God in My Everything: How an Ancient Rhythm Helps Busy People Enjoy God

You get to willfully ignore the many niggling things your existence genuinely depends on — and is often hobbled beneath — so that you can turn to whatever you’ve put off and pushed away for lack of time, lack of room, lack of breath. You get to shuck the “have-tos” and lay hold of the “get-tos.”11

Daniel centers his life on God and receives the animating presence of the Spirit, who energizes him to live faithfully for God in the world.

Jesus chose life on the Sabbath: he healed people; he fed them; he supported rescuing animals that fell into wells on the Sabbath. Mark Buchanan, in his book The Rest of God, says that the golden rule for the Sabbath is to cease from what is necessary and to embrace what gives life: Sabbath … is a reprieve from doing what you ought to do, even thou

Sabbath, as the foundation of a rule of life, gives you permission to stop from your busyness and simply be.

He lives by a rule that guides and shapes his decisions, actions, and response to circumstances. Daniel makes it his regular practice to return to his apartment and kneel in prayer three times a day (Daniel 6:10) — even when he knows this might cost him his life.

We truly experience Sabbath when we orient our lives not around ourselves but around Jesus and listen and respond to his invitation: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

says author Alan Deutschmann in his book Change or Die, it is impossible for us to experience lasting change unless we are in some kind of relationship.

what is most important is having a relationship with him, as opposed to getting through a spiritual task. It was hard for me at first to realize that quiet time in conversation with God was more fruitful than hurriedly attempting to get through a certain amount of Scripture…. God has taught me that it is all about the relationship, not about what I

In Jesus’ day, the teachers of the law multiplied the rules and regulations around the Sabbath so that it was no longer a joy, but a burden; no longer a delight, but a duty. Jesus responded to this dreary view by saying, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.”