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If someone asked you how you enjoy God, would you have an answer?

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I used to think it had to start with desire. That wanting Him was the first step. But over time, I’ve come to believe something quieter — that desire is a fruit. And that fruit grows from delight. And delight? It grows from practice.

Sabbath has been that practice for me.

When I was a young Christ-follower, one of the first books I read was When I Don’t Desire God by John Piper. I really wanted to want Him. I saw people who genuinely longed to be in His presence — who craved prayer and worship — and I knew they weren’t faking. But I couldn’t seem to summon those same feelings. No matter how hard I tried, desire stayed just out of reach.

Now, almost twenty years later, I can see what was missing. Not desire — delight. And what makes delight in God possible is permission. The invitation to rest, to stop striving, to believe that we are already beloved.

Sabbath makes space for that.

It invites us to do what the elder brother wouldn’t — to take the Father at His word. We really can throw a party. We can stop producing, stop proving. We’re allowed to just be. To breathe. To celebrate with Him.

The Father said to the elder brother in Luke 15,

“My son, you are always with me by my side. Everything I have is yours to enjoy.”

We never hear if the son believes Him. If he lets go of His resentment and joins the party.

But I don’t want to miss it.

“If you keep from desecrating the Sabbath, from doing whatever you want on my holy day; if you call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, seeking your own pleasure, or talking business;

then you will delight in the Lord,

and I will make you ride over the heights of the land, and let you enjoy the heritage of your father Jacob.”

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

—Isaiah 58:13-14

This rhythm of rest — week by week, again and again — becomes something more. A gentle undoing of our inner drivenness. A gospel-shaped life that’s free from performance, full of love.

Our family’s Sabbath mantra is simple (and borrowed): “We rest, we play, no work — God loves us!”

And over time, this practice has rooted the tree of my delight. From that tree, desire grows.

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Practice (Sabbath) → Delight (in God, Is. 58) → Desire (God)

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