We often feel rushed. We never seem to have enough time – for work and leisure, for family and ministry.

So we complain, “If only I had one extra day this week, then I could do everything I wanted to do.” Or we say, “How I wish I could take some time off,” or, “If only I had more time to study the Bible and serve the Lord.”

In these and many other ways, we lament that we are overtired and overworked.

Well, it is all part of the frustration of living as finite creatures in a fallen world.

Out of His great mercy, God has provided a remedy: one whole day out of seven to rest in His grace. He has given us a rhythm of work and rest – six days for labour and one day for rest.

Remembering the Sabbath is one of the spiritual disciplines we ought to practise – important, yet often neglected.

Sabbath literally means “to cease” or “to rest.”

I want to emphasise that God’s love for us does not depend on how faithfully we practise these disciplines. It does not mean that the more we read our Bible, the more we pray, or the more we observe the Sabbath, the more God will love us, and vice versa.

In Christ, we are God’s beloved. He loves us perfectly, period.

But we are the ones who stand to lose if we are negligent in practising these disciplines. Our failure to do so means we deny ourselves the means of grace that God has provided for our discipleship and spiritual growth.

It is the same with physical disciplines. If we choose not to exercise, even though we know how important it is, we are the ones who suffer by courting poor health.

In the same way, if we choose not to read our Bible, not to pray, and not to observe the Sabbath, we are choosing not to access the means of grace through which we can truly enjoy the abundant life that God has promised.

We are created in God’s image. We therefore rest because God rests, just as we work because God works.

Genesis 2:2 says, “He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done.” To mark the occasion, “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all His work that He had done in creation” (Gen. 2:3).

The first time God blessed anything, He blessed a day – for us to share in His rest.

We keep the day of rest because God made it holy. To be made holy is to be set apart, and the seventh day is set apart from the other six days. For six days we work; on the seventh day we rest.

Even if Adam and Eve had not sinned, God would still have wanted the Sabbath to be observed. It would have been a joyful participation in His seventh-day rest.

But because of the Fall, work became toilsome, so rest became even more necessary for us to recover from our weariness. It is an act of mercy that God has given us the Sabbath.

The Sabbath rest points forward to Christ, who came to restore the restful fellowship with God that was broken by sin.

Through Christ’s death and resurrection, our sins are forgiven when we place our faith in Him. We are reconciled to God, adopted into His family as beloved children, and His Spirit dwells in us. Our restful fellowship with God is thus restored.

That is why Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

Yet we still live in a fallen world. We still toil. Believers are not outside God’s rest, but neither have we entered it in its fullness. That will happen when Christ returns. In glory, rest will be complete.

We see the theme of rest running through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

Christ’s saving work has transformed the weekly Sabbath. It is no longer the seventh day of the week but the first day. Instead of calling it the Sabbath, we often call it the Lord’s Day.

However, observing the Lord’s Day and observing the Sabbath are essentially synonymous in terms of what we do with the day.

So how can we keep the Sabbath holy?
Worship, mercy, and rest.

The seventh day is a Sabbath to (honour) the Lord (Exodus 20:10). The best way to honour the Lord is through corporate worship.

In worship, we meet with God through prayer and the ministry of the Word, by singing His praises, presenting our offerings, celebrating the sacraments, and enjoying Christian fellowship.

The result, according to Thomas Watson, a 17th-century English preacher and author, is that “the heart, which all the week was frozen, on the Sabbath melts with the Word.”

For the Jews, the Sabbath begins on Friday evening. Perhaps our Lord’s Day can also begin on Saturday evening, as we prepare ourselves for worship.

The Lord’s Day is also set aside for mercy – for showing compassion. That is why Jesus performed so many miracles on the Sabbath. He was not violating the fourth commandment, as the Pharisees thought, but fulfilling its true purpose.

We follow His example whenever we use the Lord’s Day to welcome the stranger, feed the poor, or visit the sick.

I hope we will not become overly calculative with our time on Sunday. Do not pack the day so tightly – whether with children’s tuition or personal agendas – that you have to rush off the moment the benediction is pronounced.

If we do that, we leave no space to invite visitors for lunch or to attend to brothers and sisters who may need a listening ear. Some of our members may be in hospital or homebound. Sunday can be a good day to visit them.

While some visits can be planned, hospitality is often spontaneous. If we free up our time on the Lord’s Day, we will have greater opportunities to show mercy, compassion, and love.

Of course, the Lord’s Day is also meant to be a day of rest, the biblical answer to workaholism.

It is a day to step out of the frenzy – to stop our need to produce and accomplish, to stop worrying about how to get ahead, to stop trying to control our lives and let God be God.

So do something different. Do something restful. Catch up with friends over a cup of coffee. Read a book for leisure. Pursue your hobbies. Spend time with family – watch a movie, enjoy a meal together, go for a walk, or play board games.

In a culture that increasingly treats Sunday like any other day – turning what is sacred into something secular – we must resist the tendency to let work enslave us.

This requires planning ahead so that we work diligently during the six days and preserve time for our weekly rest.

Let us guard against legalism in all its forms. Let us not judge others for how they keep – or fail to keep – the Lord’s Day. The last thing we need is a set of man-made regulations for keeping the Sabbath. This is exactly what the Pharisees did, and Jesus condemned them.

Instead, our practice of the Sabbath should flow from personal conviction as we seek to do what is pleasing to the Lord.

A story is told of a man who was approached by a beggar on the street. The man reached into his pocket and found seven dollars. Feeling sorry for the beggar, he held out six bills and said, “Here you go.”

Not only did the beggar take the six dollars, but with his other hand he struck his benefactor across the face and grabbed the seventh dollar as well.

What do you think of that beggar? Surely he was a scoundrel.

Then what should we think of a sinner, saved by the grace of Jesus Christ, who insists on taking all seven days for himself?

The way to avoid such a scandal is to remember the Lord’s Day and keep it holy.