travels a lot – it made me so happy to see him riding a bike with his kids a couple of nights ago (and they all looked really happy). I know how much he loves his kids, but normally there isn’t time for those things. Christians can fall into this too – the primary call from God is to ENJOY HIM. We can get so busy with life or even doing “stuff” for God, that we don’t stop to just enjoy Him. That is the whole point of “stirring our affections” – to ENJOY God.
Thankfully, God gave us a day to just stop and simply ENJOY Him and his good gifts. Now, if your like me, “quarantine days” can become like “groundhog day”. Tuesday and Friday and Sunday can all become the same. With that, I would encourage you to continue to practice Sabbath – a day “set-apart”, “holy” (notice patterns again) – to stop, worship and enjoy God. Here are some notes from our Sacred Pace series message on Sabbath:
Sabbath is a day to stop and rest. A day to worship and delight in God. A day to RESIST the things that can enslave and draw our affections away from God. It is ultimately a pointer to divine rest we need and have in Jesus.
Sabbath as REST – The Hebrew word is Shabbat – to stop. Sabbath is a declaration that Jesus is Lord, and I am not. He upholds all things so I don’t have too.
Maybe that’s why God eventually has to command the Sabbath. Does that strike you as odd? It’s like commanding ice cream or live music or beach days. You would think we’d all be chomping at the bit to practice Sabbath. But apparently there’s something about the human condition that makes us want to hurry our way through life as fast as we possibly can, to rebel against the limitations of time itself. Due to our immaturity, dysfunction, and addiction, God has to command his people to do something deeply life giving—REST. (John Marc Comber)
Sabbath as WORSHIP/DELIGHT – Shabbat also has a broader meaning of “delight”. So it’s not just a day to rest…it’s a day to worship. There is a dual idea of stopping and also enjoying God & our lives in his world.
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…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. (Dan Allendar, Sabbath)
Sabbath as RESISTANCE – The command to Sabbath in Exodus 5 (v/15) is rooted in being freed from slavery “Remember…you were a slave”. Don’t forget what God has done. You were a slave, God has delivered you. Don’t go back. We are all slaves- slaves to our phone, slaves to work, slaves to stuff, slaves to hurriedness, slaves to sin. But through the GOSPEL Jesus has delivered us from slavery into freedom.
I have been delivered. I have enough. What I really need is to enjoy God and what I already have.
What does it look like for you to practice the Sabbath during this time?
Stop – Takes intentionality – what do you need to do the other 6 days to allow you to “stop” on the 7th?
Delight – What indexes your heart towards God’s reality and goodness?
Resist – What are the things you are enslaved to that you need to stop? What draw affections away from God/others?