3 January | Youth
«And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.» Genesis 2:2, 3
The Sabbath is a blessing in my life. It is the happiest day of the week! I remember an occasion when I was passing through a large avenue in São Paulo, Brazil, and saw a group of young people with flags distributing leaflets on the corners. It was a campaign promoted by a chain of restaurants with the motto: “Happy Day.”
They showed such immense joy that I was impacted. From then until I arrived at church, I did not think about anything else. I do not even remember what I preached about that day. I returned home still impacted. On the way back, the idea of Sabbath as World Joy Day came to me. That is what Sabbath is. The Sabbath is the high point of God's creative acts, the happiest day of the week.
God completed the work of creation on the sixth day and exulted, “This is so good!” He made everything: animals, plants, man and everything else. The Word then says that He rested on the seventh day from all the work that He had done.
Did God need an entire day to recover His energy? Did He need a break? Of course not. God just wanted to give us an example of how our week should work. How should we act to rest from six days of work? He wanted to show men that, after six days of working, running from one place to another, we must take time to rest. It is a blessing to set aside a day for rest and recovery. But it cannot be a heavy, sad, boring day. It is supposed to be a joyful day!
We need to show the world that Sabbath is a family day, an anti-stress day, to enjoy nature, do good and rest. Saturday is the day of the week when we put aside all our problems, debts and worries, and take the opportunity to rest our mind and body.
In general, people identify our church as 'the people who do not work on the Sabbath'. But that does not define our relationship with that day. The Bible says that God blessed the Sabbath. And people need to know that Sabbath is a blessing in our lives. Jesus himself said, “The Sabbath was made for man” (Mark 2:27).