“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
— Psalm 118:24
I believe Sunday, the Lord’s Day, ought to be the most exciting, most anticipated, most joy-filled day of the week. And I realize that for many people, it is not. Church has become routine, an obligation to be discharged before the rest of the day can begin. But the Lord’s Day was never designed to be an obligation. It was designed to be a celebration.
The early church began worshipping on the first day of the week, not the seventh, not the Sabbath, because that was the day Jesus walked out of the tomb. Every Sunday is Easter. Every Lord’s Day is a weekly reminder that death has been defeated, that the grave is empty, that the Savior is risen and alive. We do not gather to mourn a corpse. We gather to celebrate the living Christ. And that reality ought to put something in our step when we walk through the doors of the church.
A. W. Tozer said that the man who would know God must give time to Him. The Lord’s Day is that time, set apart from the rest of the week, consecrated for the specific purpose of worship, of hearing the Word, of celebrating the community of faith, of receiving what God alone can give. And here is what I have seen over and over in my years of ministry: the people who consistently prioritize the Lord’s Day, who show up, who engage, who give themselves to it, are the people who weather the storms of life with the most stability and the most grace.
So let me say a word to parents in particular. Your children are watching whether Sunday matters to you. They know if church is a conviction or a convenience. They know if your faith is real or performed. And if you consistently signal that almost anything trumps the Lord’s Day, they will learn that lesson and carry it for decades. Show them something different. Bring them to worship. Let them see what it looks like to set the day apart. The investment you make in those hours will return in ways you cannot yet imagine.
THIS IS THE DAY THE LORD HAS MADE. WALK INTO IT REJOICING.
