This Week’s SOUL TRAINING: “Sabbath”
(Sept 29- Oct 5)
The Sabbath is a weekly 24-hour period (often from dinner one day till dinner the next day) where we are intentional to rest from our work and delight in God. Keeping the Sabbath is a practice that helps us better deal with our anger. Sabbath is about combating our expectations and fears through trusting God, surrendering control and rest.
“Sabbath keeping is the linchpin of a life lived in sync with the rhythms that God Himself built into our world, and yet it is the discipline that seems hardest for us to live. Sabbath keeping honours the body’s need for rest, the spirit’s need for replenishment and the soul’s need to delight itself in God for God’s own sake. It begins with willingness to acknowledge the limits of our humanness and then to take steps to live more graciously within the order of things.”
Ruth Haley Barton
How can you practice Sabbath this week? Here are some tips (from p. 82-83 in “The Good and Beautiful Life” ):
- Take time to plan your sabbath. Which day will you do it? What will you do? What will you eat?
- Start in the evening with a special meal for you, your family and friends.
- Light a candle or two at the centre of the table when everyone has come to the table. Say a prayer.
- During the meal, bless one another. What do you appreciate about one another?
- Play games!
- Eat great food that you love.
- Go to church together (if you choose Sunday as your sabbath).
- Try not to eat out. Prepare food ahead of time if possible.
- Nap!
- Set aside time for private prayer.
- Read a good devotional book or write in your journal.
- Express gratitude.
- Spend time reading the Bible.
- Practice hospitality. Invite friends to eat with you.
WHAT IS “SOUL TRAINING”?
Each week throughout the “Good and Beautiful Life” message series, we will be inviting you to engage in a different spiritual practice with God. These practices are intended to help you reflect on and to apply the truth from Sunday’s message (i.e. “Soul Training”). To help you remember these practices and to encourage you to be intentional to engage, each week we will post more information about that week’s practice here (in addition to a weekly email reminder). Our hope and prayer is that many in our church family will meet with Jesus in new and profound ways as we engage in these transformative soul training exercises together!
