If you hold back your foot on the sabbath
from following your own pursuits on my holy day;
If you call the sabbath a delight,
and the Lord’s holy day honorable. (Is 58:13ab)
Selfish: lacking consideration for others; concerned chiefly with one’s own personal profit or pleasure. (Free Miriam-Webster Dictionary)
That we are.
From the moment we are first born, we do all that we can to make sure that our world supplies our needs, that everything revolves around us. That is an extremely common trait that all of us share in our tainted humanity.
If we want the world to revolve around us, it would stand to reason that we want God to do the same. After all, why should we pay attention to God? Shouldn’t He be the one paying attention to us? That, at least, is our thought from time to time.
Isaiah addresses the crowds on how to make the Lord’s Day holy. It will be holy and honorable if we make sure the day is devoted to God and not to our “own pursuits”.
I am sure that many of the people did not like what they heard from Isaiah. For that matter, I am sure that people today still do not like hearing it.
Like it or not, we need to devote our selves, our time, our attention on the Lord.
FAITH ACTION: What can you do to dedicate this day to the Lord rather than to yourself?