Daily Office - Discovering the Rhythm of Sabbath Pt. 6*

1) Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes) 

2) Scripture Reading—Matthew 13:31-33

            He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.”

            He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

3) Devotional

            In these two parables describing how the kingdom of God works much like a seed, we hear Jesus calling us to slow down and take a longer view of our lives.

            . . . we can work without stopping, faster and faster, electric lights making artificial day so the whole machine can labor without ceasing. But remember: No living thing lives like this. There are greater rhythms that govern how life grows . . . seasons and sunsets and great movements of seas and stars . . . We are part of the creation story, subject to all its laws and rhythms.

To surrender to the rhythms of seasons and flowerings and dormancies is to savor the secret of life itself.

Many scientists believe we are “hard-wired” like this, to live in rhythmic awareness, to be in and then step out, to be engrossed and then detached, to work and then to rest. It follows then that the commandment to remember the Sabbath is not a burdensome requirement from some law-giving deity—“You ought, you’d better, you must”—but rather a remembrance of a law that is firmly embedded in the fabric of nature. It is a reminder of how things really are, the rhythmic dance to which we unavoidably belong.⁶²

—Wayne Mueller 

4) Question to Consider

How do the rhythms you see in nature (e.g., spring, summer, fall, winter, day, night) speak to you about the kind of rhythms you desire for your own life?

5) Prayer

LORD, I thank you that you are working even when I am sleeping. Teach me to respect the built-in rhythms of life and to live from a place of deep rest in you. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)

*From "Begin the Journey with the Daily Office" by Pete Scazzero

Daily Office - Discovering the Rhythm of Sabbath Pt. 5*

1) Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)

2) Scripture Reading—Psalm 46:1-3, 10

God is our refuge and strength,
An ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
And the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
“Be still and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.” 

3) Devotional
Many are avidly seeking but they alone find who remain in continual silence . . . Every man who delights in a multitude of words, even though he says admirable things, is empty within. If you love truth, be a lover of silence. Silence like the sunlight, will illuminate you in God and will deliver you from the phantoms of ignorance. Silence will unite you to God himself . . .

More than all things love silence: it brings you a fruit that tongue cannot describe. In the beginning we have to force ourselves to be silent. But then there is born something that draws us to silence. May God give you an experience of this “something” that is born of silence. If only you practice this, untold light will dawn on you in consequence . . . after a while a certain sweetness is born in the heart of this exercise and the body is drawn almost by force to remain in silence.⁶¹

—Isaac of Nineveh (Bishop of Nineveh, 7^th century) 

4) Question to Consider
What keeps you from silence?

5) Prayer
LORD, help me to be still and wait patiently for you in silence. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)

*from "Begin the Journey with The Daily Office" by Pete Scazzero