Remember the Sabbath

March 30

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” Exodus 20:8.

Our holy God has given us precious laws by which to govern our personal and our societal activities. There was a time when laws regarding Sabbath activity were staunchly in place. Sometimes they were called ‘Blue Laws’ and they required that business activity be curtailed on Sunday.

Some may insist that Sunday is not technically the Sabbath anyway, so the restriction was misplaced. The reason for the change of the day of worship was that Jesus arose from the tomb, not on the last day of the week, the Sabbath, but on Sunday. Many will debate the propriety of one or the other day of worship, but the larger point is that we have come to regard all days as equally viable for business and commercial interests to the extent that we keep no day holy!

We run our errands on the ‘weekend.’ Saturday and Sunday are the days busy people use to accomplish personal interests for which they lack time during the hustle and bustle of the business week. We initiate and conclude our vacations on the weekend, thereby excluding the time from church attendance and worship of our Lord. In so doing, we are denying ourselves not only the joy of fellowship with people of like precious faith, which we are admonished not to do, Hebrews 10:25, but we also prevent ourselves from the intended rest that accompanies honoring the Sabbath.

Many sports events are conducted on the weekend. We will travel for miles to watch our favorite teams engage in completion, forgoing church attendance to do so. We will spend our energy traveling to sports events and cheering on our favorite teams on Sunday, but we will be too tired to get out of bed to attend church after a night on the town on Saturday.

Some would say that God doesn’t so much expect a specific day dedicated to Him but that He wants a seventh of our time every day to be spent in prayer and scripture reading and contemplation of the Holy One and of the things of eternity.

Then there are those who quote Psalm 109:4, “I give myself unto prayer,” which indicates that the entirety of our focus should be on the things of Christ—the way we live our lives should be governed by our submission of ourselves to the Lord and Savior of our lives.

As we embark upon this day of worship, let us allow ourselves the joy of corporate worship and anointed preaching. Let us be bathed in the presence of the Holy Spirit who will teach us all things. Let us lift up our voices in praise to the Holy One who inhabits eternity (see Isaiah 57:15). Let us abide in the presence of the Christ who "will never leave us or forsake us," Hebrews 13:5.

If we allow the Holy Spirit to move in and through us, He will have His way in us—our thoughts, our words, our actions, the entirety of our use of the time He gives to us, will be spent for His glory.