How do you struggle to take delight in the Lord’s Day? How could the WCF’s teaching on the Lord’s Day be applied to your life, or the lives of those in your church to help in seeing the beauty of the Sabbath?

I will admit that it is a challenging and difficult process to take delight in the Lord’s day in the sense of what Westminster confession talking about keeping the Sabbath holy unto God By making preparation of our heart and ordering our common affairs beforehand, and observe a holy rest all the day from our works, words, thoughts and our worldly employments and recreations. But also, to be taken up the whole time in the public and private exercise of his worship in the duties of necessity and mercy.

This is a very strong dedication and setting aside the Lord’s day as a Sabbath day holy unto God that require essentially almost a complete holy rest from all our works so as to be taken up in worship on the Lord’s day. This practically is almost impossible because of the heavy schedule of bi-vocational seminary student and a full-time job so as to catch up all the assignments and paper and preparation on the weekend is crucial just to barely stay on top of it.

I would say Isaiah 58:13-14 helps me a lot in the perspective in terms of the word “delight”. Isaiah writes that if we turn back our foot from the Sabbath, from doing our pleasure on God’s holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, and the holy day of the Lord honorable, if we honor it, not going our own ways or seeking our own pleasures then we will take delight in the Lord, then God will make us ride on the heights of the earth.

To me this is insanely motivating and powerful to make us ride on the height of the earth just by putting pleasure on God’s Sabbath as a day of the Lord. I see this as God wanting our heart for a day that He sets apart every week instead of taking our own ways, this surely bring much pleasure to the heart of God. It’s like my way of God’s ways and if I submit to God’s way on the day of holiness called Sabbath day, He promised that we will take delight in him. I think it is more than just honoring the Sabbath day, makes us delight in the Lord, but it is the process of setting our time for God weekly is in in itself taking delight in God!

I believe we will grow overtime in it. Now the question of how we do that practically on the Lord’s Day i.e. Sunday is that I quite agree with Dr Duncan’s lecture saying that a great way of spending Sabbath day is have two worship services on Sunday morning and Sunday evening, that pretty much fill up and dedicate the day of the Lord and keep it holy to the Lord.

I look forward to writing on the height of the earth in the Lord. Amen.

Isaiah 58:13–14 (ESV)

¹³    “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,

from doing your pleasure on my holy day,

       and call the Sabbath a delight

and the holy day of the Lord honorable;

       if you honor it, not going your own ways,

or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;

¹⁴    then you shall take delight in the Lord,

and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;

       I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”