Solitude

For a few years now I have been making it my practice to set aside Wednesday as a special day.  I call it my “chai tea and theology” day, and it is my favorite day of the week.  On this day I spend extended time with God.  I read and study His Word, and I listen.  I pray about decisions and for people I love, and I listen.  I love it when I can take a walk or to work in the garden and I listen.

This day has become essential to my well-being. It nourishes my soul.  I, like you, have a busy lifestyle and many people who depend on me.  I love to be part of whatever is going on at my church, and I love to work hard.  But I can’t maintain my industrious ways without my day of rest.

A day of rest and seeking God is a biblical principle that many of us have forgotten.  God created the world in six days, and on the seventh day He rested (Genesis 2:2).   From the time of the ancient Hebrews, God told His followers to rest on the seventh day and to keep it holy (separate, set apart, different; Exodus 20:8). This principle became a problem by Jesus’ time when the religious people of the day had created so many rules that the day of rest became anything but a day of relating to God.  When the religious people ‘called Jesus out’ for harvesting some grain to eat, Jesus spoke to their ridiculous accusation in this way: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27, NIV).

The principle is just as true for us today.  The day of rest and relating to God is for our souls.  It nourishes us.  It’s not about following rules or a tradition to make God happy.  I have come to value this day and protect it as well as I am able, because it is on this day that I am renewed to do all that I do during there rest of the week.  My ‘sabbath,’ my regular day of rest, has changed me.  I have become more attuned to hear that still small voice of God, and I am better able to follow.

I write this not as a shame to you if you don’t (or can’t) set aside a day like this.  I’m simply sharing it because it is so important to me, and I would like to encourage you to consider some time alone on a regular basis to read what God has said, to talk to Him, and to listen.

God bless you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhveWUI0sXA