SABBATH: Right Sizing God WEEK 2 (part 1)

This week we're stopping to set our heart right as we "right size" God.
The root idea of Sabbath – all living things thrive only by an ample measure of stillness. Stillness like rest, requires a settling of the heart, a calming of the spirit. Sabbath keeping requires two orientations.
1. One is God-ward.
2. The other is time-ward.

To keep Sabbath well--both as a day and attitude--we have to think clearly about God and freshly about time. We likely, at some, level, need to change our minds about both.

Unless we trust God's sovereignty, we won't dare risk Sabbath. And unless we receive time as abundance and gift, not as rations and burden, we'll never develop a capacity to savor Sabbath.

The first orientation for good Sabbath-keeping, the God ward one, takes practice, mostly through thankfulness. Thankfulness invites and acknowledges the presence of God until you are utterly convinced of his goodness and sovereignty, until he's bigger, and you find your rest in him alone. Acts 3-4 tell the story of Peter and John in Jerusalem. They perform a miracle and Peter seized the opportunity to preach, which lands them in trouble with the Jewish high council. They are ordered them "to speak no longer to anyone in this name." On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. Then they raised their voices together in prayers to God. The prayer begins with this:"Sovereign Lord," And it moves from there into naming and recounting the height and depth and weight of his sovereignty: God made all, rules all, and overrules all that stands in his way. These men practice the sovereignty of God. They rehearse the reality of God's overarching, under girding might. As they grow, God starts to look bigger. And only then, as a kind of addendum or footnote, do they pray about the problem they have.


A Question for YOU?
Are you in the midst of a situation where, as you pray, you find yourself putting your problem first? If so, you're starting where you should end. You're rehearsing the problem, making it seem larger than it is, when what you need to do is rehearse God's greatness and bigness. Then the problem shrinks to its right portion.


Try This Practice:
Today when you pray, start with God. Recite what he has done. Proclaim who he is. And after you have been with Jesus long enough, and he is seen in his right size, then make your petition known.

Post by: Dana Randall, co-leader for the Women of Grace course, REST of GOD