Sabbath Practice Week 1: Making Space

Sabbath literally means to stop. It was and is a day set aside to stop working, stop wanting, and stop worrying, and instead, to rest and enjoy God’s presence. And since Sabbath is new for many of us, we want to start simple: set aside a 24 hour period during your coming week to rest and worship. This sounds easy, but like all good things, it will take practice. Be patient with yourself, with the practice, and with God as we go on this journey together. Allow yourself to settle into the rest of God! This is his ever extending invitation!

As you consider when you will sabbath, here are three primary options:

1. The Traditional Sabbath: Friday at sunset to Saturday at sunset. (If you find yourself busy with church duties on Sunday, this is a great option)

2. The Lord’s Day Sabbath: Saturday night to Sunday night. (This works best for many of us because we already have worship as a built in communal practice this day)

3. The Midweek Sabbath: Any day during the week (This works best for those with sporadic work schedules)

Decide in advance when you’ll want to begin (remember there will always be more things to do, so set a hard starting point) and if at all possible, pick a time that will work as a regular weekly rhythm.

Also, you might be wondering, when I stop working, wanting and worrying, what should I do? We’ll explore this question in detail during the course of our series, but for now, use this question to guide your activity on Sabbath: what brings me rest and what connects me to Jesus? Your day and your neighbour’s day will look different according to personality, preferences, stage of life, etc, but we desire for each of you to accept God’s invitation to cease striving and connect with Him!

Questions to ponder: these are questions that we encourage you to pray and think through (ideally with family or friends who follow Jesus with you) as you anticipate your practice, and as you reflect on your practice.

Anticipate:

1. Is Sabbath already part of my life? If yes, to what extent?

2. What has been, or you sense will be, your greatest obstacle to practicing Sabbath?

3. How does the idea of practicing Sabbath make you feel? Nervous about Sabbath being too legalistic? Skeptical about working this into your schedule? Full of anticipation for rest? Something entirely different?

4. What things help you rest? What things help you connect with Jesus? How can those things be a part of your Sabbath day?

Reflect:

1. What was your overall emotion as your reflect on the Sabbath? How does that emotion affect your anticipation of Sabbath coming this week?

2. How did it feel to stop? How did you experience the cultural current of busyness and productivity affecting your ability to cease working, wanting or worrying?

3. What things helped you rest and worship that you want to keep moving forward? What things might you want to edit about your initial practice?