The Sabbath was made for You, Honor It!

“Then Jesus said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.’” Mark 2:27 NLT

“Keep the Sabbath day holy. Don’t pursue your own interests on that day but enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as the LORD’s holy day. Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on that day, and don’t follow your own desires or talk idly.” Isaiah 58:13 NLT

God has given each of us a gift, a Sabbath day of rest. This day of rest is not only for our physical bodies, but also for spiritual and mental restoration. The Lord God knows the limitations of our bodies for He created us. We can only go so far before we need to be replenished. Six days seems to be the appropriate number. God Himself confirmed this in His example in the creation of the universe, the earth, and every living creature. He rested from all His work on the seventh day. But the eternal God does not need to rest, and we do, so He established a day for us to rejuvenate our minds, souls, spirits, and physical bodies. Jesus concurred with this in Mark 2:27 when he said, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people.” (NLT)

So, the question becomes, what day is your Sabbath day? Most Christians think Sunday is to be our Sabbath day and understandably so. Sunday is the day Jesus’ followers, the church, gather for worship, and that should not change. But is Sunday always your Sabbath? During 45 years in retailing, my Sabbath day was not Sunday. Required to work every Saturday and most Sundays, my Sabbath would be my day off sometime during the week. Fortunately, it was consistent throughout my career with Tuesdays as my regular day off. Tuesday became my Sabbath.

Keeping the Sabbath day is not about following a bunch of rules and regulations of what you can or cannot do. It is a day to refresh ourselves in the Lord our God. It is a day to allow our bodies to recover and to be nourished for the week ahead. It is a day to mark as holy (or separate from the other six days of the week) to engage in spiritual, mental, and physical restorations in the Lord. Keeping the Sabbath, as Isaiah says, isn’t pursing our own interests but enjoying it by honoring it with everything you do whatever day that is.