The Fourth Commandment – The Holy Sabbath

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 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 manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

Exodus 20:8-11, NIV

A Time of Rest and Worship

God rested when He finished creation. He asks us to rest, too. He didn’t create us to be so busy that we never take time to sit quietly before Him. He wants a relationship with us. We can only do that when we actually spend time with Him.

In the Old Testament, the Sabbath was on Saturday. That changed in the New Testament. Christians chose Sunday as the day for worship to honor the day that Jesus rose from the dead.

We don’t have to be tied to a particular day. Our circumstances may prevent us from worshipping on the weekend. We simply need to remember to take a time of rest to worship God and put Him above the concerns of the day.

What happens when you don’t honor the Sabbath? Does your schedule ever get so overwhelmed that God is squeezed out? Have you ever experienced burnout? How has it affected your relationship with God?

We All Need to Hear It

Use the Sabbath to inspire our writing. Everyone needs a time of rest. And, almost everyone can relate to exhaustion and burnout. Our lives become so full of activities and commitments. We often need someone to remind us to slow down.

Personal Experience: Tell your story, both of times you felt overwhelmed and times when God blessed you in the silence.

Burnout is common. Burned-out people need to know they’re not alone. Someone understands. They also need to know that there’s hope.

We can also share stories with our readers about special times with God – times when we did slow down and He touched us in a special way.

How-To: Offer insights to your readers to show them what worked for you. How did you overcome burnout? How did you learn to rest? What does rest look like? What steps do your readers need to take to put rest into their lives? How can they begin to live lives of worship?

Poetry: Exhaustion takes an emotional toll on us. Share that through your poetry. Also share the peace that comes through times of rest.

Devotions: Look for Scriptures that focus on rest and worship. Write devotions that help people live a more balanced life. Remind them of the importance of worship.

Fiction: It might be a little more difficult to use this theme in fiction. Consider writing a scene where the protagonist wrestles with slowing down to worship God or moving on to the next obligation. How does that decision affect the story?

Writing for Children: Help children understand that God wants a relationship with them. Help them see the importance of taking time to spend time with Him.

The Sabbath isn’t an archaic idea. Help your readers see that they need that time of rest and worship.

© Deborah Christensen