Sabbath

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Christian encouragement, christian journey, christian walk, Christianity, culture, day of rest, devotional, devotions, encouragement, relaxation, resting in God, sabbath, Ten Commandments, too busy, trust

Sabbath is something that God has been dealing with me about for six years now. Yes, six years. It was something that just kept (and keeps) popping up in my study time. For example, when I first started trying to figure out what Sabbath looks like in today’s world I went to a women’s conference where Priscilla Shirer spoke on Sabbath. This became her study called “Breathe”. I highly recommend it! Another example is when I had decided Sabbath wasn’t required of pastors’ families due to some verses in the Old Testament, I came across a few sentences in a book I was reading by Tozer that set me straight. Sabbath just wouldn’t budge from my thoughts and heart.

It’s not been easy trying to figure out what God has for me in regards to Sabbath. As stated before, I’ve gone from feeling like my family is exempt, to feeling like it’s impossible and I will forever be in disobedience, to knowing that God has called me to something deeper and being assured that “Faithful is He that calleth you who also will do it,” (I Thessalonians 5:24). I tried moving Sabbath to another day of the week. I tried to get my husband to tell me what to do. I tried to go extreme. I tired lots of things that simply didn’t work. So, I kept praying and studying and as the years have passed I am finally in the place to celebrate Sabbath as God is directing me in this season of my life with total peace and excitement.

You might be asking the question, “Are we really expected to have Sabbath today?” I believe we are. I believe that the Word of God is the same yesterday, today and forever and I believe our God does not change. So, His Word holds true even in the area of Sabbath. Sabbath is something we are missing in our culture and I believe we are paying the consequences. I think we forget that Sabbath is in the Ten Commandments. If we believe the Ten Commandments in one area, we must believe the Commandments in all areas and that includes Sabbath.

Isaiah 58:13 and 14 says, “If because of the Sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and shall honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure, and speaking your own word, Then you will take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

Jesus tells us in Mark 2:27 that Sabbath was made for man. It’s not something God needs. It’s something we need. Sabbath is mentioned in 21 books of the Bible! If it’s mentioned once, it deserves our consideration, but in 21 books? We for sure need to see what God says about it. I don’t want to beat you over the head with Scripture after Scripture regarding Sabbath because this needs to be your own journey, so please do your own study, pray and seek out what God wants for you. Like many areas of obedience in our Christian walk, Sabbath is an individual endeavor. In fact, my family and I don’t celebrate Sabbath together. It’s something I’m called to do on my own right now.

Even though I don’t want you to copy my Sabbath, I want to leave you with some encouragement, so I’m going to share with you what God has called me to do to honor Sabbath with Him. I pray this will help you to realize that it’s not as impossible to keep Sabbath as you might think.

As much as possible, my Sabbath starts at 8:00 PM on Saturday and goes through Sunday night. I do not clean during that time. I do not shop. I do not go on the computer (through the phone, or laptop). I do not check a business that I run from our home, or pursue that in any way. I cook as much as possible the day before so that there is not as much mess to stack in the sink, or work in the kitchen. I try to use the crockpot, or have my man grill. But, if my family decides to eat at a restaurant, I go. As I said before, my family does not celebrate Sabbath yet, so my goal is not to stand out as a “goody-two-shoes”, it’s to make sure my heart is where it should be. I don’t check my weight, exercise, or even wear my Fitbit, but my Sabbath is also not a food free for all. I stick to my regular eating because Sabbath is about focusing on God, not my flesh. The main thing though is my heart focus. How can I keep my day centered on my Lord? I don’t want Sabbath to be just another box to check. I want it to be pleasing to Him. Sabbath is about making sure God is the epicenter of everything I do. Its goal is to bring everything back in line for the week. So, if something pops up that is out of my control, no worries, God knows my heart.

I’ve been at this a while and let me tell you every Sabbath is not perfect, but progress is being made through the power of the Holy Spirit. I am still learning and discovering about this Day of Rest. I am realizing that Sabbath is about trust. Do I trust God to grow my business when I am at rest in Him? Am I okay with social media going on without me? Can my heart focus on the Lord and allow other concerns to slip away? Sabbath is becoming a place of restoration for my mind, body and spirit. Things might not be perfect, but I am thankful that He is still teaching me and willing to lead me step by step on this journey of Sabbath. I’m thankful that after six years I am in a place of peace. I feel like Baby Bear in the story of Goldilocks. I’ve tried things that were too hot for my baby steps in Sabbath and things that were too cold, but God has set his porridge before me to consume and it is just right. I love Him so and I am so thankful for Sabbath.

Seeking Hearts Ministries

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Marriage

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all things for good, anniversaries, anniversary, Christian encouragement, christian journey, christian walk, Christianity, encouragement, exhaustion, family, forgiveness, grace, marriage, past mistakes, prayer, sticking with it, stuffing, temptations, tenacity, worth it

On Saturday, my husband and I will be celebrating our 23^rd year of marriage. Crazy! I can’t help but think of Matthew 19:26, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

I love that our anniversary hits on Saturday this year because I can remember the weekend as it really was. Memories of the rehearsal on Friday and actual wedding day on Saturday seem easier to recall when the memories coincide with the actual day. I was eighteen and he had just turned twenty-one. We were so young and yes, very dumb. I’m sure many thought that I was making a mistake, but God knew who my man was behind the mullet and farm boy mentality. God also knew that I needed to see grace in action and He knew that my man was the only one who could be that for me. That’s my man through and through…grace.

Have we gone through rough patches? Oh, yes, horrible patches filled with briars and weeds (many of which we planted ourselves). The only explanation there is for this anniversary is God Himself. He is a true Miracle Worker. You think I’m exaggerating? I’m not and you are just going to have to take my word for it. We have both made incredible mistakes and have come very close to others. We get the statement “but for the grace of God go I” to the fiber of our being. I have no idea how our marriage has kept going except to say that God simply wouldn’t let us stop. I love Him for that.

I always tell people to watch out for year five. It’s a doozy. For me personally, the repercussions from our year five still rears its ugly head at times. I buried specifics from year five all the way to year ten. I had heard a therapist on television say that what your spouse doesn’t know, don’t worry about. He said to stop doing it and move on with your marriage, but why hurt them unnecessarily. So, I took it as a word from God and sought His forgiveness, asked a general forgiveness from my guy and buried it all. My man and I knew that we both had done some awful things, but it was a taboo subject. Neither one of us wanted to deal with it.

A few months before out tenth anniversary I went to a Ladies Bible Study at our church. We studied “When Godly People Do Ungodly Things” by Beth Moore. In all honesty, I took the class to see if I could discern who was and wasn’t saved among my family. Yes, I realize how pious that sounds, but it’s the truth. I didn’t take the class as intended, God drug me through that class. I realized very quickly that burying the past was not what God intended. I prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed that what I was hearing was wrong, but it wasn’t.  When I knew God truly was telling me to confess to my guy and ask his forgiveness I prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed that his heart would be prepared to hear it and forgive. We had two small children at the time and very little money, but wouldn’t you know that God arranged for us to have a private cabin on the water for our anniversary night? I knew this was the moment for confession and God’s grace poured out on us. I had prepared him that I needed to come clean so that he wasn’t blind-sided. I was a nervous wreck, but God’s Spirit was with us. It took several days for things to be fully confessed and worked through and several months of recovery with God healing us bone deep, but I remember that I kept praying that God would not let me close my own wound. I wanted Him to clean out the wounds and keep them open until all the infection was out. I was physically ill from the cleaning at times, but that prayer stayed in the forefront of my mind and He was so faithful. Proverbs 27:6 says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend…” and our God is the most faithful Friend of all.

I’ve shared with you a small part of my testimony in our marriage to simply demonstrate that things with us have not been easy. I wanted to share so that when I say what I am about to say you won’t just brush it off as a lucky break with two people who always get along and have no problems, or temptations. What do I want to say? Sticking with your marriage is worth it. My man loves me and I love him more deeply than I ever thought possible. He demonstrates grace often (because I need it often) and that kind of depth only comes with time. It only comes with hard work and above all, it only comes with God Himself chiseling off the hard stuff and molding you into the person He has called you to be. We can fake it with a lot of people, but never our spouse and that’s the way it should be. Pray for love to cover your marriage, pray for your desire to only be for your spouse, touch each other often, tell each other what you appreciate about them, spend time together, pray for tenacity and above all pray for God’s Spirit to take over. Pray and stay, people. It’s worth it!

And, to my man, let me just say that I love you more than life itself and more than I ever dreamed possible. Thank you for being a man of grace, wisdom and stength. I admire who you are so much. Happy Anniversary!

Seeking Hearts Ministries

You Might be a Screamer

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a good cry, burdens, Christian encouragement, christian journey, christian walk, Christianity, crying, devotional, devotions, emotional baggage, family devotions, letting it our, pouring your heart out, screaming

The experts tell us that sometimes we just need a good cry. They tell us to let the tears flow and somehow it will release all of our pent up emotions, but I confess, I hate to cry. Even though I hate it, I follow the experts’ advice and cry when I feel like it, but in all honesty, crying makes my head hurt. After I cry, my nose is stuffy, my head aches and to top it all off, I look like Rudolph! No pretty tears for me. I always cry ugly! After a good cry I look for that feeling of euphoria, but I am always disappointed. In fact, a few nights ago my man and I went to see an awesome movie (The War Room) and I cried throughout, but for the rest of the night I was miserable. My head pounded and on the ride home I was even sick to my stomach. YUCK! Crying, for me, is simply not as therapeutic as it’s supposed to be! I’ve always wondered what the deal is?!

A few weeks ago, my man and I were hiking in the Smoky Mountains. We went up and up and up…and up. We were in bear country, so I was clapping my hands and singing songs and basically letting anything fly out of my mouth that I thought of as I was gasping for air so that Mr. Bear would not come for a visit. All of a sudden, I saw a black line laying across our path. I kept walking along, then all of a sudden it was like my brain finally clicked. I let out the most blood curdling scream you can imagine. I screamed and screamed and screamed! It was a snake!! A slithery, black, not getting out of my way, snake! I ran backwards into my man, screaming all the way. I thought to myself that I needed to tell him it wasn’t a bear, or say, “snake”, or something, but I just couldn’t do anything but scream and scream and scream. He gallantly poked the snake enough to get it to move along and then, an interesting thing happened. There is was! There was my feeling of euphoria! I felt this rush of hilarity. I felt a freedom of emotion. I started laughing and kept laughing for quite some time. My thoughts were clear. My emotional baggage was gone and I realized – I’M NOT A CRIER. I’M A SCREAMER! (I’m not sure why the experts don’t tell us about this option. Maybe it’s because crying is quieter. After all, if I’m in a waiting room and I hear screaming in the back, I might just have to leave.) Needless to say, bears were not a problem that day (nor any kind of wildlife).

Psalm 62:8 says, “Trust in Him at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.” Pour out your heart before Him. That sounds like we could scream if we need to. It sounds like we could yell if that’s what it takes. It also sounds like we could have a good cry. Whatever it takes to pour out our heart, that’s what He wants from us. He can handle it. In fact, He made us, so He’s more than ready for whatever we can dish out. I love that about Him. He is our Refuge whether we cry, or scream. He can be trusted with all of our stuff. He wants it placed before Him.

So, whether you are a crier, a screamer, or something in between, pour out your heart to your Savior today. I promise you will get that euphoria you hear others talk about and you might get rid of some wildlife in your area too.

Seeking Hearts Ministries

Waterfalls, Washing and The Word

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Bible, Christian encouragement, christian journey, christian walk, Christianity, dehydration, devotional blog, encouragement, exhaustion, family devotions, God, hiking, refreshing, refreshment, washing, washing of the water of The Word, waterfalls, Word of God

I love waterfalls. I always have and as I’ve gotten older I appreciate them even more. I love the grandeur of them. I love the sudden impact of seeing a waterfall for the first time. I love the mist you feel as you get closer. I love the awe-inspiring view as tons of water plummet to the earth below.

If I had to choose though, my absolute favorite thing about a waterfall is the sound. There is nothing like the noise of rushing water! You can’t yell above it. You can’t hear the chaos that might be just a few feet from it. It blocks everything out. You can’t even hear the commotion of cars, trains, or planes. It overrides all distractions.

Ephesians 5:26 tells us that we are washed by the water of the Word. It says (speaking of the church), “that He [Jesus] might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless.”  So, how does this happen? How does the Word of God act as a cleansing agent for our souls as water does for our physical bodies?

Just like a waterfall, the grandeur of God’s Word is incomparable. Sometimes, a verse will trickle into our soul and over time do its cleansing work, but at other times, the impact of God’s Word is so powerful we feel as if we have taken a plunge into a massive waterfall. It takes our breath away! His Word washes over us and refreshes our very soul. All we can think about is His Word. All we can hear is His truth ringing in our ears. The roar of His Spirit in us is our focus and we are cleansed from all distractions. We are rejuvenated and cleansed and it is incredible! We really do feel as if we have been washed through and through.

Once we have taken the initial plunge into His Word, we can also see things more clearly. The noise of life ceases and we see signs that were probably there all along.

Oftentimes, when my family and I are out on a hike, there may be a sign beside the path telling about a tree, or part of the history of the area, but sometimes we simply don’t see it. We are too distracted by our conversation, a bird, or our need for a snack. When we come to a waterfall, we have to stop talking. We are quiet and focused and we see much more. When the noise of the waterfall ceases the distractions, we can see the signs that were already there. So it is with God’s Word. As it cleanses, it ceases the noise around us and we see signs that were already there. God’s way is not cluttered and full of noise, we are. When we allow The Word of God to wash away our distractions, a much clearer path is laid before us. We can see signs that we would have missed otherwise because we simply were too preoccupied.

Waterfalls are amazing and I pray I see many more, but the cleansing power of God’s Word is much better. It doesn’t just relax us, it also restores and purifies us. It blocks out all disruptions. The mist of His Word draws us in closer until all we can see is His power, all we can feel is His refreshing grace and all we can hear is His precious voice. Let’s be washed in His Word today.

Seeking Hearts Ministries