“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day and made it holy.” Exodus 20:8-11
I have learned that going to church on Sunday determines how I spend the whole day. Some of us missed church for months, even a year, because of the pandemic. Even being able to stream church (which I was able to do) is not the same as being there to worship with fellow believers. One thing I have learned is that when something is taken away from us for a time, we appreciate it more when we get it back. So, I make sure I go to church in person every Sunday.
God in his grace gave us the Sabbath – one day in seven – to rest. Now that I am old, I rest plenty! I don’t have to cook, or clean, and I can shop online. I am not required to work anymore, but I still do what work I can for Rafiki because I want to. It gives me a purpose to live. But I don’t work, even for Rafiki, on Sundays. I keep that day special. Jesus healed on the Sabbath (John 9), so I can do good on Sunday. However, Sundays are the days to rest and worship God.
It seems that today our culture uses Sunday for almost everything except worship. But Jesus said in John 4:23-24, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” Surely that hour has come and is now here in this time when the Father is seeking people to worship him. For that reason, I pray that more people will go to church where they hear the truth preached and worship God. I can pray in church too. Prayer is a “work” that I may and should do on Sunday. I love the hymn by Isaac Watts “How Sweet and Awesome Is the Place”. The last verse helps me pray:
“We long to see your churches full,
that all the chosen race
may, with one voice and heart and soul,
sing your redeeming grace.”
I am grateful that I live in a country where I can be present with other believers to worship God, to hear the truth preached, and to pray.
Being a simple person, I go to church on Sunday morning to
keep the day holy, and I take a nap in the afternoon to rest!
I, too, long to see churches full - especially of fathers taking their families there. That is becoming too rare an occurrence these days. It's good to worship each Sunday morning with others who worship Him, too. But there are occasional Sundays when the bustle and din of church would interrupt the worship already begun at home - and so I stay alone with Him. Those are my most precious Sabbaths.
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