“It would be nice to keep the Sabbath today, but I just have way too much work to get through this weekend.”
How often have you heard this statement spoken by someone at Grove City College? Many within our campus community share the ideal that Christians ought to follow the biblical command to rest on the Sabbath, yet the same people will also claim that their schoolwork or other responsibilities prevent them from doing this regularly. This sort of statement leads me to consider, what is it that determines our abilities and responsibilities? The things which are our masters. The one who believes his work prohibits him from keeping the Sabbath has let his work become his master. And as Christ taught us in Matthew 6:24, “no one can serve two masters.”
I did not grow up keeping the Sabbath, but since coming to college I have come to a better understanding of its importance in the life of the Christian and have experienced tremendous blessing since adopting the practice into my life. Since making the commitment to rest on Sundays, I have experienced more peace and trust in the Lord, have better kept my mind and priorities centered on God, and ironically, have even been more productive throughout the week.
God commands his people in Exodus to “keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever.” (Exodus 31:16, emphasis added). As Christians grafted into the people of Israel, it is for our welfare and for God’s glory that we rest from our labors on the Lord’s Day. In this article, I will present some of the blessings I have experienced by keeping the Sabbath and will offer a few practical tips for incorporating this practice into one’s life, especially at college.
The first “incentive” I would give for keeping the Sabbath is that it allows you to experience God’s gift of rest, which he designed us to need and enjoy. I believe that the Sabbath is first and foremost a blessing to man (“the Sabbath was made for man,” as Jesus taught in Mark 2:27). God himself rested on the seventh day of Creation. Why would we, who were made in the image of our Creator and are daily being conformed to the image of Christ, not also set aside dedicated time to rest as a part of our week? This period of rest is God’s gift to us and reflects our created design.
When we practice resting on the Sabbath, we also enjoy the peace and fulfillment that comes from obedience to God. We ought not to forget that although the blessings of the Sabbath are a gift to us, keeping it is also one of the Ten Commandments; the fact that profaning the Sabbath merited the death penalty in the Old Testament shows us that this is a practice which God takes seriously (see Exodus 31). Honoring the Lord by obeying his commandments brings us more in line with his design for our lives and helps us to experience the joy and peace of serving him.
All people orient their conception of time around something. When I began ordering my week around the six days of labor and one day of rest that God models and outlines in the Bible, it changed many aspects of my life. The work that I completed during the week felt more fruitful and productive because it was clear I was laboring for God, and not for myself. I also had more energy to do my work well because I knew it ended at the end of the week – previously, when Sundays were just another workday for me, it was easy for my work to turn into never-ending, life-consuming tasks. When I first began to keep the Sabbath, I imagined myself as nobly sacrificing my grades for the sake of honoring the Lord. Interestingly, my grades have only improved every semester since adopting this practice! My view of Sundays also changed in unexpected ways. Ever since I began resting on the Sabbath, I found that I am more excited to go to church, that I learn more from sermons, and that I worship more joyfully because worries about schoolwork do not plague my attention. I have more time to invest in my church congregation and enjoy more fellowship with other believers because I am not stressed about returning to campus right after the service to start studying. During the week I joyfully long for Sunday just as we are to long for the coming of the Lord and his promise of eternal rest.
The greatest blessing I have experienced since learning to keep the Sabbath is the reordering of priorities and the freedom of understanding what it means for the Lord to be my master, rather than my work. On Sundays, my schoolwork literally does not even cross my mind because I know that my purpose as a Christian and human is to glorify God and enjoy his love. I remember that I am defined by my glorious and loving Savior, not by the earthly work that I do. This freedom to weekly defy worldly standards of efficiency, busyness, and production lightens my earthly burdens and reminds me of the One who graciously rules my life and has already established my future with him.
I know from personal experience that keeping the Sabbath can be a difficult and countercultural practice to adopt at first, even at a place like Grove City College. However, I have also seen how God blesses the efforts of his people to honor him, and that we can strive to obey the Lord with the assurance that we do so by his strength. Here are some pieces of practical advice I have learned through my own effort to incorporate the Sabbath in my personal life:
1. Practice keeping the Sabbath within a community of others who share the same goal.
There is a reason that God gave this commandment to the entire people of Israel together, and not just to individual people. If you are desiring to adopt this practice into your own life, talk to your friends, family, or other church members about doing it together. That way, you can hold each other accountable and spend the day together, resting and enjoying fellowship. Part of the reason I look forward to Sundays is because that is the only time of the week when I can enjoy good conversations and fellowship with friends without the stress of schoolwork and to-do lists hanging over me. It is also a wonderful blessing to get more involved in your church community through serving and building relationships with others in the congregation.
2. Be consistent in the way that you order time.
Christians hold differing views about whether we should regard the Sabbath as Saturday, Sunday, or sundown Saturday to sundown Sunday. Whichever view you believe is most biblical, it is important to be consistent in what you define as the Sabbath. Do not change the start of the Sabbath week to week so that it fits most conveniently with your personal plans – it seems counterintuitive, but that will actually make keeping the Sabbath much more difficult. The Sabbath is a period of time instituted by God to which we are made to conform our lives, not the other way around.
3. Work ahead to prepare for the Sabbath.
It is important to recognize that in addition to setting aside the seventh day as a day of rest, God also tells us to first work for six days (Exodus 20:9). We are to work well throughout the week and prepare for the Lord’s Day. Sometimes you truly will have an especially busy weekend, and it will take more preparation and working ahead to get your work done. But then how much more refreshing will the Sabbath be! I will also often go to bed early on Sundays and wake up a little earlier on Monday mornings if I still have assignments to catch up on. This allows me to complete my assignments within the workweek and still preserves Sunday as a day of rest.
4. If you commit to keeping the Sabbath, do it without exception or compromise.
I have learned that we will never, ever finish all of our work or complete everything that we want to do, so the best thing we can do is to give the Sabbath to the Lord so that we rest in him and remember his sovereignty. There will come times when you must make the hard decision not to study as much for a test or complete every assignment on time, but you can trust in the Lord and he will provide for you if you seek to honor him with your time. I have gone into many Monday morning exams without studying the day before, but the Lord has always provided for me in those times. He never puts us in situations that require us to disobey him, even when it is an 8am final.
The best advice I can give is to try keeping the Sabbath for a month and see how much better your life becomes. It may seem scary at first, but as the weeks go on you will see the Lord’s faithfulness in new ways and your faith in his providence will grow. Hebrews 4:9-10 tells us, “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his work as God did from his.” Resting on the Lord’s Day gives us a foretaste of the eternal rest which God has promised us in Christ Jesus. It not only gives us peace on earth, but also makes us more fit for Heaven, our eternal home.
