With a friend, your family or in your small group, discuss the following questions. 

1. Do you remember a time when there was no Sunday Shopping in Ontario? Did you grow up in a home where Sunday was a day of rest? What were the things that defined your Sundays back then?
2.  Do you find it difficult today to set boundaries around a specific time in your week where you can stop working, rest and commune with God? What are some of the things that hinder you from establishing this regular Sabbath time?
3.  Read Matthew 11:28-30 together. As you ponder these words, discuss what they mean to our lives as Christians. Why is this passage so hopeful to us in the world in which we live?
4.  Describe a situation when religious legalism has been a source of fatigue and anxiety for you. What is it about religion that prompts people to feel that they have to attach a list of rules or dos and don’ts?
5.  In what ways is legalism so contrary to the way of life in the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus modelled and called us to?
6.  Is time a source of stress and anxiety in your life? Describe the battle you have with time and prioritizing things. If you had more time, what are the things that you would do with it?
7.  In her book, Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest, author Ruth Haley Barton suggests that to establish a good Sabbath routine each week, we need to say No to Work, Buying and Selling, Worry/Emotional Stress and Technology and we need to say, Yes to things that rest our body, rest our mind/replenish our spirit and things that restore our soul. Discuss the implications of each of these things for you to establish a good weekly Sabbath time in your life.

Prayer and Action Item

Pray for one another out of the key points that were discussed. Invite Jesus to help you establish a regular rhythm of Sabbath in your weekly schedule and to be discerning in what you say no to and what you say yes to, that makes it truly beneficial.