Practicing the Sabbath: A Rhythm of Worship and Rest
The Invitation of Sabbath
When John Mark Comer’s The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry came out, it quickly became the book among my peers. I picked it up and found it compelling, yet struggled to discern how the practice of “keeping the Sabbath” actually worked in the rhythms of ordinary life. How does a tradesman, business owner, or teacher live this discipline?
As I mentioned in a previous article, 2021 was the year when cracks within my character and inner world began to surface. I was constantly dysregulated, addicted to productivity, refreshing emails, and chasing the next thing, while quietly carrying low-level relational pain. The Spirit began drawing me into the slow work of transformation. Mentors urged me to take Sabbath seriously: to order our home and hearts around one day of rest, to turn off our phones, stop the endless scroll, and delight in the Lord and one another.
Veronica can attest that this has become one of the greatest rhythms for our family. We make pancakes for breakfast, order takeout for dinner, pray together, recognize God’s faithfulness in our lives, and slow down long enough to enjoy God and trust that He is in control.
As we step into church planting, it’s natural to share the practices that have formed and shaped our own discipleship. For the last few months, I’ve referred to Everlight as a garden, a slow and steady place where the Word of God is being sown into the soil of hearts. We’re trusting that as we wait, the Spirit will bring forth fruit and life.
But with gardening comes seasons. Rhythms of sowing, waiting, and reaping. Both rhythms of work and rest are essential to cultivating a healthy garden, and a healthy church community. What if our community was marked by unhurried lives, uncluttered hearts, and undistracted love for one another?
Rediscovering God’s Design for Work and Rest
At the dawn of creation, before shame, sin, or sorrow entered the story, God worked and rested. For six days He spoke order into chaos, forming light, land, and life. Then, on the seventh, He looked upon all He had made and delighted in it (Genesis 2:2–3).
Work and rest were never meant to compete but to complement. Both are sacred patterns in the rhythm of creation. To work is to join God in cultivating His world by taking raw and chaotic things and bringing them into order and beauty. To be made in the image of a creative God is to reflect His creative nature.
But all creative work was designed to lead to rest. A Sabbath day to enjoy and delight in God’s presence and His good creation. Humanity was the final act of God’s creation, invited immediately to rest and enjoy.
Together, work and rest teach us to live in tune with God’s creative rhythm and to mirror His heart by forming, tending, and delighting.
Yet creation’s rhythm was soon broken. Humanity’s exile from God’s presence fractured the sacred balance of work and rest. Work became toil; rest became neglected. We now live in a world that glorifies busyness and treats exhaustion as a badge of honor. We work to gain rather than to give and don’t really know how to rest.
But the gospel invites us back to rediscover work and rest as acts of worship.
Sabbath: The Discipline of Delight and Dependence
Jesus proclaims Himself “Lord of the Sabbath.” He alone is the source of true delight, joy, and restoration. We’ve all felt that ache, returning from vacation still restless, the soul’s longing for a deeper renewal that only Christ can provide.
Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). It was given not as a burden but as a blessing, a holy rhythm that restores our souls and reorders our desires. It’s a weekly confession that Jesus, not our labor, sustains our lives.
The Sabbath was God’s final day of creation, but humanity’s first full day of existence. We begin from rest, not toil. Refreshed in the presence of God, we are empowered to reflect Him in our work.
Romans 14:5 reminds us that the day itself is not what matters most:
“One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.”
Sabbath is not about the calendar but the commitment. A chosen rhythm of ceasing, delighting, and trusting that God is holding all things together. To rest is to worship. Every pause becomes a confession that He is God, and we are not.
Work as Worship
While Sabbath rest reveals trust, sacred work reveals calling. In Genesis 2:15, before the fall, Adam was placed in the garden “to work it and keep it.” The Hebrew word for work (ʿābad) is the same word later used for worship and service.
Our labor, when offered to God, becomes worship. Whether we’re teaching, building, parenting, designing, or managing, we participate in God’s creative mission, bringing beauty out of chaos, order out of disorder, and flourishing out of frustration. The musician takes raw sounds and orders them into music. A chef uses raw materials and offers a cultivated meal. The financial advisors organize the chaos of numbers into a financial plan. The stay at home parent takes wild toddlers, and with the help of God’s graces, trains them to be civilized humans. Raw and chaotic to order and beautiful. When we view work as an opportunity to reflect God’s creative nature it becomes an act of worship.
Work, at its best, is sacred cooperation with the Creator. Work, divorced from God, becomes toil and slavery. Israel’s story under Pharaoh reveals this: labor done for man’s glory enslaves, but labor done for God glorifies.
Sabbath as Resistance
To practice Sabbath in the modern world is an act of holy rebellion. It resists the cultural lie that our worth is measured by output and declares that our identity rests not in performance but in presence.
When God commanded Israel to keep the Sabbath, it came after their liberation from Egypt’s endless production cycle:
“Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and that the Lord your God brought you out” (Deuteronomy 5:15).
The Sabbath became a weekly declaration of freedom, a reminder that we are no longer defined by Pharaoh’s demands but by the Father’s delight. Every time we cease from work, we echo that liberation. We trust that God will hold the world together even when our hands are still.
Practicing sabbath is a living proclamation that we belong to God’s kingdom.
A Practical Vision for Work and Rest
If Sabbath is both gift and discipline, here are a few ways to begin living in its rhythm:
Work as Worship.
See your labor, whatever form it takes, as sacred participation in God’s creative order. Begin your day by asking, “How can I reflect God’s goodness through what I build, design, or care for today?”Rest with Intention.
Set aside regular time to cease from labor and focus on delighting in the Lord. Prepare for it. Protect it. Let it be holy. Let the house get messy, learn to relax your heart, body, mind, and soul.Delight with Gratitude.
Enjoy creation as a gift, eat slowly, walk outside, laugh freely, pray honestly. Sabbath is the practice of noticing that the world is still good because God is still God.Trust with Confidence.
Sabbath isn’t about earning spiritual points; it’s about embracing grace. Every time you rest, you practice the gospel, reminding your soul that Jesus has already finished the work that matters most. Put away emails, honey-dos, and anything else that gets your mind on what you need to do.Limit Distractions.
Turn off notifications, put away devices, and allow silence to re-teach your soul how to listen to the Spirit’s voice.
Final Thoughts
Hebrews 4:11 urges us to “make every effort to enter that rest.” That’s the paradox of formation. There is an effort that we are invited into. A participation to remind ourselves of the truth of the Gospel.
As we learn to balance sacred work and Sabbath rest, our weeks become liturgies of grace, six days of creative labor flowing into one day of holy delight. Work reminds us that we bear God’s image; rest reminds us that we are not God but are made to enjoy Him.
So begin where you can. Dedicate an evening to intentional delight. Put away the devices. Share a meal. Watch the sunset. Laugh. Worship. Sleep. Let the house get messy. Go surf. Work faithfully. Rest freely.
Living our lives in accordance with God’s design becomes a catalyst to reflecting all of Jesus in all of life.
