My journey to Sabbath

I have written before about the Sabbath (you can find it here: Click here to view ) and I find that God often convicts me of the need to rest as I am someone who can so easily miss out on rest in order to work myself to the point of burnout! I have studied the Sabbath and preached on the Sabbath, but just over a year ago my relationship with the Sabbath changed completely. I had been pondering on what it means to rest for a while and my favourite podcast – A cup full of hope was also doing a series on the same thing and when I heard the episode on Sabbath, I couldn’t get it off my mind (you can find it here: Click here to view)Caroline Harries talked about how she had journeyed to practice the Sabbath and I knew I needed to do the same.

Principles of the Sabbath

Before I share a little of my journey, let me just explain a little about the Sabbath to you. At the beginning of creation, God created the earth and on the seventh day he rested. He didn’t rest because he needed to, but because he was showing us what we need and how we should live. In the ten commandments that God gave to his people, one declares that we should keep the Sabbath holy. This means that we should take one day a week to rest from our work and to spend with God. For the Jewish people it meant that they stopped and rested from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, this was what they called Shabbat. There are references to the Sabbath throughout the bible and in the gospels, Jesus even calls himself the lord of the Sabbath. I believe that this covenant principle is still relevant today and is absolutely essential in order for us to live fruitful and powerful lives.

We started actively practising the Sabbath in April 2020. We were in the middle of lockdown and although in some ways it made it easier, we found the reality was life was still as pressured but in very different ways. As ministers, Sunday is usually a very busy day so we decided that we would follow the original Sabbath day and have Sabbath from Friday Sunset to Saturday Sunset. It also means that our Sabbath can involve the family and we can experience it together. It’s worth noting that everybody is different and Everybody’s experience of Sabbath is different, but I thought I would share with you some practicalities of how we practice our Sabbath

One of our first Sabbath's in Lockdown!

Practicalities of the Sabbath

These are some things that we agreed for our Sabbath and we stick to as much as possible

  It would begin with a special meal to mark the beginning, (including a tasty pudding!!)
  We would have a devotional time together on the Friday night to mark the beginning
  We wouldn’t do any work (unless there was an emergency)
  We would do something in the Sabbath that fills our cup – it could be anything from a day out walking, to a trip to the beach, to a lazy day at home watching films (take a look at some of the pictures at the end!!)
  We would do something that will bring us closer to God – it could be listening to a podcast, watching a sermon, reading a book or having good conversation.
  We wouldn’t do any housework or ‘jobs’

One of the things that we found that was very useful was the time that we spent together at the beginning of the evening. We found a brilliant resource which is an adjustment of the Jewish Shabbat service from God venture (which you can find here: Click here to view ) We have special Shabbat candles and a Kiddush cup (a Jewish cup used in the Shabbat and other festivals) and it is a real family affair. Whenever the candles come out our daughter get so excited and during the service, she loves dipping her fingers in the water! We also have a devotional book that we read a short passage from every week. We find this really helps us focus our minds and prepare our hearts to rest.

Our Shabbat Set-up

Protecting the Sabbath

Sabbath has been a brilliant thing for us as a family and is a really precious time but it isn’t always easy and we have to work hard to protect it.

When we live as God intended and practice the Sabbath, the economy of God means that in fact we will actually be more productive in the other 6 days. However the enemy doesn’t like it! When we began it, we found that we would often have a huge row minutes before we were to sit and do our devotion – however we were determined to do it and were able to bless each other during our time, even if ten minutes before we wanted to kill each other! We learnt to be fierce in protecting the time we spend in Sabbath and as time has gone on we have found it has got easier

In the past couple of weeks God has been teaching me more about how to protect the Sabbath. We have found that it is really difficult to rest when the house is a mess or there are jobs that we need to do. In the podcast that convicted me by a cup full of hope – Caroline Harries said something that God recently reminded me of. She explained how people often have a Sabbath to prepare for the week but really practicing the Sabbath means taking the week to prepare for the Sabbath. It is a shift of mind-set that places importance on a day of rest with God and the rest of the week comes out of that.

Last Friday afternoon I had just put my daughter down for a sleep and had the choice of doing some bits of work that weren’t important or tidy up the house ready for Sabbath. I was considering doing the bits of work in front of a Netflix series I had been watching when God spoke to me. He said “When you have a guest over, you tidy the house, mop the floor and prepare to welcome them. This evening as you welcome the Sabbath you welcome me” Suffice to say I quickly went to find the mop! Don’t get me wrong, there are times when the house isn’t perfect and there have been some weeks when I just can’t rest until I have done the washing, but it is a process and we are learning how to fit this into the rhythm of life.

In our journey to practice Shabbat in our lives, we have found a greater freedom, greater peace, greater vision and a greater rhythm t our marriage, family and ministry.

I would say to everyone who doesn’t practice the Sabbath “do it!” if you need extra encouragement, I leave you with these verses from Isaiah 58: