Practicing the Sabbath, as with all the other spiritual disciplines we call the Practices of Jesus, a.k.a. “Practicing the Way,” is part of a continuous journey of spiritual formation. It’s nearly impossible to go from your current state living in a frenetic world with too many things to do in not enough time in the day to spending a full day to worship God. And so, we acknowledge that there is a progression.
Progression 1: Sabbath is to stop. This is to align our lives with the cosmic rhythm (6:1) designed by our Creator God. It’s when we get off the speeding train of life and just stop to make space in our lives.
Progression 2: Sabbath is to rest. Rather than treating Sabbath as a day off to take care of all those other things we cannot get done during the rest of the week, this is making intentional time to not do work as an act of resistance to our culture and the forces that compel us to work more, desire more, do more.
Progression 3: Sabbath as delight. This is where once we’ve made space and can truly rest that we are able to rekindle the joy in the LORD. Our God is a God of joy.
Progression 4: Sabbath is for worship. The time that we’ve made can now be used to dedicate our resources, attention, and affection towards God. In doing so, we are “practicing for eternity.”