When I was a toddler, my mother took me shopping. As we were wheeling around the store, I reached out and grabbed a stuffed rabbit. I clung tightly to it, in my little mind it was a keeper, and I wasn’t letting it go. My mother couldn’t pry it out of my arms at the checkout stand, so she wound up purchasing the rabbit. My determination to keep the stuffed rabbit was clearly seen as I held it close and refused to give it up. I cherished that little rabbit for years. Even though we aren’t required to keep the Sabbath as it was designed in the Old Testament, we need to hold tight and cherish the principle of worship and rest on the Lord’s Day. It should be a keeper.
Keeping the Lord’s Day as a day of worship and rest is vital. We need to keep it close and refuse to give it up. Remembering its importance is vital to our relationship with God. Worship and rest are a necessary part of our spiritual growth. The word “keep” is intriguing to me. The dictionary defines “keep” as something to hold, grasp, maintain, and enjoy. As Christians, we know the command, its significance, and importance, but it’s the keeping part we struggle with. It loses some of its meaning, or we even misunderstand it over time. It can become mechanical and ritualistic if we’re not careful. And dare I say, careless with it. Have there ever been times in your life when keeping the Lord’s Day of worship and rest was no longer a priority? Life gets busy, and worship loses its significance in our lives, and resting is foreign to us.
One of the ways the enemy of our souls works to keep us from worship is through distractions. After all, we say, “It's my one day off, I need to catch up on work.” Or even while at church we are so busy doing we forget to enjoy just being a worshipper. Our emotions can play havoc with us as well. Perhaps we are angry and hurt by someone in the church, so it’s just easier not to go than to forgive. Our own sinful brokenness can keep us from worship as well. The feelings of remorse and guilt are just too overwhelming, and we choose not to worship and rest.
Think about all the people who walk through the church doors on any given Sunday. Most appear all smiles and greet one another in a friendly fashion. All is right in the world—or is it? We Christians are clever at disguises. Under the smiles could be loneliness, grief, physical or emotional pain, broken marriages, or terminal illnesses. Keeping worship a priority under these conditions is difficult, but essential for encouragement and support.
Our recent trip to Asia and seeing the persecuted church first-hand left us in awe of their determination to worship. Their creative ways of meeting and keeping the Lord’s Day of worship were humbling and convicting. We have the freedom to own a Bible and walk into church on any given Sunday, and yet we have become creative in our excuses not to worship and rest.
Sometimes we keep the Lord’s Day, but our hearts are not in good keeping. Once in the church doors, we look around at who’s there and who’s not there. We discuss and poke fun at people. Keeping the Lord’s Day is more than just showing up, it’s what’s in our hearts as we prepare to worship. Have we spent time in prayer and asked the Lord to search our hearts for sin that needs to be confessed? Do we pray for the pastor, the message, the worship team, the Sunday School teachers, nursery workers, those who hand out bulletins, serve coffee, the safety team and the greeters? How about the lost and hurting who come through the doors?
Christmas is past and the new year is fast approaching. As we look forward to the Lord’s Day each week, maybe we need to look at this command with fresh eyes. Remembering to keep the Lord’s Day holy should not be a chore or a heavy obligation, but a joyous act of worship and rest that God designed for us. Look at it in all its purity and beauty. My little-stuffed rabbit has long since disintegrated. God’s Word will never disintegrate. It’s been kept and preserved for us down through the ages to bring honor and glory to a magnificent God who has left us with this joyous command because He loves us!