Unity Spiritual Tool: The Sabbath

What Is the Sabbath?

A Sabbath is a time of going apart to make conscious contact with the Divine. It does not require a whole day. We can pause, close our eyes, and turn within for brief periods to align with Spirit.

We return from these short Sabbaths renewed and refreshed with the clarity needed to deal with the stress of modern life.

What Is an Example of the Sabbath?

A true Sabbath occurs when we become quiet and still within. A Sabbath is resting the mind, not necessarily the physical body. It is necessary for the good of the whole person, as well as for the right outworking of the creative process.

To maintain the supply of creative energy, a person needs to take time out from constant expenditure of energy.

We can observe a Sabbath anytime because it is a state of consciousness, a state of rest that we may enter when we choose. It does not need rules dictating when and where it may take place.

"The Sabbath is kept anytime we enter into spiritual consciousness and rest from thoughts of temporal things. Prayer brings us into a state of Sabbath, or rest. Prayer liberates us from the physical world of worry and chaos and gives us a feeling of peace and confidence that all is well."

The Revealing Word

Understanding Sabbath as a State of Mind

By Charles Fillmore

The Sabbath is a very certain, definite thing. It is a state of mind that man enters or acquires when he goes into the silence, into the realm of Spirit. There he finds true rest and peace. The seventh day means the seventh or perfect stage of one's spiritual unfoldment.

The Sabbath as an institution was established by man. God does not rest from His work every seventh day, and there is no evidence that there has ever been a moment's cessation in the activity of the universe. We do not quarrel with our brother over the observance of the Sabbath.

The true Sabbath is the consciousness that we have fulfilled the divine law in both thought and act.

If he says we should worship God on the seventh day, or on the first day, in either case we acquiesce. Not only do we do God's service in praise, song, and thanksgiving on the seventh day and the first day, but every day. In the true Sabbath our mind is turned to God every moment, and we are ever ready to acknowledge His holy presence in our heart and life. "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath" (Mark 2:27).

Excerpt from the book Keep a True Lent.