If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word, then you will take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
It honors and pleases God greatly when we set aside special time just for Him and do not allow anything else to steal our attention!
"Desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word." There is no intrinsic value in self-denial. Christianity is not a religion of asceticism, but of the fullness of life that God brings us.
But there is still great value in having times where we purposely deny ourselves the normal pleasures of life for no other purpose than honoring God as more important than ourselves and our comfort. Making the Lord's day special or taking a day to fast and focus on God—these kinds of things serve notice on our flesh that it is not in control, that God is the most important thing in our lives.
How can you deny yourself in a way that honors God this week?
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