Day 26 – Honeymoon Joy

Honeymoon Joy

Sarah stretched and then relaxed, sinking deeper into the wonderful bed her husband had provided.  She looked at Jacob sleeping soundly next to her; “how can I be so blessed to have the love of such a wonderful man?”  She snuggled next to him feeling the warmth of his body.  “How can I ever repay the kindness he has shown to me?”  Sarah’s mind wandered through the days of their honeymoon; relaxing together in the private hot springs.  Sitting at the beautiful and rare wooden table enjoying Jacob’s mother’s tasty bread and cheese.  Lounging in this comfy bed, “popping pomegranate seeds” and dreaming of the family they would soon begin. “I don’t want this to end!”

Sarah looked painfully at Jacobs work-worn hands as he shared his labor of the past 7 years; daily longing for his bride.  Jacob lovingly rubbed the fragrant oils of Esther on her feet each night, kissing and caressing her withered foot.  At first Sarah wanted to draw her foot away and hide it in shame; but her loving groom gently held on. “This is one of the things that makes you most beautiful.”  More loved than she ever dreamed she could be, Sarah thanked God for his blessings and drifted off to sleep a little longer to enjoy the beauty and rest of her 7-Day Honeymoon.

The Blessings of the Seventh-Day Honeymoon

I am my beloveds and He is mine…

I know, it’s hard to make the connection between the lover of our souls and human love.  I’ve felt that too. However, I’ve also experienced amazing joy at discoveries in His word, the Bible.  I’ve experienced His peace that passes all understanding in times of great trouble and I’ve experienced His delight in me as I’ve opened myself up to His love.  In my first Seventh-Day Honeymoon I was deeply blessed by His goodness and truly loved by Him. I marveled at the intricacies of His plan.

But let’s be honest

My first Seventh-Day Honeymoon was in the 1990s; from this writing it was almost 20 years ago and sadly, it was my first and last “Seventh-Day Honeymoon”.  You see, when I left that wonderful experience I walked back into the stresses and cares of life.  The Sabbath – “honeymoon” planning I did for weeks prior was replaced by busyness and the cares of life.   The planning stopped, but the hunger continued.  I bought books on Sabbath, how do you do it?  I prayed over it, “put it in my husband’s heart.”  I forgot about it in seasons of stress and busyness but my groom kept calling me back … “Come away my beloved”.  I heard his voice and turned to my stress and fears rather than His love.  Sound familiar?

Isaiah 58:13-14

“Keep the Sabbath day holy. (Holy means set-apart to God) Don’t pursue your own interests on that day, but enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as the Lord’s holy day. Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on that day, and don’t follow your own desires or talk idly. ¹⁴ Then the Lord will be your delight. I will give you great honor and satisfy you with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor Jacob. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Isaiah 58 gives us some amazing benefits of keeping Sabbath

• Delight
• Honor
• Satisfaction
• Inheritance

These benefits of keeping the Sabbath are the very things we humans give our lives pursuing and rarely achieve.

You and I can experience these promises by planning our weekly honeymoon and setting that time aside for our Lord; guarding our Seventh-Day Honeymoon as we would a marriage honeymoon.

How does that work?  What does it look like in my real life…does church count?  How do you make it happen?

“In modern America, we take the five-day work-week so much for granted that we forget what a radical concept a day of rest was in ancient times.  The weekly day of rest has no parallel in any other ancient civilization.  In ancient times, leisure was for the wealthy and the ruling classes only, never for the serving or laboring classes.  In addition, the very idea of rest each week was unimaginable.  The Greeks thought the Jews were lazy because we insisted on having a “holiday” ever seventh day.” ⁽¹⁾

It all begins with a desire

Desire gives birth to action.  So if desire is all you have right now…take it to your groom and let him know “I desire a Sabbath, a Seventh-Day Honeymoon with you every week.  I just don’t know how to put it into action.  Please show me.   The action is simply planning and prioritizing, right?  Time.  It’s all about Time.  You may feel you are powerless over your time but in reality YOU choose how to spend your time every minute of every day.  You may have many voices calling for your time.  You may feel enslaved by debt, by obligations, by your job, your family and friends…your church activiites…but ultimately You Choose.

It will take some prayerful thought for us to look at our time and decide how God wants us to spend it.

Here’s an amazing truth – God is not bound by time

He is not bound by anything and He has promised to provide everything we need for life and godliness, according to HIS riches and not our resources.  So God can increase your time.  He can hold off distractions, interruptions, things breaking, family crisis.  He can do anything!  If He is calling you to “come away my beloved” He will help you find the way to reorganize your time. I believe it’s like tithing.  It does not make sense to give God 10% right off the top of your earnings, but when you do He protects the 90% and increases it!  Our time is no different.  We give our time to God and He gives it back in simple ways.

Let’s get practical

I’m going to run through my thought processes with you … think about doing this myself.  Sabbath always runs from sunset to sunset; this is because when God created the earth he said darkness and light are one day.  He started the day – at night.  I know, it’s backwards to us. Genesis 1:3-5

Sing to God, sing in praise of his name, extol him who rides on the clouds; rejoice before him—his name is the Lord. 5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. 6 God sets the lonely in families,he leads out the prisoners with singing;     but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land. 

The Valapriso Project explains it this way:

Let Sabbath time shape the way you begin and end each day. In the Bible (Genesis 1), each new day begins at sundown. The first part of each day begins in restful darkness, preparing for the gift of light and activity. As Eugene Peterson notes, “I go to sleep to get out of the way for awhile.” God and nature go on without us, and we join the work in the morning. The Jewish Shabbat observance, which begins on Friday evening, honors this biblical view of time. How might “beginning” the day in the Genesis way change your attitude as you start and end your day?  (2)

Working it out in my head…

So if I started my Seventh-Day Honeymoon on Saturday night at sundown, that would be OK…I’m not crazy busy on Saturday. I could have a beautiful meal ready for my family complete with candles and a table cloth.  We could remember the ways God has blessed us together.  I could put my hand on each one’s head and bless them.  My husband could pray a blessing over each of us.  We could rejoice with each other and enjoy each other’s company…without the TV, tablet or phone. That would take some practice; but it’s do-able.  And of course, the meal would be fully prepared before sundown, possibly during the week, and I would want to use (biodegradable) paper plates and throw away everything I could to not leave a big mess to clean up.

That all sounds good but I don’t have a family, I’m alone

If you are thinking…but I don’t have a family…your first step is to ask God to give you one.  It’s one of His promises.  He will bring you “people” to be your family. Psalm 68:4-6

Sing to God, sing in praise of his name, extol him who rides on the clouds; rejoice before him—his name is the Lord. 5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. 6 God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing;but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

If you feel like you are living in a “sun-scorched land” lost and alone do some checking in your heart…are you rebellious?  Repent of your rebellion and open yourself up to the family He brings your way.  You may need to forgive your own biological family, you may need help with that.  If you do…check out Dancing Through Life.  Here’s God’s promise to you:

What about church?

Well, if I spend the evening on Saturday Remembering and Rejoicing, possibly Sunday church would call me to Repent and Renew?  If I went there with that in mind it might change my entire church experience.

• Hopefully all the Remembering and Rejoicing from the night before would give me a better outlook for the day.
• I wouldn’t be so worried about what I wear because my mind and heart are about repentance.
• The traffic wouldn’t bother me because I’ve so ordered my day that I won’t be late or rushed.
• The music or sermon won’t get me upset…becauseI am there to repent of ways I have broken covenant in the prior week.
• I have a quiet place to renew my covenant commitment to Christ during the prayer times or at the altar after church; especially if there is a communion time.
• I’m much more likely to be used and led by the Holy Spirit in my church family because my heart is open before the Lord instead of worrying about what to do next.

Sounds like an amazing church day. After church, it’s time to receive God’s covenant promises of provision, protection and possessions and then rest.  This doesn’t mean I must do it alone.  I could have my Sunday Sabbath meal prepared and invite others over for a time of refreshing.

• We could leave off the TV and share the goodness of God, enjoy each other’s company and pray for one another.  Obviously not everyone would be up for this but God will show me who to invite.
• We could pray and receive the covenant promises we need.  Provision, Protection, Possessions.
• I could give my guests a time frame, so they don’t stay all day and all night, allowing me time for rest on Sunday afternoon.
• I could stay away from the TV, tablet and phone.
• I could rest until Sundown.

At the end of my Sabbath I’ll be rejuvenated to prepare for my week so I am ready for my next “Sabbath Seventh-Day Honeymoon”.

Sounds like a wonderful plan!  Why is it so hard to practice?

We have lost the natural boundaries of time and resources due to computers and credit.  We can do our banking at 2 am and our shopping at midnight.  We can go on vacation even if we are broke and buy anything we want or need with the plastic magic card.  God created boundaries for our good.  He told the ocean to come up on the sand and no further.  He set boundaries for darkness and light.  The seasons are boundaries of weather patterns.  We see the benefits of all these boundaries, now let us, myself as well, receive the boundary of Sabbath, the Seventh-Day Honeymoon, as a benefit as well.

My Next Journey…The Seventh-Day Honeymoon

When God called me to write down this 30 Days of Honor journey I had No Idea where that would lead.  Tonight, as I began to write I realized, it is leading me back to that beautiful, covenant practice of Sabbath. To the revelation He gave me 20 years ago, to the longing in my heart to stop living as others do and  “come away”. He’s calling me to create a plan for my weekly Sabbath honeymoon, to order my schedule and my tasks for the week so that I have those 24 hours with my groom. He’s calling me to Remember, Rejoice, Repent, Renew and Receive His love and care…and Rest. If Saturday or Sunday doesn’t work for you – it really doesn’t matter.  What matters is the day and planning for it and practicing it.

Colossians 2:16-18

¹⁶ So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, ¹⁷ which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.”

It’s not about legalism, or keeping rules, it’s about “coming away” out of this world, to connect with our Groom, our Savior, our King. I don’t know about you, but I need it now, more than ever.

What are your thoughts about the Seventh-Day Honeymoon?  Is it appealing?  Does it scare you?  Seem impossible and impracticle?  I’d love to hear!

Resources

(1) http://www.jewfaq.org/shabbat.htm

(2) http://www.practicingourfaith.org/keeping-sabbath-ways-practice-ideas

Are you ready to walk fully in your calling as the Bride of Christ?  Dancing Through Life

The post Day 26 – Honeymoon Joy first appeared on 30 Days of Honor, from The Wellness Workshop

About the Author: Celeste Davis, is a passionate follower of Jesus Christ with a heart to walk fully in Covenant with Him. As Founder of The Wellness Workshop, Celeste’s passion is to teach women and impact their families to “Be Nourished” as opposed to dieting or trying different life strategies. We nourish our bodies with God-Made Food, our Souls with God-Made Relationships and our Spirits with the Word of God and Prayer. More Info about Celeste.