How To Practice Sabbath Rest

Do you want to practice Sabbath but you’re not sure how to fill your time? Walk with me through scripture and experience the way I practice Sabbath every week. I hope this discussion inspires you to practice Sabbath and gives you delight in all God has done.

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Podcast Transcript:

Intro

Hi friend, I’m Brigette Henry. And you’re listening to the One Spiritual Journey podcast where I share stories from my spiritual journey and teach you how to walk closer with God on your spiritual journey. I’m so glad you’re here because that means you want a deeper relationship with God. In Colossians 1:28, Paul says,

“We proclaim Him warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”

And that’s my goal for this ministry: to help present you mature in Christ. So, grab your coffee, or your tea if you’re a tea addict like me, and let’s dive into today’s topic.

How to Practice Sabbath Rest

A few weeks ago I talked about Sabbath rest and why we should still practice Sabbath. And today, I want to talk about how to practice Sabbath rest and, more specifically, how I practice Sabbath rest. Because I walked away from that last podcast episode on Sabbath think, OK, that’s great! Yes, we should practice Sabbath. But how do we do that? And, if I’m being honest, I have not mastered practicing the Sabbath. This is something that God has been encouraging me to do for a few years now, to learn how to rest and to practice Sabbath, and I’ve definitely not mastered it. So, everything I’m introducing to you today, there all things that I’ve learned. And I hope that they encourage you to pick up the practice of Sabbath rest for yourself and to learn what God has for you in your Sabbath rest.

What Do We Do (and Not Do) To Practice Sabbath?

I think that the question that we wrestle with, with Sabbath, is, what do we do and what do we not do during our Sabbath? Because, of course, we go to church and we’ll spend some devotional time with God, but what do we do during the rest of our Sabbath? What do we do if we have kids that we have to watch and everything doesn’t always feel restful? How do we practice Sabbath realistically in the life that we have? And I think that we need to start with the intention of Sabbath. I talked about this a lot in the other podcast episode on Sabbath, which I will link in the show notes. But I think we need to start with the intention so we need to understand why God created Sabbath.

God’s Intention for Sabbath

So, just a couple reminders about how and why God created Sabbath.

First, in Mark 2:27, Jesus said the “Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” So, this isn’t something that we need to do to like, check a box. Or to be righteous and holy in God’s eyes. It’s actually something that God established for us for a reason and a purpose. I don’t think we fully understand that purpose yet. But in Genesis 2, God rested from His work and He did that as an example to us. And then in Exodus, the Sabbath was kind of re-instituted as God, through Moses, commanded the Israelites to practice Sabbath rest, not just for themselves, but also for their animals. They were not allowed to use their animals to plow and things like that on the Sabbath.

In Leviticus 25 we also see rules instituted to allow the land to rest. So every seven years there was a Sabbath year, and they were not allowed to plant anything during the Sabbath year. And it was a way for the land to rest. They were allowed to eat anything that the land produced on its own, but they were not allowed to actively plant. And in some ways, you can kind of see through this situation, this practice, in Leviticus how God is teaching His people to trust that He will care for them. Even if they are not actively working to care for themselves, if they are being obedient to Him, He will care for them.

Something Deeper About Practicing Sabbath

Again, I think there’s something deeper here that we will not fully understand until heaven, at least. It seems like God uses Sabbath to teach us a lot of different things about ourselves. About rest and things like that. One thing that I find really interesting is that our need for rest is not a result of the Fall. God instituted the practice of Sabbath rest before the fall of man. Which means that He created us to need rest. And that is kind of bizarre to me. Like, why would you create something with a deficiency. And I think that’s a heart problem with me that I see a need for rest as a deficiency. I think a lot of us do. And I think that we have this addiction to productivity.

I can definitely testify to that today. I’ve been struggling with a migraine for the last couple of days. And although it’s comfortable and okay for me to sit here and record this podcast, I did just go up and down my basement stairs, like, twelve times reorganizing my daughter’s toys. Did I need to do that today? No, but I felt like sitting on the couch all day wasn’t being productive. And so I decided to do something productive and now I’m exhausted and my head hurts.

Addiction to Productivity

But I think we have this addiction to being productive and we view our need for rest as a deficiency. And I don’t think that is the perspective God has. So again, I don’t fully understand that. If you have any insight into that I would love to hear it. But I think for now, where I need to be, is just practicing Sabbath rest and learning to trust that if I take one day off a week, God is still going to take care of everything that needs to be taken care of. Things will still get done.

I’m a mom, a housewife, and a stay-at-home-mom. I’ve got a lot to do. And it’s hard for me to trust that God is going to care for the things that need to get done. Or that I feel need to get done because, like I said, I just ran up and down the stairs a dozen times and probably didn’t need to do that. So, I’m also kind of learning through this practice of Sabbath rest, what should my priorities be? What does God want me to do with my time?

Recommended Resource

So, a resource that I would really recommend is the book “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” by John Mark Comer. I think I’ve read it twice. Maybe I haven’t; I can’t remember. But it’s a very good book. He has a section there on Sabbath, and there is also a companion journal to the book. I don’t own the companion journal. But I have read the companion journal section on Sabbath and if was really helpful for me in forming my understanding of Sabbath and how I should practice Sabbath rest. So I will link to that book and the companion journal in the show notes.

How I Prepare for my Sabbath

So, three things I want to talk about today about my Sabbath: I want to talk about how I prepare for my Sabbath, what my Sabbath looks like, and the guidelines that I follow for my Sabbath.

So first, let’s talk about preparation. It sounds kind of odd to prepare for Sabbath, but it’s absolutely, totally necessary. Like, I think about the Israelites and how God told them to collect manna for two days on Friday because on Saturday manna would not fall from heaven because God had already provided it for them and they were not supposed to be working on the Sabbath. And there were some people who didn’t collect manna, enough for Friday and Saturday, because they were like, “well, when we wake up, it will just be there on Saturday.” And God’s like, “no! I told you it would not be there on the Sabbath. You need to prepare ahead of time.”

So, this is something that has taken me months to get down. I have really struggled with this, especially when it comes to food and dishes and things like that. So a couple of the things I do:

Cooking and Food

First of all, I meal plan on Friday for the following week: Monday through Sunday. And then I go grocery shopping on Saturday. We normally eat leftovers on Sunday so if I realize we’re not going to have enough leftovers for tomorrow while I’m grocery shopping, I’ll get freezer meals or something like that. I try to make food on Sunday easy because cooking is one of the things that does not make me feel restful. I know some people enjoy it. It’s like a creative exercise for them and it gives them delight.

And if that’s you, you don’t have to avoid cooking on the Sabbath. But that’s not me. Cooking does not make me feel restful at all. Especially when I’ve got hungry people in the house. So I try to meal plan for the following week on Friday and then grocery shop on Saturday so I can pick up any extras I need before Sabbath starts.

Housework

And then, if there are dishes in the sink that I’m not going to be able to get to. Like, maybe the dishwasher is already full and running and I’m not going to be able to get to all the dishes before Sabbath begins, I usually just rinse them off so they don’t smell. And then I leave them in the sink, which is difficult, but that’s what I do. Because Sabbath is more important than my productivity. I also schedule cleaning and laundry during the week. And aside from huge messes on the Sabbath, I don’t clean. So, if I notice that the toilet looks a little dirty, I don’t clean it because it’s Sabbath.

And that’s also a practice you just kind of have to start to work into; seeing work that needs to be done and saying, “but it’s Sabbath, so I’m not doing that right now.” That’s been really difficult for me because I’ve got a bit of that productivity monster in me, you know?

Planning Ahead

One thing that’s really helped me is looking at my schedule ahead of time. And if we are out on Saturday night…I practice Sabbath on Sunday. I probably should have said that earlier for reference. But if we are out on Saturday night, I try to schedule time to finish my housework beforehand. So, I mentioned the dishes and things like that. Just kind of tidying up. I also try to tidy up anything that my two-year-old should not have open access to that we might have left out after she went to bed. I try to do all those things beforehand if we’re going out on Saturday night or if we’re having people over I try to schedule myself to have extra time that evening to clean up after people being over and things like that.

I’ve heard of people setting out clothes the night before for church. You don’t have to do that; I don’t do that. But that’s mostly because I just literally grab something out of my closet and wear it. I don’t really think about what I’m going to wear. So that practice doesn’t matter as much to me, but that’s also a good way to prepare for Sabbath the night before.

What My Sabbath Looks Like

So I talked about, in the last podcast on Sabbath, practicing Sabbath for a full 24 hours. I will be honest: usually I don’t manage to do a full 24 hours. It depends on the Sabbath. And again, I’m still learning, so I’m still figuring out how to schedule things and how to plan things. The Israelites practiced Sabbath from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. That’s how they practiced the Sabbath. That’s how they established a 24-hour period. Sundown does not work for me because of my family and their needs. But I still try to practice 24-hours as much as possible. So, kind of what I’m aiming for: once my daughter goes to bed, I just finish tidying up the things that I absolutely need to do in order to make our house not smell and not be live-able. And then I start my Sabbath.

Lighting Two Candles

So the night before, on Saturday night, is when I start my Sabbath. Usually around like 9:00pm, 8:30pm maybe. And one practice that I’ve kind of gotten away from that I want to start again is lighting two candles when I start my Sabbath. In Exodus 20:8, when Moses is writing down the Ten Commandments, God said, “remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” And so for years, Hebrew families have lit two candles to signify the beginning of the Sabbath. I think they actually leave them lit until the Sabbath ends? Which, I’m not going to do because I have a 2-year-old and I’m not leaving a candle lit overnight.

But anyway, the two candles symbolize the words “remember” and “keep”. So we “remember” the Sabbath and we “keep” it holy. That’s a practice that, again, I’ve kind of gotten away from. But that was really helpful for me to say, “okay, we ‘remember’ the Sabbath. We ‘remember’ that God established the Sabbath. We ‘remember’ what God has done for us. And we also commit to ‘keeping it holy’. To keeping the Sabbath.” That’s been really helpful for me and I need to start that back up again.

Study With Me on IG Live

So hopefully I will remember to do that this Saturday. I’m going to start doing, like, a “Study with Me” session on Instagram Live which you are more than welcome to join. But basically, if you’re not familiar with the concept of body doubling, it’s this idea that’s especially popular with people with ADHD where you sit across from somebody who is doing the same thing you’re doing. And that helps you stay focused and do it. So I guess that’s kind of what I’m aiming for here.

I’m going to go on Instagram Live and I’m not going to talk a lot. I might play music; I have to check the legality of that and all that. But, I’m just going to sit there and study my Bible. And if you would like to come and also bring your Bible, you can study your own thing. I will have some things that you can study and look into.

But I want to start that practice, one, to hold myself accountable for that time the night before in my Bible to start my Sabbath. But also, to give you an opportunity for some accountability as well. So, I’m going to get on IG Live probably around 8:15pm-8:30pm depending on when my daughter goes down to bed. And again, I’m just going to be studying my Bible. I might talk a little bit. I might pray with you a little bit. We’re just going to kind of see where God leads. I would love if you joined me and we can hold each other accountable in that.

My Sabbath Day

But anyway, back to my schedule. So the night before, lighting candles and then spending time in God’s word. And if I know what the sermon is going to be about the next day, I will study whatever the passage is that I know the pastor is going to be going through. I don’t always know, so sometimes it’s just wherever God leads me.

And then, in the morning, sometimes I sleep in a little bit and my husband gets up with my daughter. I try to do more of a slow morning. I still make breakfast, and I try to make it not as intense as it normally is. I’m a big breakfast person. We eat a lot of like, bacon and sausage and eggs and stuff like that. And then we go to church. And then, in the afternoon, I might try to take a nap. Again, just really a super slow day. I’ll talk in a minute about how I fill in the other pieces of this day. Because obviously, there are a lot of gaps I’m not talking about. But then, to kind of finish off my Sabbath, or to signify that it’s ending and to prepare me for the week ahead now that I’ve been fueled by my Sabbath, I have a weekly meeting after my daughter goes to bed. And I also have a ministry meeting.

The Weekly Meeting

So the weekly meeting is for me. I check in with myself, go over my life goals, and go over my schedule for the next week. I have a self-care worksheet, which is in my Freebie Library which I will talk about in a little bit. But I go through that Self-Care Worksheet to check in with myself monthly. I just have this meeting with myself to check-in and see how I’m doing. And also ask God, like, what are Your priorities for this week and what do I need to move, or cancel, or reschedule so that I can be focused on your priorities?

The Guidelines I Follow As I Practice Sabbath

So the last thing I want to share with you today is the guidelines I’ve been using for my Sabbath. This is kind of new, but I’ve already talked about that productivity monster that I have. And I worry about not being productive. So, I asked God for some clarification on how I should be spending my Sabbath and these three words came to mind. And they’ve been really helpful for me especially this past Sunday as I try to figure out how I should be resting. I”m not good at resting.

These guidelines are not necessarily for you. If you think they would help you, great. You night need your own guidelines. I talked before about delight, and John Mark Comer talks about that in that companion journal on Sabbath. God wants us to experience delight on Sabbath. And different things delight us. I talked about in my last podcast episode, someone told me they don’t go for a run on Sunday because that, for them, is seeking productivity. And I confess that sometimes I do go for a run because it helps me connect with God.

So if I’m doing it for the right reason, to connect with God, to delight in His creation, to spend time in nature, then I’ll go for a run. But if not, then I won’t. So these guidelines are really fluid. But I need some form of guidelines or I will naturally start emptying the dishwasher. So these are the three words, the three things that I look at to make sure I’m practicing Sabbath Rest.

Contemplate

So the first word is “contemplate”. I try to contemplate the things of God, not earthly things. So I might read, or journal or meditate. I’ll try to learn something, I’ll listen to a podcast, I’ll consider the things He’s been teaching me. I might go through my journal and look at some of the things that I’ve journaled through that past week. I’m not great at the contemplating thing. It’s something that I want to get better at. But that’s my first guideline. I can contemplate things, specifically the things of God.

Create

Then the next thing is to “create”. So, building something, or designing something. I like miniatures. I used to work in a tearoom and they sold dollhouses and I was just in love! And about six months ago or so I bought one of those small minatures kits from Hobby Lobby, and I have not been spending much time in that.

But this past Sunday I did spend some time on it, and I was just like, this is awesome! This is so restful. I just feel so connected to God right now. Because I’m delighting in my ability to create which is a reflection of my Creator. It’s me experiencing being a reflection of my Creator and that gives me delight. You can also paint or draw. If you’re not artistic, that’s okay. That’s why the first thing I said was “build something”. Because if the way that you create is with a hammer, that’s totally fine! Creating things can be a great way to spend our Sabbath.

Connect

And then the third thing is “connect”. So, we want to connect with God and with others. Like our family members and other believers. I have a caveat for myself that I avoid negative people or ungodly people. Because I’m supposed to be experiencing delight and I’m supposed to be seeking the things of God. So I’m very careful what company I keep on the Sabbath. That might not be a conviction that everyone has. But I know for me personally, I’m not going to experience rest if I’m spending my Sabbath with the wrong people. So I’m very careful about who I connect with on the Sabbath.

As far as connecting with God goes, that can look a lot of different ways. That can look like just a quiet time. Or sometimes I go for a walk and talk with Him and pray with Him like a prayer walk. I journal; there are a couple different things I do I guess to connect with God. That’s also something I struggle with on the Sabbath. Like, purposefully connecting with God.

There are a lot of things that God is obviously teaching me through this Sabbath practice and I hope that you will pick up a Sabbath practice because it is such, it’s a learning tool. God uses it to teach us about Him and about ourselves. And it’s really incredible the things that you start to learn when you practice Sabbath rest.

Study With Me on Instagram Live

So, those are all my confessions. That is all of my Sabbath dirty laundry, I think. If you are available Saturday evening starting around 8:15pm-8:30pm EST (I forgot to say I’m towards the East Coast) you are welcome to join me on that Instagram Live. I would love to have you there! Again, just bring your Bible and whatever you’ve been studying. I’ll have something for you to study as well if you need any suggestions. But we’re just going to spend some time with God and get ready to enjoy Sabbath.

Freebie Library

Also I mentioned my Freebie Library. I just put my Freebie Library on my website. I just opened it up and there are only two freebies in there so far but there will be more in the future. But one of them is the Self-Care Worksheet that I use to check in weekly and monthly. I use that self-care worksheet to check-in with myself and to also ask God, what priorities should I have in each of these areas? How should I be spending my time to steward these things that You’ve given me well?

I think that’s a really important practice for Christian women. So if that’s something you’d like to start, again that freebie is in my Freebie Library. In order to get in my Freebie Library you have to subscribe to my email list. You will get a welcome email that has the password for the library in it. The Freebie Library is how I grow my subscriber list. And emails from me aren’t that bad because they’re only once a week. They remind you about new podcast episodes, and also any new projects that I’m starting and new freebies I’ve put in my Library.

Go check out the Freebie Library and get that Self-Care Worksheet! And there’s also a Bible Study in there; a 5-day study called the RENEW Study. That is an excellent tool to help you reconnect with God.

I hope today was encouraging to you and that you find yourself longing for Sabbath rest. And I hope as you start to practice Sabbath, you will find rest and satisfaction in the only One Who satisfies.

Outro 

Thanks for joining me today! If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to like, follow, and comment so I can help women become mature in Christ. A few things before I go:

First, I would love if you prayed for me, my ministry and the women I impact whenever you get a chance. And if you need some help, I have prayers on my website you can pray over each of those things.

You can find links to the resources I mentioned today in the show notes. If anything is missing, or if you have any questions, please email me at brigette@brigettehenry.com. My name is spelled differently, so you can also find that email link in the show notes.

If we haven’t connected yet, let’s connect! You can follow me on Instagram for encouragement and to see the behind-the-scenes of my spiritual journey. I also have a weekly email newsletter if you would like to get updates on new podcast episodes, access to my freebie library, and more! You can find links to all those things in the show notes.

Lastly, if you are located near Northeast Ohio, I’m working to establish myself as a speaker. If your church has any upcoming women’s events, I would love to be your speaker! You can contact me through the link in the show notes.

Thanks for listening to One Spiritual Journey. I hope to hear from you soon! Bye!

Links: 

Things I Mentioned Today: 

Ep. 21 – Should We Still Practice Sabbath Rest?: https://brigettehenry.com/should-we-still-practice-sabbath-rest/ 

John Mark Comer’s “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” and the Companion Journal section on Sabbath: https://shorturl.at/Md6bP 

Freebie Library: https://brigettehenry.com/freebies 

Subscribe for Access to the Freebie Library:  https://brigettehenry.com/subscribe 

Self-Care Worksheet: https://brigettehenry.com/freebies 

The RENEW Study: https://brigettehenry.com/freebies 

Connect With Me: 

Contact me: ⁠brigette@brigettehenry.com 

Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/onespiritualjourney 

Join my mailing list: ⁠https://brigettehenry.com/subscribe⁠ 

Other Fun Links: 

Visit my website: https://brigettehenry.com 

Notes: 

Music by AudioCoffee via Pixabay 

All scripture is CSB (Christian Standard Bible) 

All Greek word definitions come from Strong’s Definitions. You can get access to this resource and more at blueletterbible.org.