Friday January 26, 2024

Today is Friday, January 26 and we are finding delight in God’s Sabbath.

As I enter a time of solitude with God, I sit quietly and still my mind. I breathe deeply in and out and center my whole being on God’s presence. I seek to learn how God wants to bless me in the practice of Sabbath.

Pause and Pray

Holy and loving God, I delight in your presence, I rejoice in your loving kindness, and I celebrate your goodness. I want to learn your way of living in this world. Teach me the rhythm of life you designed for your creation and help me find Sabbath rest in your love. Amen.

As a new day begins I seek God’s presence and praise him with the words of Psalm 43.

Send me your light and your faithful care, let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God. Psalm 43:3-4

Pause and Pray

The world is full of ugliness – poverty, injustice, war, and violence. It is also full of goodness. In the Genesis Creation story, God created the world and saw all that he made and declared it was very good. In Hebrew that word can also be translated “beautiful.” All too often the goodness and beauty of life is fractured by the brokenness of the fallen world in which we live. Trouble and sorrow are inevitable in life, suffering reaches everyone at some point. Joy however is something that is a gift of God. A gift we are able to choose. Joy and delight are benefits of life with Christ.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another. Romans 15:13-14

Sabbath is meant to foster joy and peace in our lives. Sabbath is a discipline of weekly celebration, a delivery mechanism for joy. It is a sacred time set aside for us to become people who are filled with delight. After God created the world, he rested on the seventh day. God stopped, rested and delighted in his creative work. We are invited at the end of the workweek to do the same. Sabbath is a time set aside to stop, rest and look back on what was accomplished in the past six days. We ask how we were blessed, what went well and what can we celebrate?

Ask: How might I set aside a weekly time for reflection, to ponder the events, accomplishments and blessings of the past six days? How might I enjoy a weekly celebration with God and others?

Pause and Pray

Most holy and loving God, you are a God of hope. I place all my trust in you. I entrust my life to you, my heart to you, and my soul to you. Fill me with joy and peace and overflow my heart with hope by the power of your Holy Spirit. Fill me with goodness and knowledge and grant me grace to lead and serve others. I read the words from Romans again and listen for the message you have for me.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another. Romans 15:13-14

Ask: What image, word or phrase stands out to me when I slowly read this passage? What is God trying to say to me through these words of scripture?

Pause and Pray

As I consider what message God has for me today, I ruminate on the words that stand out to me the most from this passage. Words like hope, joy, and peace or words like goodness, knowledge and confidence? Which of God’s good gifts do I feel like I am most lacking? With what do I feel like I am overflowing? Perhaps God is inviting me to spend more quality time with him, so that he can provide what I most need. Maybe the word I need to hear today is trust. Do I trust God with everything – do I really trust him? The scripture tells me good gifts come “as I trust him.” God invites me to trust him more and more. He is the God of hope and worthy of my trust.

Pause and Pray

Blessed Lord Jesus, come and reveal the secrets of Sabbath rest. Show me what it means to live a life of joy and delight. Fill me with hope and peace and strengthen me for the good work you have for me to do in this world. Grant me Godly wisdom. Bless my relationships and the upcoming encounters of this day. Amen.

If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD. Isaiah 58:13-14a

I leave this time of prayer placing my hope and trust in Christ. I go to be his hands and feet, serving a broken world.

Amen