Jesus told us that “the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27). Present-day Christ-followers debate about whether observing a regular sabbath day is still mandated for New Testament believers. I take a particular and fairly strong stance on this question, but whatever position you might hold most would agree that taking a day each week and laying it aside specifically for rest from the things of the world and the pursuit of God cannot be a bad idea. God clearly designed us to benefit from the practice, and He knew what He was doing.

I must confess that I did not get serious about seeking an intentional sabbath time in my own life for at least the first ten of my roughly 30 years of faith, and I only became truly serious about doing so about 12 years ago. However since that time I have never regretted becoming more intentional about it.

I believe there are many ways a sabbath discipline (and it is a spiritual discipline) can be approached. I offer here just the one which I have chosen to practice. That said, especially during this time of great stress in our lives and our world, I hope you may be able to take some of it and make it your own.

There have also been debates through the centuries as to what time of the week on which “the Lord’s Day” should fall. I will not tackle that question here either. I have personally chosen Sunday as my regular sabbath day (though, during other seasons of my life, I have sometimes done it on a Saturday or other day off). 

This is what the sabbath looks like for me.

It begins as soon as I am done with our Sunday morning service and lasts until sundown. There are things that I do not do during this “sacred time” and things that I only do during it. I will begin with what I choose not to do.

Sunday is an “Internet fast day” for me (In fact not going on the Net is one of the few aspects of the practice that goes past sunset, all the way until I go to bed that night). I find this often refreshing and freeing as I tend to live online during the rest of the week. I do no shopping of any kind. I avoid secular entertainment like music, movies, and not specifically Christian books, and I do not do any work around the house unless it is immediately necessary for someone in our home’s personal care. Thankfully, my wife respects these boundaries and so does her mom with whom we live.

So those are the “negatives” in the sense of what I cease from doing on any given Sunday.

To me the “positives” are more important. I spend a prolonged period reading scripture. This is separate from my regular daily Bible-reading and is designed to bring me through all of God’s word every two years. I also spend an extended time, physically alone, listening to ancient or contemporary Christian Choral music. I do this while simultaneously meditating on God, and His presence in nature, by gazing out the windows of my room. This period may or may not include conscious prayer. I might simultaneously read some devotional material as well. Most importantly this is my time to journal about whatever I feel the Lord is, hopefully putting on my heart and mind. Writing about 4-6 pages of thoughts and prayers every Sunday is about standard for me these days.

Literal physical rest is not a requirement I put on myself (though it is not out of the question either as I will often take a nap at some point in the afternoon). At all times of the day I try to keep my thoughts quieted to at least some degree, tuned to God rather than to the myriad distractions of the rest of my week.

The combination of resting from those distractions while giving attention exclusively to God and the things of God are, I believe, what makes a sabbath of any time and type worth doing. I also think that these hours not only draw me closer to my Lord, but also serve to make me a better person during the rest of the week (I suspect this benefit of “Sabbathing” is one of the reasons my wife tends to respect the practice in my life!)

So there it is, one man’s approach to The Fourth Commandment. As I said I do not, by any means, suggest this as a perfect model for anyone else. It is just what has worked well for me. I would encourage you to think and pray about what might best work for you.

I’d be lying if I did not admit to strongly giving that encouragement. Truly “the sabbath is made for man,” not the other way around but, either way, God made it. That we do well to practice it is not really the question as much as finding out what God would will it to look like in our individual lives, for both His glory and our temporal and eternal good.