“For God alone my soul waits in silence; from Him comes my salvation. He only is my Rock and my salvation, my Fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.” – Psalm 62:1, 2
“And He (Jesus) said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while. For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.” – Mark 6:31
We can experience Sabbath rest in many different ways. In fact, we have already seen that the religious elite were criticized by Jesus in the strict definitions that made Sabbath more of a burden than a blessing. This is when Jesus reminded them that Sabbath was created for man not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27). Jesus was saying that everyone has unique circumstances that can sometimes make their Sabbath a little different than another persons.
However, the principle of Sabbath is a Spiritual Truth for everyone. The words of Jesus warning the Pharisees of being too legalistic were not permission for us to throw it out all together! Sabbath is necessary and must be practiced to live a healthy and abundant life. We do not have to be Pharisees about it but we do have to be intentional. Sabbath does not happen in our world unless we deliberately plan it. If we wait for a convenient time it will never happen!
There are certain things that are key ingredients for Sabbath no matter what your Sabbath may look like. First, there is silence as mentioned in the Psalm above. A quieting of the soul. However or wherever you take a Sabbath rest, there needs to be a “stepping back” from the frenzy of your everyday life. Sometimes our Blessed Heavenly Father is just waiting for us to stop and be quiet. So, no matter what you do for Sabbath, there needs to be, what I call, “soul silence”.
Secondly, your focus during this rest should be “God alone” as it says above. Part of the Sabbath principle is recognizing our dependence on God for all that we have. he is our Salvation…our Rock…our Fortress. We don’t need a mantra or a secret phrase to chant. We simply need to come to Jesus and sit at His feet.
Lastly, the busier we are…the more we need it. In the verse above Jesus encourages His disciples to get away for a Sabbath. They were so busy they didn’t have time to eat! Sometimes we use this as an excuse to not observe a Sabbath in our lives…”I don’t have time right now”…”I’m pretty busy, maybe later”. Sounds to me like you need a Sabbath now more than ever. No matter how busy you are, you are not as busy as Jesus was. Sabbath did not come to Him either without intentional effort. In His life, He would get up early…stay up late…leave the crowd and go for a hike…get in a boat…etc. But, He did it. Why? Because it is important.
Today, your Sabbath may not look like mine but it should have “soul silence”, a focus on God and a pause from your normal schedule. May you experience God’s refreshing today!