Dear Followers of Jesus,
I have been pondering in my mind and heart the words from the Sabbath song, “Tis the holy Sabbath day, the Creator set apart / From all others for worship, pure worship of heart.” The words “pure worship of heart” have been going over and over in my mind. The Sabbath is a day of rest where there is no compulsion or requirement, but we have an amazing opportunity to let our hearts go out in love and worship for God.
It reminds me of a passage in the book Iron Shoes which gives the following story, as told by Pastor Carter Helm Jones of Philadelphia:
“In my home in one of my pastorates I had a prayer room—the Sky Room we called it. It was in the very top of the house, a kind of attic. It was used only for prayer and meditation. One day I came home irritated and fretful. I had been hurrying from one appointment to another. I said to my wife, ‘I am going up to the Sky Room and please don’t let anybody interrupt me.’ It was not necessary to add that last exhortation as my wife was always glad to see me go up to the Sky Room. I was different when I came down.
“I dragged up the steps, shut the door, and sat down by my little table—the only furniture in the room was a chair, a table and a Bible. As I idly turned the leaves of the Bible, I heard footsteps tapping on the stairway outside and then there was a timid knock. A bit irritated that somebody had slipped by my wife’s vigil, I opened the door with a frown on my face to find my little six-year-old girl standing there twisting her hands because she knew she had disobeyed. ‘Daddy,’ she said, ‘you’ve been so busy these last few days that I haven’t had time to love you and I want to love you just a minute.’
“I dropped down on my knees and she put her little arms around my neck and kissed me, and whispered to me, and then slipped out quietly. I just reached over and pushed the door shut without even getting up and said, ‘God, I have been so busy going to and fro and up and down on the earth that I haven’t had time to love you any. I want to stay here awhile just to talk to you.’”
The Sabbath is a time to stop and tell Jesus that we love Him and thank Him for His goodness. We each do it from our own heart and in our own way. It may be while simply lying in bed recounting what He has done for us or it might be through singing a song in our heart to make a melody to the Lord. Sometimes it is a quiet walk through the woods or sitting by a lake to quietly worship His handiwork. He loves to receive heart worship in the way we want to give it, so it’s okay to just be yourself and tell Jesus from the bottom of your heart that you love Him!
Happy Sabbath with heart worship,
Neil Sandford
