Friends; Yesterday I found an old thumb drive. Just now, I plugged it in, and found files from 2012 and 2013. Old services, writings, messages, etc. A minsters barn filled with goodies! This is the first file I clicked. Think I was being led? Oh yea. We are now half way in the Lenten season, half way to Easter, which has not once has been mentioned on my FB feed recently. Perhaps, if instead of thinking of yourself as quarantined, we thought of it as a Sabbath? shared with great love, Deborah
Honoring the Sabbath
“The true church is the heaven within one, where one meets the Father face to face, where one goes to Him at will, in closest fellowship.”
During this season of Lent, Charles Fillmore, the co-founder of Unity, shows us the importance of the Sabbath; not as a specific day of the week, or time, but as a state of consciousness that man enters or acquires when he goes into the silence. It is here that man finds true rest and peace. We can get lost in the darkness of our Adam mind and we also can then be raised unto the Christ Consciousness through the observing of ones private Sabbath. How often do you rest from outer thoughts and the busi-ness of your life? How often do you enter into your upper room, to be aware of Gods presence and commune with Him? How would your life be different, if you observed a Sabbath every day?
Honoring the Sabbath is one of the examples which Jesus taught us so very well. He showed us that going off by oneself, to be in communion with our inner spirit, is the way of creating peace, answers, guidance and inner sustenance; despite whatever else is happening in the linear world. Despite how this looked to his followers, he did it. Jesus always put God first.
I know many of us have spiritual practices where we set aside time each day to be in the silence. And some even prepare to be in the silence with spirit, and some even enter the silence with an intention to receive from Holy Spirit; and to those, this is the breath of life itself. Many cannot begin a day without being in the silence of communion with the Christ, the Divine, the communion of inner peace which is calling from deep within our hearts to be in harmony with this invisible, yet palpable Presence we call God. This is God calling God; God working upon God. It is the foundation from which an entire day births from; that place of inner peace where we are fed through our souls in order to be in harmony throughout the day.
This inner sanctuary is the upper room of our minds where one can FEEL their personal relationship with God come to life. It is the breath of life itself which feeds every atom and cell of their being, its awareness of God which is the sustenance that is literally needed in order to feel sustained. It is more necessary than our voice, our hands, our feet, our body, our anything – it is the moment of awareness where all else recedes into the void and ones personal relationship with the Divine is made manifest. It is the feeding from the infinite fount of life, from the river of life force which pours through ones being in order to create breathe within them – in order to move through the day in a sacred balance.
Honoring the Sabbath, making moments to be aware of your personal relationship with the Divine, can be done throughout your day – not just in the ritual of prayer and meditation. When one honors the Sabbath as daily ritual and practice, one is always listening for God. Where is God right now? How can I see God in this moment? Do I see the wisdom of this moment? Am I in peace right now? Do I see appreciation, gratitude, and thankfulness in this interaction? Am I aware of understanding, of any attributes which are of love – am I seeing or being, or giving, or offering compassion right now? Am I calling upon my faith in this moment in my day to carry me? Am I being kind to this person I am in communication with right now? Am I seeing love or fear? As this person is speaking with me, to me, at me……..do I see Gods presence in this moment? What can I feel right now which will allow the Divine to express as me?
Sometimes, especially in the beginning of a conscious practice to honor the Sabbath – one has to use the gift of discernment to say NO to what is being is seen through their human eyes and say YES to what they feel through their spirit eyes. Saying YES to our Sabbath is saying YES to a personal, ever evolving, eternally awakening, and forever sustaining relationship which will continually inspire you to want more. The honoring of the Sabbath can begin with a Sunday ritual and expand and call you to think about God in the every moment of the day; to put God first in all that you do. Yet, for right now – begin with a set and devoted ritual to honor your Sabbath each day for a few minutes to more; and watch your heart, mind and spirit expand and sustain you, as God speaks and you feel the enriching blessings of Sabbath as a way of being.