The Living Christian Course

Lesson 01: Being Fueled by Daily Devotions

Day 3

Setting aside other times to be connected to God

#1 Pause and be quiet

 

Often during the years – though not often enough – those who have grown as followers of Jesus have stopped in the middle of the day to pray.

Sometimes it has been about what they were working on – it becomes a habit. They don’t even realize that they are doing it –like breathing.

These disciples (Christians) will pray and listen. Often their best thoughts (which the God can whisper to us!) have come at these times.

It’s also a time to get one’s attention off of the things of this earth and to intentionally think about Christ or heaven.

Sometimes these daily pauses are for thanking Jesus or praising Him. And other times they are to become quiet and listen.

As many have discovered, when you stop to listen, God may not say anything to you immediately. However, you’ll experience His presence! And that’s awesome!

Try it! You’ll be surprised how refreshing this can be. And you’ll often hear His voice if you do that!

 

Think about this ➔ Do you have quiet in your day or is it always filled with some noise? (Music, social media, TV, conversations)

#2 Establish a weekly Sabbath

 

What is a sabbath? It’s a weekly time of rest. No work! God said take this time once a week, do joyful things and praise God for these good things He’s given you!

 

God established the Sabbath (Saturday) for the nation of Israel, as a one day per week ‘holiday!’

Deuteronomy 5:12-14 (NIV) Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant,nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do.

Sabbath keeping was one of the ten commandments, and God had a great deal to say about it.

Particularly, it had two key parts to it:

  1. Part one, stopping from all work – even for animals. It was a time of physical rest.

  2. Part two, it was a time to remember what God had done for them. It was a time of spiritual rest.

Their spirits needed “food” such as joy, peace, hope and love from their Creator to replenish their starving souls.

God had told them that people should not live by bread alone, which is just for the physical bodies.

Deuteronomy 8:3 (NIV) He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

They were to also live by every word proceeding from the mouth of God, which was for their spirits – and for that, they needed to come apart from their work to be with God!

The Sabbath was intended to be something that would benefit people; this was a gift to us.

Jesus made that point when He said: The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Mark 2:27 (NIV)

The Sabbath (Saturday) law is not a requirement for believers today.

Colossians 2:16 (NIV) Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.

This is why after the resurrection of Christ, followers of Jesus began shifting their day of worship from Saturday to Sunday, to coincide with the day of the week that Jesus arose.

However, that doesn’t suddenly mean that it isn’t something God desires to give us; or that it meaningless; or that God has suddenly changed His mind about how human beings function.

In fact, we would argue that in our increasingly stressed out world, where cities brag that they never go to sleep, we need this more than ever!

But as we mentioned earlier, Paul said that no one is to judge us on these matters. That is, how or when a person “sabbaths” is not a matter of right or wrong.

So, what do we do when we take a Sabbath?

What do we do on the sabbath?

Physical Rest

Again, be careful not to become slavish about this – there can be times when we face big challenges that require attention.

The point of all this is to say that you have to do what works for you, and you have to change what you do with the seasons of life.

Caution: recreation means activities that:

  1. refresh our bodies,

  2. restore our mental energies and,

  3. renew our spiritual life.

Whatever drains these three would not be considered re-creational, then.

We need to be aware that much modern entertainment and leisure today does not re-create body, mind or soul.

Even a simple change in pace or visiting someone or being kind to someone can all be regarded as refreshing and good. Jesus showed us this by healing the sick and so on, during the Sabbath.

Spiritual Rest

This is where we connect with Jesus, spending extended time with Him.

Can we pray about heavy things on Sabbaths? It’s a personal choice, but the extended times can be very refreshing times, when God takes burdens from one’s shoulders, by showing us what we can do – or not do!

Caution: It is possible for us to draw our boundaries so tightly around our Sabbaths that we ignore the genuine need of those in our circles of influence. Jesus counters this …

On one occasion Jesus asked his critics rhetorically whether they would rescue their sheep if it fell into a pit on the Sabbath. They obviously would!

Without waiting for an answer, He continued, “How much more valuable is a man than a sheep?” (Matt 12:12).

Then came the principle: Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Matthew 12:12 (NIV)

We need to take care that the blessing of rest that God offers isn’t used as an excuse not to do good.

#3 Establish a yearly Spiritual retreat

 

At times, we’ll want to consider spiritual retreats which can be multiple days of Sabbath linked together. These can be excellent times to wrestle through big questions that we have, reflect on what God has done in our lives and recover from hectic seasons.

 

Think about this ➔ Have you ever taken a spiritual retreat? If you’ve been on a missions trip that is kind of one! What do you think it would be like to do this?

Think

  1. What was something that stood out to you from this section?

  2. In addition to doing daily devotions (reading our bible & writing about it), what are the three times we can spend time with God that are talked about in this lesson?

  3. What are the two kinds of rest we need?

  4. What happens when we don’t take this rest and don’t spend time with God?

 

Do

◻︎ Look at your normal week schedule. When can you plan a quiet time to connect with God?

◻︎ Do you get enough physical and spiritual rest & refreshment? If not, pray about how you can take time this week to sabbath.

◻︎ Could you plan a 1-day retreat alone with God, your journal and Bible in the next couple months? This is such a good way to start practicing sabbath.