who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped …
~Philippians 2:6
Unlike Jesus, I am a person who keeps on grasping. I grasp onto every little thing that I can control, thinking that I know my best interests better than the sovereign God of the universe does. This was a realization that hit me especially hard at Fall Conference, and I am truly grateful and humbled.
Thus, I am going to commit to taking a weekly Sabbath. My prayer is that on this day I can truly rest in the Lord and keep his day holy, and that each week when this days come I can actually trust God with my time. Here are some guidelines I made – which are here to remind myself but not to be followed legalistically:
Things to do on Sabbath day
- Spend extra time alone in God’s presence.
- Turn off cell phone and computer.
- Get physical rest.
- Write a journal entry.
- Worship with genuine freedom and joy.
- Exercise and/or enjoy the outdoors.
- Read.
- Pray.
Things NOT to do on Sabbath day
- Do work.
- Worry about stuff I need to do.
- Feel guilty about things I am not doing.
- Make plans for the coming week.
Here is one quote that helped me think about this (from the second link above):
Sunday should not be trivial. It should be holy—set apart for God. A day in which we delight ourselves in the Lord in ways we can’t on other busy days. Many innocent and good things should probably be replaced with deeper things on the Lord’s day.
I am going to try to have my Sabbath on 5pm Friday to 5pm Saturday. I would prefer Sunday, but usually Sundays feel more physically draining than restful with church in the morning, leadership meeting at night, and schoolwork piling up. Pray that this practice would create in me a humble heart, a mind which is already mine in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5).
