24/6 - TAKE TIME TO BE HOLY
A "holy day" has always existed, even from the beginning of time. When God created the earth, he created it in 6 different creative periods, and rested on the 7th. Resting on the 7th day made it a holy day.
Growing up , it always made sense to me that God would rest and dedicate a day to holiness. This "holy day" would allow him to rest, and behold his beautiful creation. However, I did not always understand how the Sabbath Day could be a "holy day" for me personally.
Yes, I attended church with my family every Sunday, partook of the sacrament, attended Sunday school and young womens. I felt like I only participated in those things because that is just what my family did. We were expected to wake up on Sunday, get ready, and go to church. We did it every week.
Like any principle or behavior, it is easy to go along with something just because you are raised that way. Your are taught to do certain things, and believe certain beliefs. However, there has to be a time when you "come to yourself" and gain a personal testimony or belief of a certain principle or behavior. After church was what really stumped me. I did not understand how Sunday could be "holy" all day if we only went to church for 3 of the 24 hours. I never really figured this out until a couple of years ago.
Two years ago I was preparing to serve an LDS mission. I was doing my best to learn how to simply teach others about the gospel, and testify to them that I knew it was true. I needed to know how to teach people about the sabbath day and why we need to attend church. That did not come all at once. I will admit that my testimony of the importance of the Sabbath Day did not fully come until I was on my mission.
As a missionary we are told in our handbook, and by our mission leaders to be obedient so we can have the spirit with us, which spirit allows us to teach with converting power. Well even as missionaries we make mistakes. I think as a missionary I felt an even greater amount of guilt and shame for the smallest mistakes I would make. This taught me a lot about the principle of repentance. One part of repentance that is really important is partaking of the sacrament.
Every Sunday when we attend church, the sacrament is blessed and passed to the congregation. It is blessed and sanctified, so that when we take it, we are blessed and sanctified. At that point we are given a fresh start. We can set goals and make plans to do and be better than we were the week before.
The sacrament is what makes the sabbath day holy for me because I know that I am given another chance. I felt the spirit most abundantly as a missionary when I partook of the sacrament. That spirit then allowed me to recognize how I needed to improve. Most of the time it was in ways that I was not be able to come up with by myself.
Partaking of the sacrament every Sunday as a missionary became a lifeline for me. During sacrament meeting was when I often felt an immense amount of God's love. God loved us enough to send us His son. Without Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice, we would not be able to attend church and partake of the sacrament. We definitely would not be able to repent. And no repentance = no entrance.
My mission taught me that the Sabbath day was essential not only in my life, but is essential to our salvation. If we are not keeping the sabbath day holy by attending church and partaking of the sacrament, we are not able to have the spirit with us "always." Not having the spirit makes it really difficult to overcome tribulation, and make righteous choices.
I think we often make the mistake of thinking we are not "worthy" to partake of the sacrament. We tend to think that when we have not attended church, prayed, or read our scriptures for a while. Feeling unworthy to partake of the sacrament is a tool of the adversary's. He tricks us into thinking that there is no hope for us. He makes us think that because we have not been doing the small and simple things constantly and perfectly that we are hopeless. Let me tell you a secret..... ITS A LIE!! The only time we should ever feel unworthy to partake of the Sacrament is when we have committed such a serious sin that would cause us to have to speak with the bishop.
How can we be made holy if we do not take time to do so? We get caught up in the world's view of a 24/7 week. As Christians and as members of the church, we need to have the perspective of a 24/6 week. Sundays are a gift to us. The sabbath is a day of rest and renewal. I took "rest" very literally growing up as I took 3-4 hour naps every Sunday after church. As I have gotten older, I have realized that rest also means that we are taking a rest from the distracting and deceptive world that we live in.
I feel so blessed to live at this time when the gospel has been restored in it's fullness to the earth. I am grateful that our Heavenly Father loves us enough to let us have a fresh start every week. Think about these questions as you prepare to take time to be holy on the Sabbath day.
Why is the Sabbath day "holy" to you?
What can you do this week to make your sabbath day more restful and renewing?
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