It is great paradox that we live in a world of unparalleled convenience, and yet we seem to have less time than ever for our personal lives – spending a great deal of our time working for, or taking care of, these “time-saving” devices. Time is a precious commodity – especially as the pace of business and life speeds up around us.

But what is time? It isn’t something we can touch, feel, taste, see or even hear. We can’t stop time – although we might capture a brief period of time with photographs or video. Time marches on in spite of our best effort to fight its effect. Eyesight will dim no matter how much we refuse to believe it does. Hair continues to grey no matter how much hair coloring is used. Hearing fades no matter how much we insist our mind was somewhere else (Ecclesiastes 12:1-8).

As much as we may try, we never seem to become the master of time. We say, “I just don’t have enough time,” or “I simply lost track of time.” Living in eternity, God is, however, the Master of time (see Isaiah 57:15).

Have you ever stopped to consider that as Creator of all that exists, God created time as well?

Time is different for God than it is for us. Since God is spirit, He is not limited by the physical aspects of time as we are, and measuring the passage of time is different for God (2 Peter 3:8) – and yet time as we experience it is vitally important to God. The Sabbath, the Holy Days, the Land Sabbath, the Jubilee Year and all of the sacrificial laws all include instructions on when and how long to keep or do these things. They are instructions framed in aspects of time. Time is important to God especially when it involves how we are to worship Him or how it teaches us spiritual values. That time becomes sacred.

Let’s take a closer look at the concept of holy time…

- Who first designated time? (Genesis 1:1-5)

- What time did God sanctify? (Genesis 2:1-3)

-- Sanctify means to consecrate, purify or make something holy. Consider the lesson Moses learned at the burning bush and the holy ground around it. What makes time that God set apart (like the Sabbath) holy? (Exodus 3:1-5)

- God lives in the Sabbath day making it holy (Mark 2:23-28). What does it mean to not just keep the Sabbath, but to keep it holy?

- Is the Sabbath, and by extension all of God’s Holy Days, sacred to us? (Exodus 20:8-11; Leviticus 23:1-4; Exodus 31:13)

- If we don’t keep the Sabbath holy, if it is not sacred, what does it become? (Ezekiel 22:26)

- The word profane means to “misuse or treat irreverently” – to disrespect. How would it be possible for us to disrespect the Sabbath?

-- We can do this by justifying actions on the Sabbath that we should and could be doing some other time during the week.

-- Where do we draw the line? How do our actions respect and reinforce the sacredness of the Sabbath? Or how do they violate the command to keep the Sabbath by treating it as commonly as the other six days of the week?

- What does God expect of us? (Leviticus 11:45; Matthew 5:48). God expects us to be holy, to live as those set apart for a special purpose, and striving for spiritual perfection, especially on days He has marked as sacred.

- Out of all of the billions of people who live on the face of this planet, He has chosen us to be the example that it can be done (John 15:19, Romans 12:1-2).

- The Sabbath day belongs to God, can we do as we please on His day? (Isaiah 58:13-14)

God has given us the Sabbath to help teach us how to be holy – it is holy time because God lives in it and made it so. Through keeping the Sabbath day He reminds us that we are to be a holy people as well. As a young person, it takes a special commitment and dedication to set that example against the flow of society, of keeping the Sabbath from Friday at sunset to Saturday at sunset, but your example can make a great impact to those God is calling.

Let me encourage you to get to know why God’s Sabbath day is important in your life by reading this free title: Sunset to Sunset: God’s Sabbath Rest.

Let’s remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.