A Glorious Day
By Dianne D. McDonnell
Is your Sabbath joyful? Do you look forward to it all week long? When you are in the middle of hard work—do you think, “Not much longer and it will be the Sabbath!”
When I first began to keep the seventh day as a holy Sabbath, I thought I was giving up the world. It seemed impossible to me to change that much. I described keeping the Sabbath as “swimming upstream” to the worried ministers counseling me. And since I was the only one in my family being called, I wondered how I could ever do it. I finally decided, “I know this is right. I have proven it to myself. I won’t think of all the Saturdays ahead of me. I’ll just take it one Sabbath at a time. I’ll try, with God’s help, to keep one Sabbath at a time the best way I possibly can.”
That was a very long time ago! I now have been keeping the Sabbath longer than I was alive before accepting it! Now I laugh at myself for beginning with such a negative view of keeping such a glorious day! At sunset on Friday night I thank God for His Sabbath day. On Sabbath morning I wake up happy to rest up, draw closer to God, and just be joyful in the plans God has for me and for each of my brothers and sisters in Christ. He plans to give us Eternal Life! And on that Sabbath day I am one week closer to being inside God’s own Kingdom! And so I rest, as God did, finally understanding why we are told, “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.” (Refer to Hebrews 3:16-4:11, NIV.) On that day I glory in the blessings He has provided and still provides, and I am grateful for all the times He has helped me through hard trials. The Sabbath stands as weekly proof that we will finally be in the Messiah’s Kingdom, in His own glorious Rest. Yes, it is a glorious day!
A note to those who use only the King James Bible: Hebrews 4:9 is not accurately translated in the KJV. The word “rest” is from the Greek sabbatismós meaning “a keeping of the Sabbath or Sabbath rest”, and is correctly translated in the NASU, NIV, ASV, and RSV Bibles, as well as most Interlinears.
Dianne McDonnell is the founder of Freedom Ministry.
The Sabbath Sentinel 