Seven Final Thoughts about Keeping the Sabbath

Rachel: [00:00:00]

Rest doesn’t have to be a four-letter word. If you feel like you’re about to break from exhaustion. Let me invite you to Simply Sabbath, a podcast for the burnt-out Christian mom, who longs to get back to the core of who she is and to reclaim the deep joy and stabilizing peace Jesus has for her in her every day– without the mom guilt that often accompanies self-care practices.

Hi, my name is Rachel Fahrenbach and I help busy moms just like you add a simple restful family Sabbath to their week. So they can experience a refueling that gives them exactly what they need to live the life that God has called them to. I’m so glad you’ve joined me today. Let’s get to it.

As you can probably gather from the title today’s episode. This is the last episode of the Simply Sabbath [00:01:00] podcast, at least for now. For the past few months, God has been asking me to record this episode and put the podcast into a state of rest. And let me tell you, I’ve been fighting him on it. You would think after the last, almost four years now, actually it’s been four years of practicing Sabbath.

I would do a little bit better with resting things at his feet, but I am still working on it, and that’s why we call it a practice, not perfection. But yes, I feel God asking me to put the podcast into a state of rest. Now, before I get into what that means for Simply Sabbath as a whole and what that means for you as far as resources and tools, I wanted to share seven final thoughts I have about Sabbath. These are things that have been rolling around in my mind, different podcast episodes I thought I would’ve record and I wanted to make sure that even though they won’t be their [00:02:00] own individual episodes, that I at least share them with you.

I’m gonna try to get through this episode without crying because just because God asks us to put something to rest doesn’t mean that it’s not hard in the process. And I think Sabbath teaches us that. I think the practice of Sabbath teaches us that we show up to this weekly submission, we show up to this weekly surrendering of our lives and we give it to Jesus and we ask him to carry it because we know we have our limitations and we know that we can’t do it on our own.

And we show up week after week. And in some ways it gets a little easier, and in others it still is hard, because although we live this side of the cross, we also still live in a world tainted by sin.

So when we’re trying [00:03:00] to explore topics of identity and purpose and knowing what God’s will is for our. It can be hard sometimes when we think we’ve figured out things to then be told to pivot to then to then be told to set things down. It’s hard.

It can be hard to let go of the good things and I. I chuckled. Now, as I say that, because it’s obviously something we’ve been talking about on this podcast for the last year, right? The last year of, Hey, you need to set this down. God is asking you to rest these things at his feet to stop taking so much on your own shoulders and put it on him.

He’s been asking you to stop thinking that the world is going to fall apart if you stop. And I’ll, I’ll be honest, I was a little guilty of this when God asked me to put this podcast into a state of rest. I was like, but what are, what are these women gonna do about this [00:04:00] conversation? Who are they gonna have this conversation with?

How are they going to be reminded to rest weekly if I don’t do the podcast? And, uh, what God has been showing me the last couple months is that there are others, Who are taking up that, that conversation who are not just talking about rest as like a nap or self-care or soul care, but people who are really talking about the Sabbath rest, talking about it in, in very, um, biblical and deep ways.

And so it’s just a reminder, it’s just a reminder to me that I’m just one person that God is using to bring about His purposes. And so it’s not all on my shoulders fancy that it’s not all on my shoulders to make things happen. It’s God who brings about the outcome.

I just get the privilege of [00:05:00] working alongside of him. And so I’ve had to remind myself of that as I contemplated what I wanted to say on this last episode because trust me, as I was starting to like put things into a state of rest on the website for the podcast, all those things. I have had a bunch of different ideas of things that could help you guys and things that would be helpful to me as a busy mom practicing Sabbath and I’m like, oh, I should make this resource, or I should do this, I should do that.

And I started to get this vision of what it could be, and the Holy Spirit had to be like, Rachel, I’m asking you to be obedient in putting it down. there will always be ideas. There will always be a thing to do. There will be always something that you could accomplish with this, but that’s not what I’m asking you to. I’m asking you to put it down.

And so [00:06:00] here we are. I decided to write down just seven thoughts that I have. Just seven final thoughts that I wanna make sure to share with you. Think that I think that God put upon my heart to share. That’s it. I won’t be creating any new resources. I won’t be making anything, any more episodes for now.

I share all that in hopes that if you find yourself in a season of transition, a season of pivoting, a season of putting things to rest, that you remember that it’s about obedience not about productivity, it’s about surrender and submission. It’s about following God’s will for your life, even if it doesn’t fully make sense to you.

And even if you have accomplished some really cool things, and even if you have been able to do some good work through it. [00:07:00] This has happened to me before. There have been things I’ve been a part of that God has brought to a close that were good and, and beautiful things that brought glory to him, but he brought them to an end. And each time it has been hard and each time I’ve held on, each time I’ve held on pretty tightly actually.

And each time he be, he reminds me that it’s really not up to me, that I’m just a steward. I am just a part of his kingdom. I’m just one person. But what an honor and a privilege and a joy to be able to engage in that kingdom work with him, and I’m really and truly thankful for it. So right now I wanna share these seven thoughts, and they’re just gonna be.

It’s just short and sweet, and we’re not gonna go really deep into them, but I did wanna share them with you. It’s just some final thoughts on Sabbath [00:08:00] and then we’ll kind of wrap up and I would like to pray over us before I go.

So here we go. Let me start with thought number one. My first thought I wanted to share with you is the fact that your season of life may change, but the rhythm of Sabbath doesn’t. And I wanted to remind you of this because I think especially. in the world we live in today, we talk a lot about seasons of life and changes and being okay with change and letting things go and moving on and all these things.

And you may have to adjust things. You may have to put things down for a time and that’s all good. And that’s true. I mean, I just talked about that. But what doesn’t change is the ongoing conversation with the Lord about putting things at his feet, the ongoing surrendering of your life to him, the ongoing resting in his provision and his [00:09:00] sacrifice, the ongoing resting with him, the ongoing rejoicing with him, the delighting with him, the ongoing weekly practice of showing up and saying, Lord, thank you for the ways you provided for me this week. Thank you for the ways that you are good and holy and faithful. Thank you.

 Thank you for time to enjoy the works of my hands. Thank you for the privilege to engage with the work that you’ve given me.

Thank you for the joy to just simply Sabbath, to just simply be in your presence and delight in it. Thank you to just simply be here and not have anything demanded of me. Thank you. That rhythm of that posture of rest and relaxing, and rejoicing and remembering and reflecting. That never goes away. [00:10:00] That is not a season.

That’s life. The weekly rhythm of saying I am going to stop the week, work week has finished, and now this is the day of. that doesn’t ever change. Even when the Israelites were taken into captivity, I mean talk about a, a change of season of life, even then they Sabbath, even when they were at war, they Sabbath. It might look a little differently for them.

And you know, with your practice of Sabbath, that might change a little bit. You might have a little bit of altering of what you do on your Sabbath or when you practice your Sabbath, but the weekly rhythm of that posture of Sabbath rest, that doesn’t change. And so I wanna leave you the three questions you can ask yourself in those moments where you’re like, man, things are kind of shifted.

Things have kind of changed. And I’m not quite sure that what we’re doing is working. And so the three [00:11:00] questions I would leave with you are these. One ask what’s working? What is working? , maybe it feels like there’s some things that are off, but some things are working and those are things that we’re gonna hold onto to.

What could be a little smoother? Maybe it’s not that it’s not working. Maybe it’s the fact that it just needs a little bit of an adjustment. Maybe it seems like you can’t get your family meal on the table soon enough to start Sabbath. Well, maybe it needs an adjustment either in your prep beforehand, or maybe you just need to make that meal start a little later.

It’s, it’s the posture of being open. It’s a curious question, what is working? What could go smoother? And then finally, what’s obviously not working? What do we need to adjust? If you take those three questions and apply them to your Sabbath practice in the stage of life that you’re in, in the season of life that you’re in, you’ll be able to identify where you need to make [00:12:00] adjustments.

Adjustments, not full blown changes. Not throwing Sabbath out the window because suddenly it feels like it doesn’t work for this season of life because Sabbath is a posture of the heart, not a thing we do or don’t do. And so I just wanna make sure to leave that with you, especially in this time of pivoting for me in this time of a seasonal change as far as what professionally I am doing and what our family is doing.

We have some changes coming up this year, and so I just wanna say to you that don’t throw Sabbath out the window when those new seasons of life comes. Keep the rhythmic practice, adjust the way that it’s executed. Okay?

All right, second. Second thought for you. don’t skip the Shabbat meal, which we also sometimes call the family meal.

Don’t skip that [00:13:00] and make it special. I, I think oftentimes people kind of just, they feel like maybe it feels a little too traditional, maybe it feels a little too, um, legalistic in a way, uh, to have this like ritual to start your Sabbath. It maybe feels a little bit like, oh, like. We’re making a show of it or something.

I don’t know, like people have different reasons why they kind of avoid the Shabbat meal or the family meal. And um, for those of you who might be new, newer to the podcast and simply Sabbath, the Shabbat meal in the Jewish tradition is the meal, the family meal where everyone gathers to start Shabbat, to start the Sabbath.

And I personally think that every, I personally think that every family, every Christian family should be doing this. I really do believe it is such a powerful, powerful repetition, powerful tool, powerful practice [00:14:00] for your family. It creates connectivity once a week. It creates connectivity around remembering that God is our faithful provider.

It creates connectivity around this idea of rest, not something we have to do. And it creates like this joyous atmosphere for the next 24 hours. Because you’re approaching it like, like a special time, like it’s like Christmas without all the drama of the hustle and bustle and the like, huge preparations, because Christmas is such a big deal because it’s like this weekly rhythm of just rejoicing.

And so it’s like all the good parts of Christmas, like the fun, the food, the family, the, the, just the connectivity, the traditions, the, all of that. It’s all of that beauty wrapped up into a weekly meal and it’s such this beautiful gathering of your family around this idea of rest. and it’s, [00:15:00] it’s powerful. But I think the most powerful part of having a Shabbat meal or having a family meal is the fact that our children are gonna remember it. Because here’s the thing, they may remember that we rested every week. But because we might do things differently each week as we rest. So one week maybe we might play board games, but the next week we go on a family walk and the next week we might all read. Because that kind of changes from week to week. They’re gonna remember it in this like, uh, ideal, like, oh yeah, we rested and we did these things we enjoyed, but having the Shabbat meal with some like liturgical practices in there, and liturgy is just simply like a formalized public worship, right? It’s just like something that’s rhythmic, repetitious, and remembers that God is who he is, right? So it’s just this [00:16:00] form of like connective worship, um, together in a, in a very rhythmic and repetitious way.

Now, I say that because what happens is when we start our Sabbath every week with a meal that has some kind of ceremony involved, some sort of formality to it, it begins to solidify in our children’s minds, this is a celebration. We are coming to this in a joyous way. We are celebrating the fact that we get to rest.

We are celebrating the fact that God loves us enough to have given us rest, not just physical rest, but spiritual rest as well through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we are creating in our children a practice of remembrance and we are pointing them back to God and we are setting them up for remembering in the future. We are giving them something tangible to remember because it’s [00:17:00] the same every week, and so not only does it bring beautiful moments to your life and enriches your family life, Now in your current season of practicing Sabbath, it will have a future impact on your children.

I mean, just think about when you’re thinking about traditions that your family has had over the years, and when you remember them fondly and you’re like, oh yeah, we used to do this and da, da, da, da. Right? It’s the same concept. Like, oh yeah. Every week we would light the Sabbath candles and we would recite the Lord’s prayer together and we would welcome in the Sabbath.

And then we got to just do fun things for the next 24 hours. And we just rested as a family and we reconnected and remember that God is the provider and we don’t have to work so like we don’t have to strive for our salvation. We don’t have to strive for anything. We know we can trust him, we can depend on him.

Like what a gift and a blessing to our children. when we do that for them.

[00:18:00] So number three is kind of connected to number two, start putting traditions into your Sabbath practice.

Now, I mentioned about the Sabbath meal, having maybe some liturgy. You can, um, maybe find some books on blessings or prayers, uh, that you could incorporate. I have written a script. You can find that on my website. A script to use during the family meal. You can, you can do whatever you want.

During the family meal, you can light candles. You don’t have to. Once again, it’s not prescriptive in scriptures what we do during the Sabbath, other than a few like don’ts that God laid out, which can be pretty much summed up at don’t do things where you’re actively trying to provide, this is the time for you to rest and allow me to be your provider.

Right? So other than that, like we really have a lot of freedom in the way that we practice Sabbath and so, The key here is to make some traditions for your family that your kids can recall in the future, and it doesn’t [00:19:00] have to necessarily be around the Sabbath meal. Maybe it’s the fact that you play the same song every week to start your, maybe you have a dance party to kick off your Sabbath.

I don’t know. You guys know your family. you have an idea of what would be a great tradition and just maybe try a couple things. Traditions are born out of just trying different things and finding what your family kind of gels around, and so just be, be willing to experiment, be willing to incorporate different things.

Don’t strive for perfection, to strive for connectivity between your family and each other and your family and God during the Sabbath and try to pick traditions that enhance that and point your family in that direction. Okay?

Number four. You don’t have to carry everything on your shoulders. Now, I want to say this. We have said this [00:20:00] many times throughout this podcast, but I think as bears repeating, you, mama, listen to me. Busy mom, that you are, you will be tempted to carry it all on your shoulders. Every little thing you’ll think will have to rely on you. You’ll think that if you don’t do X, Y, and Z, the world is going to fall apart.

And there might be some truth to that, but it doesn’t have to be. And there might be some truth to that, but I would challenge you to ask the Holy Spirit to show you three things. One, where do you just need to put a deadline on something? You keep saying, oh, it’s just a season. It’s just a season. It’s just a really busy season.

When is the season going to end? Because seasons have an ending, so maybe you need to put a deadline on something that you have. Added to your to-do list, added to your rhythms of life, and maybe it needs a deadline. It needs to be like, [00:21:00] Nope, I’m good. I’m done. This is when it ends. This will no longer be a part of my every day.

So where do you need to put a deadline? Where do you need to ask for help? You may think you have to take it all on your shoulders, but you don’t. You have a spouse, you have kids, you have friends, you have family, you have a church community.

You need to lean into those. I hate to say it this way, but I think a lot of times we busy moms just get in our own ways, like we cultivate that for ourselves because let’s be honest, there’s a little bit of pride in knowing that we’re needed. There’s a little bit pride in the fact that, hey, somebody needs me and I can show up for them.

I’m needed. I’m wanted, I can do this thing, I can provide, I can make this happen. And there, there can be pride in there that very easily. [00:22:00] So I would challenge you to prayerfully consider where do you need to ask for help? Where do you need to let go of perfectionism?

Where do you need to let go of pride and where do you need to invite others to come and join you and link Arms and be your team with you? Then finally I would challenge you to ask the question, what do I need to let go of? You may have picked up something that you were never meant to pick up, and you need to set it down.

That committee that you got yourself on. maybe you were never meant to be on that committee. And you know it. Deep down inside you know it, but you won’t let it go because now you’ve gotten yourself in to this committee and you have said yes to things and now everybody’s depending on you and you just feel bad and you don’t wanna let it drop because it does help your family out.

And you know it’s for your kid. And just stop. Just stop. You are one person. [00:23:00] you need to move outta the way and let somebody else take that spot, somebody else who probably is supposed to be on that committee. So if you are not supposed to be doing the thing, put it down, let it go. Now you might be in a season of life where you picked up something really good and you brought that onto your plate and it was good for a time.

But now that season has ended. There is a deadline and the Lord has asked you to let it go. And you might be like me at the beginning of this episode where I was explaining to you guys that I kind of hold on tight to things. When God asks me to let them go, it takes a little bit for me to open up my fist that’s wrapped around it and say, okay, Lord, I surrender it to you.

And maybe that’s where you’re at today and you need to do that surrendering. So, Prayerfully consider what it is that you need to let it go, because either you picked it up and you were never supposed to have it, or maybe it has been a good thing, but now it’s time. Okay. All right. That’s all I’m gonna say on that.[00:24:00]

Number five, Sabbath is a gift wrapped up in a command. And not only that, but it’s a protective gift wrapped up in a command. Now people have been debating left and right about whether or not Sabbath is something that Christians should observe. And you can listen to my past episodes about that and my thoughts about why I think that Christians should continue to observe Sabbath. But here’s the thing, it’s the fourth commandment. It’s part of the 10 Commandments, and yet we so easily dismiss it.

 I wanna make sure that I state this very clearly here. I know I’ve mentioned it offhand in some interviews I’ve done on this podcast, but I don’t think I’ve ever actually stated it. That Sabbath is a gift wrapped up in a command. We find it in the fourth commandment, but it exists before and after that moment.

God ceased from his work so that we could start ours. It’s an invitation into kingdom work. It’s a catalyst for [00:25:00] us to live out our design. It is a propelling forward of us using this life that God has given us. God set creation in motion and then he said, I am stepping back. So that creation gets to do its thing. Now of course, sin comes into the world and it kind of Mars everything, but we get this gift each week to be reminded of what our original design was.

Our original design was to live and dwell with the Lord. Doing his work with him. That’s what the garden was. It was a intimacy, a dwelling width. And so sometimes I think we forget the very, very deep theological implications of Sabbath. The fact that Sabbath was given to us to be able to live out our purpose, to bring glory and honor to God, to reflect him in his [00:26:00] image, to be image bear.

If God didn’t rest, we wouldn’t be able to live out our design as creators small “c” reflecting the creator large “C”. So not only does Sabbath give you a weekly rhythm to remember who God is, it’s a weekly rhythm of remembrance, of whose you are, who you are, and what you have been called to do.

And on top of that, in the middle of us marring everything with sin. God sent his son Jesus perfectly human, perfectly God sinless living out what it really meant to be an image bearer. He lived it out here on Earth for us. And in doing so, showed us what Sabbath rest really is. [00:27:00] It is God dwelling with us, us dwelling with God, and engaging in kingdom work.

 I hope that as you listen to this, um, podcast that you will have begun to hear that in the things that I say and in the conversations between me and my guests, the conversations that I just bring up here, and I hope you begin to understand that Sabbath is bigger than just a nap.

There’s some scholars that believe that the seventh day actually doesn’t end. It was never meant to end. that sin brought an end to that seventh day.

That the seventh day, the Sabbath is a dwelling of God with humanity in doing the kingdom work. Um, I actually kind of, I, I think I probably lean towards that myself. Um, now obviously there’s theologians on both sides of the conversation, but I just love that concept that Sabbath was this, this thing that happened.

It was active in the rest. [00:28:00] In that intimate dwelling with God, and I love the fact that even though sin marred everything, God gave it to us still. He gave us the sampling of what it was supposed to be in the seventh day of our week where we dwell with God, we enjoy with him. We set things down and we remember that one day he is going to restore and redeem and make right and bring things back to that garden kingdom.

 It’s this holistic thing where we both can simultaneously have rest and work. It’s not fractured. What a beautiful gift that we got to see. A little taste of that in the person of Jesus in his life here on earth. What a gift. He is our Sabbath rest. He is God dwelling with us.

And more than that, he did what we could not [00:29:00] do on our own. He forgave us of our sin. He redeemed us. He bought us with a price. What a gift. There is no striving on our part. There is no nothing we can do because we are just simply the creation reflecting the creator.

Sometimes we stop that gift at the cross and the resurrection, and we forget about the ascension. We forget about the ascension being a part of that gift.

If Christ didn’t rest from his work here on earth, by ascending back into heaven, the Holy Spirit could not take up residence with us. He could not be dwelling with us and actively working out things. We are the hands and feet of Jesus. We are doing his work reflecting His glory. We are [00:30:00] getting to actively participate in the restoration of the world.

There is a new heaven and a new earth coming a new Jerusalem. There is a newness that is coming and we get to be part of that work in the meantime. So not only do we get to be in this bigger gift we get every week a reminder of that every week, a chance to just be and dwell in anticipation of what’s coming.

And every week we get a moment to rest our physical bodies, our emotional selves, and remember who we are in our spirit.

It is a gift and it protects us from our from our pride, from our desire to do it all, from our perfectionism, from our pursuit of being God, instead of glorifying God, of being the creator, instead of simply being an image of him, an image bearer of him.

It [00:31:00] protects us from that, it puts us into our proper place, realigns us and reminds us who we. Who’s we are and why we’re here. Okay. I hope you hung in with me. I know that was a little deep. It’s a little big. I know. I don’t give it full justice, but it’s amazing you guys. It’s amazing. It’s amazing the fact that God has given us this privilege to be a part of hi his work that he created this world for it, for him to dwell with us. and do things with us and co-rule with like, it’s just amazing to me to know that this world was created for God to dwell with us. That that has been it from the beginning. He has always wanted to dwell with us. He has always wanted to Sabbath with us. [00:32:00] He has always wanted to just be with us. Enjoy us.

He’s created us with a purpose to create and to cultivate in all those things. Yes, but the desire was for him to always, always was for him to dwell with us intimately.

It’s such a beautiful gift, such a beautiful gift, but I hope you never forget that, that yes, it’s a command. Yes, it’s a gift. Just a both. And you guys, we respond out of obedience because he is our creator and we are his image bears, and he wants to dwell with us.

Number six, Sabbath is an invitation into both the work and the rest that God has called you to. Now, we just went pretty deep in the last thing, so I’m not gonna say much, but I’m going to say this. You were created with a purpose. You are loved, [00:33:00] valued, and not forgotten. You are not just randomly popped here on earth to just live out a life of meaninglessness. You are designed to bring glory and honor to God. You are an image bearer and you do that in the most of unique of ways.

You have unique roles, unique giftings, unique communities where you are an image bearer. And Sabbath is an invitation to remember that Sabbath is an invitation for you to sit at the feet of Jesus and let him speak into you the truth of who you are and who He is, the fact that you belong to him. You are wanted, you are loved.

It is an invitation for you to set down the things that you have on your plate for just a day. Yes, even the good things that you’re doing for the Lord, and simply be with him and enjoy the fruit of your labor to simply be with him and [00:34:00] enjoy the things are left undone because it doesn’t depend on. He is the one who brings about the outcome in there is freedom and there is joy in that, and there is a stabilizing peace.

When you realize that the world is not going to fall apart because it was never you sustaining it. It was always the Lord.

And finally, Sabbath is a guide. What do I mean by this? Sabbath is a weekly practice of reflection, of remembrance and of rejoicing. It is saying, I used to be back here, but here’s where I’m at, and look at what God did in between those two things, and now that gives faith to moving forward.

We cannot move forward until we know where we’ve been and where we currently are. And that comes from the practice of remembering what God has done for us and reflecting on that. Sabbath is when we come to the end of our week and we say, wow, look at what X, Y, Z [00:35:00] happened this week. But guess what? God was always there. And look what he did and look how he provided and look how he was faithful and look how he led and look how he loved and look how he extended Grace to us.

If we don’t remember whose we and how he shows up for us week after week. We lose sight of where he’s leading us. If we don’t remember where we’ve been and where we currently are and where God has brought us in that process, we will not be ready to take the next step in where he’s leading us.

It starts with remembering decision making. Starts with remembering, it starts with reflection and it starts with rejoicing in the provision and faithfulness of our God.

So having said that, I guess this would be a good place to go into what’s next for Simply Sabbath. As I mentioned at the top of the episode, God has asked me to put this into a place of rest [00:36:00] and I that is what I’m doing. There will be no more episodes added to the podcast. For now, I am considering it in a restful state.

 Maybe one day God will have me pick it back up again, but for now, there will be no more episodes being added to it, but the podcast will still be available for you to access. You can go back and listen to past episodes whenever you’d like. You can also visit the website, simply sabbath.com, and I have a page on there, it’s called Dig Deeper, where I kind of categorized all the different podcasts.

So if you’re looking for something in particular, it’s a little bit easier to find. I also have on the website a step-by-step guide into how to start practicing. and I have created printable download of some sample schedules, some checklists and things like that. There’s also a script that you can use during your Shabbat meal that I’ve created that you can purchase.

And then I also have a guided journal. It’s called Rest and Reflect, and this guided journal is really to be used as a, um, [00:37:00] part of your Sabbath practice. The reflective part of it, it’s meant to help weekly devotions and daily prompts for digging to that conversation identity, purpose and belonging within this in within this restful state because I believe that when you’re in a restful state, you can hear a little bit better from God as to the truth of who you are, who’s you are, and what you’ve been called to do. So that’s what you can find at simplysabbath.com. I really hope you will take advantage of all the resources available to you that we’ve cultivated over this past year together.

So I want to close out this episode with a prayer. Normally I close out with an episode with an invitation to come back next week, but this week I wanna close with prayer, but would you join me?

Lord Jesus, I lift up every busy Christian mom here who has been listening to this podcast and every single one that will come to this podcast in the future. I ask that you would [00:38:00] meet her where she’s at, that you would remind her of the permission that you’ve given her to rest and the plan that you’ve given her to do it, that you would remind her that Sabbath is bigger than just taking a nap each week.

But sometimes that’s where it starts. For us. Sometimes just getting the nap is what we need to do in order to dig deeper into this idea of Sabbath being tied to our identity and purpose. and our sense of belonging. Sometimes getting the nap is the next step in drawing closer to you. But Lord, may we not stop there with just naps.

In other self-care, may we dig in deep and take care of our souls during this time too. May we rest not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually. May we remember that you are a provider, God, that you continue to work on our behalf even when we stop working, may we [00:39:00] remember that we can rest together as a family.

It can be in the simplest of ways, but the intentionality and weekly rhythm of it is a necessity. May we remember that you have gifted this to us in deep and beautiful and impactful ways that you have invited us into both working with you and resting with you, delighting with you, dwelling with you.

Lord, may we remember that our weeks are busier than they were ever intended to be. May we put down the things that we are not supposed to have on our plate. May we turn our to-do list over to you. May we seek your wisdom and your guidance and your counsel on what should be on that list and what needs to drop away.

May we hold with an open hand, the things you’ve entrusted to us, knowing that you may ask us to set the down. And may we be okay and trusting when you do. And Lord, may [00:40:00] we remember that you love us, that you gave your son for us, that you died and rose again for us that you are our true Sabbath rest. We don’t practice Sabbath because we’re striving for salvation.

We practice Sabbath because it is a weekly reminder that you have already done the work. We don’t need to strive for your favor. You give it to us freely. You forgive us freely because it never depended on us. It has always been you and your work. Lord, you are creator God, you sustain. We merely are stewards of that creation.

Sometimes we get that flipped in our heads and we think we are more. We are more than just simply image bearers. We think we are more and we bring pride into that identity. Lord, may we be forgiven of that pride and may [00:41:00] you humble us. And fix our eyes on you. May we live out our calling. May we live out our purposes, may we live out our roles and our responsibilities all for your goodness and for your glory.

And may we remember that you are the one who is directing our steps and bringing about the outcome. It’s not our striving. We cannot control what happens. We can only control our obedience to you and the things that you ask of us. And Lord, we ask that you would help us rest that all at your feet that we would show up for our families that we show up for our communities.

We would show up in the work that you have called us to do in a manner that is rested in you, in a manner that is not exhausted, not burnt out, not tired, to the point where we can’t even function. Lord, may we show up to our work refueled and refreshed because we understand that it is from you that we draw that energy.

It is from you that we draw [00:42:00] that joy. It is from you that comes that peace. Lord, may we rest with you each week and remember that you have called us to this work and you will sustain it. May we remember that you have given us the task that we have on our to-do list and may we execute it and then may we come to you on the seventh day of the week and simply rest with you.

Simply Sabbath with you, Lord, not expecting anything. Not having any demands on the time, but just reconnecting with you and with each other. Lord, may we reflect on your goodness and your mercy. May we rest in the provision of your grace and may we rejoice as sons and daughters of God, of you, God.

I ask a blessing on the listeners of this podcast. I ask that you would [00:43:00] give them what they need this week to do the work that you’ve called them to, and when they arrive at Sabbath, I pray that you would help them to set things down at your feet and fall into your arms and rest. In your precious and holy name Jesus.

Amen.