God's Sabbath

T HE S ABBATH B LESSING

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teacher. So it should be with those who desire to learn how to re ceive from the Sabbath the blessings within it. A Teacher needs to be commissioned to train and develop these skills. Only God through the Holy Spirit can be that Teacher. We must lay out our need to Him in a prayer such as this: “Dear Heavenly Father, I now realize that true Sabbath-keep ing is a science that must be learned and developed through con sistent, diligent, disciplined effort. I am not able to teach myself these things, but You are my Teacher and I commit the entire re sponsibility for this work to You. I sit here at Your feet and ask for the humility and trust of a little child, with my heart open to receive all that You have to show me, and ready to do all that You direct me to do. I know that it will not be the work of a mo ment to perfect my Sabbath education. The work will seem slow and difficult, but as I dedicate myself to endure the discipline in order to obtain the promised reward, I ask for Your patience, perseverance and fortitude. By faith, and therefore in fact, I re ceive these blessings, possess them, and thank You for them, knowing that I shall realize them when I need them most. All this I receive in Jesus’ name. Amen.” The Lord will individualize the instruction to suit our person al temperament and need, and to keep pace with our own learn ing abilities. We can either retard the process by failing to apply ourselves to our lessons, or we can keep pace with the Teacher by working hard on our studies. The divine Educator will direct us to study God’s creative work and commune with nature and Himself on that day. He will lead us to understand our own personal need until we are motivated to seek the answers to those needs. The Lord will teach us how to come to each Sabbath with a positive determination to experience greater and greater blessings from that holy day. He will give us the understanding of the relationship between the fellowship provided on the seventh day, and the work to be done on the other six days.

Communion with Nature

We will learn that it is not enough to spend time studying God’s Word or merely walk through nature, unless through