28 Days of Sabbath Rest

For the month of November my 28 day experiment will be Sabbath rest. Jesus is asking me to trust Him completely and to rest in Him. “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to
Category: Sabbath Rest

Hold Your Plans Loosely

Thanks to a nasty cough and the time change my son woke me up at 5am this morning. I was feeling pretty tired and irritable and forgot my plan to pray each morning for God to help me accept his control over my life. Once we got out of bed and I started making breakfast
Category: Sabbath Rest

The Blessed Rest of Self-Forgetfulness

Yesterday I read a very short book by Timothy Keller called “The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness“. In it Keller says that high self-esteem and low self-esteem are basically the same. In both cases your ego is drawing too much attention to itself, like any other hurting body part. I can relate to this. When I’m criticized
Category: Sabbath Rest

Week 1 Review

This first week of Sabbath rest my goal was to begin each day with a simple prayer to God asking Him to help me accept His control over my life. I did pray this prayer each day.  A few times I forgot first thing in the morning but I did remember by mid-day. My experience
Category: Sabbath Rest

Letting Go of the Constant Hurry

During my few minutes of meditation today God brought to my mind the hurried and slightly anxious voice that I often use with my son. Typically this sounds like “Let’s go!” or “Come on, hurry up, we’ve got to…” I’m rushing my son to get him to daycare and myself to the office. Or I’m
Category: Sabbath Rest

It is God Who Works

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about releasing and letting and abiding. Releasing my control over my life. Letting Jesus be King. Abiding in Jesus. These are the actions that I must take and they are so different from the actions I am used to pursuing. The actions I’m used to pursuing involve doing and
Category: Sabbath Rest

Experiencing Grace When You Fail

I didn’t pray this morning. I didn’t meditate today. I felt irritable and frustrated with my son over issues of little consequence. I failed today. Failure is something I’m used to running from. I’ve always hated disappointing people. Over the years I’ve put up defenses to avoid facing my failures. I’ve defended my actions, ignored
Category: Sabbath Rest

Week 2 Review

This second week of Sabbath rest my goal was to meditate for 5 minutes and continue praying each day asking God to help me accept His control over my life. I meditated 4 days this past week and I prayed 5 or 6 days this week. Since I didn’t plan each day when I would
Category: Sabbath Rest

Trusting God with Our Children

The last couple of days I’ve become a bit obsessed with trying to figure out schooling for my son. He’ll be four next month and I realized that we only have a year before we need to make a decision because applications will be due. Our son is very impressionable and sensitive, and of course
Category: Sabbath Rest

Facing Your Greatest Fears

I very rarely remember my dreams but last night I had a dream that has stuck with me all day. It was both convicting and disturbing. The details are a bit fuzzy now but what I remember is that I was brought into a circle with a group of about 10 people, some of whom I
Category: Sabbath Rest