Every Day is Sunday
For many - many. - years now ... Since I first understood what 'sabbath' meant - I have desired and most times accomplish a 'day of rest'. Different than the other six days of the week. And I usually but, not always, pick Sunday.
In the beginning of my honoring the sabbath I would put aside my knitting needles from sundown to sundown beginning on Saturday and ending on Sunday. I also closed my computer. Well, in those days? I had a desktop pc so I just didn't turn it on. No email. No text. No website. No searching. Nor surfing.
It felt good to give that time instead to other creative endeavors and acts of worship. This could involve prayerfully making a list of the goals for the coming week. Prayers of gratitude for all that had been accomplished in the week before. Songs of praise for the glorious God of all Creation who had blessed me with good friends, loving children, provision and shelter and good foods to eat. Sometimes I took my praise and blessings and went to the local church. Sometimes I spent the day making a sanctuary - a quite corner with a soft chair in the light of the window. A screened in back porch with a swing to soothe the tired soul. A balcony overlooking water and water foul - in the city. All the lovely and delightful visuals - those things He created for my enjoyment? I take those in, and He writes it on my heart. And His Word also. Engraved. Like my name in His hand.
Then there is the auditory. The sounds of Creation - gentle and stormy winds whispering through tall trees, hummingbirds battling for position at their feeders, mountain garter snakes hatching under houses and searching for their own shelter and finding home? All make their own music to worship their Creator with.
To be a part of others in worship - in Spirit. It is a daily act. Everything I do, I have learned, can be that act. Doing all in excellence becomes the praise - the sweet fragrance of an offering to Him. So yes. Every day is Sunday. If every day honors the heavenly father - creator of all things - with acts of worship, in the form of love, then every day becomes honorable. Every day can be an act of sabbath. As well, I believe it should be. If being His is only for that twenty four hour period - or just the two I may spend in church on Sunday? I am not obeying the commandment of Christ himself - to love my God with all my heart and mind and my neighbor as myself. The commandment is a daily call to excellence in everything I do. Everything I say. All that I hope for or can achieve. His call is irrevocable so I have to commit every day to Him and bringing glory to him by the way I live my life.
So I still observe the sabbath - a day of rest from the daily cares, a time to meditate on the goodness of God himself. To indulge in His Word. To look to him - for him - for his voice, his touch, his direction. A time to praise him, with my voice, my heart, my mind. And if I can have a moment of sabbath each day, Sunday brings a culmination of the weeks offerings and refreshes my spirit so that I once again go into the week ahead with hope in my heart and faith in my soul - that God IS who says he is. That Jesus lives and his Holy Spirit dwells deeply.
"Faith comes from hearing. And hearing comes from the Word of God."
In the beginning of my honoring the sabbath I would put aside my knitting needles from sundown to sundown beginning on Saturday and ending on Sunday. I also closed my computer. Well, in those days? I had a desktop pc so I just didn't turn it on. No email. No text. No website. No searching. Nor surfing.
It felt good to give that time instead to other creative endeavors and acts of worship. This could involve prayerfully making a list of the goals for the coming week. Prayers of gratitude for all that had been accomplished in the week before. Songs of praise for the glorious God of all Creation who had blessed me with good friends, loving children, provision and shelter and good foods to eat. Sometimes I took my praise and blessings and went to the local church. Sometimes I spent the day making a sanctuary - a quite corner with a soft chair in the light of the window. A screened in back porch with a swing to soothe the tired soul. A balcony overlooking water and water foul - in the city. All the lovely and delightful visuals - those things He created for my enjoyment? I take those in, and He writes it on my heart. And His Word also. Engraved. Like my name in His hand.
Then there is the auditory. The sounds of Creation - gentle and stormy winds whispering through tall trees, hummingbirds battling for position at their feeders, mountain garter snakes hatching under houses and searching for their own shelter and finding home? All make their own music to worship their Creator with.
To be a part of others in worship - in Spirit. It is a daily act. Everything I do, I have learned, can be that act. Doing all in excellence becomes the praise - the sweet fragrance of an offering to Him. So yes. Every day is Sunday. If every day honors the heavenly father - creator of all things - with acts of worship, in the form of love, then every day becomes honorable. Every day can be an act of sabbath. As well, I believe it should be. If being His is only for that twenty four hour period - or just the two I may spend in church on Sunday? I am not obeying the commandment of Christ himself - to love my God with all my heart and mind and my neighbor as myself. The commandment is a daily call to excellence in everything I do. Everything I say. All that I hope for or can achieve. His call is irrevocable so I have to commit every day to Him and bringing glory to him by the way I live my life.
So I still observe the sabbath - a day of rest from the daily cares, a time to meditate on the goodness of God himself. To indulge in His Word. To look to him - for him - for his voice, his touch, his direction. A time to praise him, with my voice, my heart, my mind. And if I can have a moment of sabbath each day, Sunday brings a culmination of the weeks offerings and refreshes my spirit so that I once again go into the week ahead with hope in my heart and faith in my soul - that God IS who says he is. That Jesus lives and his Holy Spirit dwells deeply.
"Faith comes from hearing. And hearing comes from the Word of God."
Comments