An Invitation to a Rhythm of Life
For Meditation
This week, we’ll explore the concept of a rule of life – which is a way to take the spiritual disciplines we’ve been studying all summer and turn them into daily habits. We’ll look at biblical examples of God’s people living according to a rule of life, and explore how it helped them be a Godly presence to the culture they lived in without assimilating to that culture. We’ll apply this to our modern moment and ask: How we are being shaped by the American rule of life without knowing it? How could we go into this fall with a new, gospel-based rule of life that would make us more like Christ? How could that help us take the idea of the “good life” and turn it into a reality?
Remember that this will wrap us our sermon series on the spiritual disciplines, so our hope will be to use the idea of the rule of life to put them into practice this fall. On that note, we will actually spend some minutes brainstorming practical ways we can apply the wisdom of a rule of life to our devotions, our technology, our families, and our communities. So bring a pen and paper so you can write down your own ideas!
Daniel 1:8–21
8 But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. 9 Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel, 10 but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.”
11 Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, 12 “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” 14 So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.
15 At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. 16 So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.
17 To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.
18 At the end of the time set by the king to bring them into his service, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. 19 The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s service. 20 In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.
21 And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.
Romans 12:1–2
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.