Honoring The Sabbath (Part 2)

Honoring the Sabbath day of rest comes with many benefits. For example I’m sure it is not a stretch to say that at any moment in each of our lives, we all need some sort of help from the Lord. Some need answered prayer for a health condition, others guidance for an important decision, some may need help overcoming an addiction and others financial help. The list is endless as to the heartfelt request God receives from those who believe. And by resting on Sunday and spending more time reading God’s Word and praying, we will find how to acquire the blessings of God.

Prayer is not only an avenue to request help from the Lord, but also our weapon of spiritual warfare. When we pray, things happen in the heavenlies. And if we set apart Sunday as a day to dig deeper into Scripture, studying and praying the promised blessings back to God, our life and our prayer requests will be heard. We can fight the forces of evil that cause problems in our lives.

“Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.”(Daniel 10:12 NIV)

This verse shows the conversation between Daniel and an angel, who heard Daniels prayer, but was held up for three weeks while fighting evil forces opposing the answer to the prayer. Daniel finally received his request. Prayer brings our requests to earth and angels move on the Word of God. That is why it is important to know Scripture, so we can pray God’s Word back to Him to enjoy a powerful prayer life.

When we set our mind to understand the Lord, we are humbling ourselves. A humble person is a teachable person and God honors humble people. Setting aside time to understand the bible shows the Lord that we need His help and acknowledge His ability to help us. Learning Scripture is a sure way to learn how to pray for our perfect answer. Jesus’ last words while hanging on the cross were: “It is finished.”

What is finished? Everything we need to spend eternity in heaven and to live the abundant overcoming life here on earth. Now our job is to pray this life down to earth. “…your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…”Matthew 6:10.

Tell the Lord what promised blessings you desire from heaven, get in alignment with His Word in deed, action and speech and wait for God’s timing. And and use Sunday, God’s holy day, to dig deeper and pray longer.

Sundays Were Made For Us

The Sabbath or Sunday was made for us; to rest, to pray and to gain a deeper understanding of Scripture so that we can memorize Scripture and put these Scriptures in our prayers. For example, “Lord, you said that you will never leave me nor forsake me, I believe that you will help me with this situation.”
Knowing this, we can understand that when God put the command “Keep the Sabbath Day Holy” on His top ten list, it was to provide time for us to learn about His benefits. God never commands us to do something that is frivolous and God’s commands are never outdated.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

The thief- namely Satan- uses his schemes to encourage people to treat Sundays like any other day of the week, thereby keeping us from learning all of the magnificent blessings God would like to shower on us. Not only that, Satan desires that we remain busy and distracted so that our family relationships start to break down.

Satan also entices us to work on Sunday to get ahead. But Scripture tells us “

” If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God… The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to.”(Deut 28:1,8)

In the book “More Than A Hobby” David Green the CEO of Hobby Lobby stores stated that when he finally observed the Sabbath and closed every store on Sunday, Hobby Lobby profits went up significantly while changing nothing else. Coincidence? No. This is how God works.

We live in an era where life as usual happens on Sunday, the worst being (in my opinion) kids sporting events. Tournaments run right through the weekend making families disjointed- one parent going one way, and the other parent the other way. The scheduling of sports doesn’t allow families to rest and worship together. Professional sports too, encroach on this Holy day of the week. The televised NFL games were introduced at some point in the 1970’s and this was the start of the “Sunday-Funday” mentality.

Long gone are the days when life felt slower and more peaceful on Sundays. In the 1970’s, people attended church and spent time with family.

When I interviewed some of the 80-100 year old people at a local nursing home, all of them stated that Sundays in the 1940’s and 50’s were considered a day of church and family. They reported that all stores were closed, families participated in pastimes like playing board games, taking walks or a Sunday drive, playing the piano, letter writing, hobbies, visiting extended family, eating a big Sunday roast at lunch, naps and sports in the neighborhood. The church sermon was discussed over lunch in some families as well.

Take Back The Sabbath

Things have significantly changed. Not only in the community but in churches as well.

The selling/sipping of coffee within the church has become a hot topic. Does this act bring down the holiness of the atmosphere in the church? Is selling coffee okay? Shouldn’t the church be an oasis where the use of the god of this world-money- doesn’t even present itself as an option? Sipping the freely provided coffee before heading into the sanctuary is a wonderful way to connect with other members of the church, but I wonder if selling it within the four walls of the church is another issue all together.

I can’t help wonder what Jesus would think. I’m reminded that the only mention of Jesus being angry and showing sharp emotion, was when people were buying and selling on the Sabbath in the temple.

(Luke 19:45)
“Then Jesus entered the temple courts and began to drive out those who were selling there.“

(Mark 11:17)Then Jesus began to teach them, and He declared, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.'”

(Matthew 21:12) “Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.”

Matthew Henry’s commentary states: If Christ came now into many parts of his visible church, how many secret evils he would discover and cleanse! And how many things daily practiced under the cloak of religion, would he show to be more suitable to a den of thieves than to a house of prayer!

The citizens of this country have greatly distanced themselves from the Lord’s idea of a Sabbath day of rest. It was meant to be a day set apart for us, to reconnect with God as well as family. It was meant to be a day to teach our children and remind ourselves, that life within the guidelines of the Lord, is a life built on a solid foundation- one that will not only withstand the troubles of life but overcome them in order to live the abundant life. The only way we can understand how to achieve this is by deep study of the Bible.

Keep the Sabbath Day holy is Commandment number four. It is a day to go to a church -an oasis from the secular world- to worship and be refreshed. The remainder of the day should be spent reconnecting to our loving relationships without the powers of darkness ruling our schedule bringing us back into the rat race on this holy and set apart day.

I think we- myself included- oftentimes go with the flow of society and accept all the changes in the world and in our churches without a second thought. However, the more I read Scripture the more I realize that God directs us for our own good. Keeping a singularly focused and reverent atmosphere in the church has actually healed the sick in churches of old.

Yes there is the argument that we don’t want to fall into either trench on the path to keeping the Sabbath day holy. The rigid trench, where families attend church both morning and evening and sit silently doing nothing enjoyable during the day. Or the trench of the “anything goes mentality.”

I feel each individual and each church should reevaluate the degree of reverence they give this day.

What I know for sure is that our loving Heavenly Father placed “Keep the Sabbath Day Holy” on the same list as “Do not Kill” for a reason, and that reason is to benefit us.

“Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.”(Lev 19:30)

Food For Thought,

Lisa

This is a link to my favorite Bible with excellent teaching points. Click here