Good Sabbaths make for good Christians! One pastor guarded a Sabbath day off carefully. A church member said, “I can’t believe you take a day off. The devil never takes a day off!” The pastor said, “You are right, and if I did not, I would be just like him.” I take Monday as a Sabbath when I can because for me it is a day of holy rest, holy reflection, holy re-creation and holy reading. By holy I mean “set apart.” The writer of Hebrews says in 4:9, “So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.”
Disconnected time, keeping the Sabbath wholly also involves earnest prayer. The good news is that Jesus, our Advocate sympathizes with our weaknesses. When the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness for forty days, Satan tempted him there. We know of three temptations but there may have been many more. Temptation is not sin! Jesus faced the same kinds of temptations we do but chose not to give in. Solomon wrote in Proverbs 1:10, “My son if sinful men entice you do not give in to them.”
Since Jesus is our great and sympathetic High Priest, we come near to the throne of grace with confidence that we will receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. Remember that mercy means we do not receive the punishment we deserve. Grace means we receive the love and forgiveness that we don’t deserve. Remember the great old hymn, “At Calvary”? “Mercy there was great and grace was free, pardon there was multiplied to me. There my burdened soul found liberty at Calvary.” God’s grace offers forgiveness and leads us to rest. When will you find and take a Sabbath to set your whole life apart to God?
