How the ancient practice of Sabbath TRANSFORMED my relationship with God!
Over 8 years ago, my wife and our new family stumbled into the practice of Sabbath. Little did I know how profoundly this small step would radically change the way I view God and live my life.
As the son of a pastor, I grew up in an evangelical church, went to church every Sunday, and did my best to read the Bible every day. Over time, and without realizing it, much of my spiritual life was centered around doing the right things so that God wouldn’t be angry at me. As if somehow my actions would appease him.
Ultimately, my concern was figuring out how to stay out of eternal damnation. Who wants that, right?
Have you found yourself in a similar place?
If so, I'd love to share my story with you.
Our Shabbat table with challah bread, a cup of wine, Messianic Kiddush prayers, and a Hebrew-English Bible.
There were many moments along the way that prepared my heart. After a devastating divorce, and an intense season of learning to trust God through my suffering, I was forced to reassess my view, and eventually relationship with this God of the Bible.
One summer, while reading a book, I discovered the ancient Jewish practice of Sabbath on the seventh day. Always equating Sabbath with Sunday, I initially brushed it off. “I already do that,” I thought. But the more I read, the more I realized that an actual Sabbath or “Shabbat” as it’s called in Hebrew was not something I was familiar with. I texted my wife: “Let’s try it.”
What followed was a season of re-learning how to actually rest. How to intentionally create rhythms in our lives that nourish our souls and fill our cups. To stop striving for one day each week and to rest in a day that our Father has provided for us. It was quite literally, life changing.
As our family continued to learn how to Sabbath, we saw our relationships deepen. We began to slowly, but surely reshape our view of God. That He wasn’t just waiting for us to screw up, but rather, He was offering us a way of life that was intended for our good.
And if this was something we had missed in our thirty years of following Jesus, what else might we still have to learn?
A holistic rhythm for life
This profound experience led us to a series of questions:
If Jesus kept the Sabbath, why did He keep it?
Oh, because He was Jewish.
Well if He was Jewish, what else did He do?
He diligently studied the Torah and all of the Hebrew Bible (The Tanakh or Old Testament).
He would have observed Jewish law (Torah), and joyfully participated in Jewish festivals like Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot.
This means His entire worldview was shaped and lived through a Jewish lens of understanding God.
Even the stories He so often told were rooted in a Jewish understanding of Scripture.
We had a lot to learn. And so my family embarked on a new journey of rediscovering the Jewishness of Jesus as we learned to read the Bible through a Jewish lens.
What we quickly discovered is that the life of following Jesus isn’t just about salvation as a get out of hell free card, but an entire way of life. We often hear about following the way of Jesus, but making an intentional decision to live that out in a Jewish way, transformed my understanding.
It took the beliefs I held in my head and brought them to life through the daily practice of living out the Bible.
When I had previously read Jeremiah 6:16 talking about the ancient paths and the good way that would provide rest for your souls, I had always filtered that through my understanding of “saying a one time prayer for salvation,” but now I had to ask the question: “What is this ancient way the prophet speaks of?”
And so little by little, with this newfound excitement, passion, and a bit of trepidation, we decided to follow this God of Israel.
After a long, multi-year season of learning Sabbath rhythms, and absolutely loving them, we asked what’s next?
Passover was coming up that year, so we decided to celebrate a Passover Seder in our home. Without much guidance we cobbled together our first Haggadah, which we discovered was simply a booklet that outlined the order of the Passover meal. We invited family to celebrate.
We told the Exodus story of God’s faithfulness to redeem His chosen Israelite people.
We reflected of our own stories of God’s faithfulness in our lives.
We shed tears as we declared that His lovingkindess endures forever.
We included the kids as we hid the Afikomen, the broken piece of unleavened bread that represents our Messiah.
After an incredible celebration entirely centered around this great King, our hearts were overflowing.
We were hooked.
Little by little, we added the other biblical Jewish festivals tucked away in Leviticus 23. Some may complain that we’re pretending to be Jewish, or appropriating Jewish culture, but what we found as we lived out this ancient way, was an amazingly rich rhythm of life. One that our Messiah, himself was rooted in.
A Jewish Understanding of the Bible
We began to read through the Bible using an ancient Jewish bible reading plan called the Torah Portion (also known as the Parashah), where you read through the Torah in a year, coupled with a connected passage from the Prophets, along with a Messianic connection in the Gospels.
Over time, this extra rhythm led us to another epiphany—that God’s Torah was intended to be instructions for our good. This was such a mindset shift after having been taught the law was essentially bad and done away with.
By reading through the Torah with fresh eyes, I realized that my old misconceptions about the angry God of the Old Testament simply were not true. What I found was a God full of mercy, grace, and forgiveness. A God who went through great lengths to teach His stubborn, rebellious people how to live. Who showed mercy and compassion time and time again. Who brought deliverance and redemption by His own hand—even when His instruction was ignored or blatantly refused.
This God of the Old Testament was a good Father and a good King. He was a God full of love. In fact, He was the same God we find in Yeshua in the New Covenant scriptures.
Could it be that the Hebrew Bible is the foundation by which our good news is based? And without it, we miss the entire story of what God had been doing in the Bible? (Spoiler Alert: The answer is a resounding Yes! )
Learning God’s ways (Another step of trust)
Eventually we decided to keep kosher, which is simply a way of saying we stopped eating pork or shellfish. While this is not something that everything must do (The Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 made this clear for the Gentile believers who were coming to faith in Yeshua), I began to see the underlying message.
By instructing the children of Israel to not eat unclean food, God at some level was teaching his people to be comfortable being different that the surrounding pagan nations. He was creating in them a resilience to stand up again the powerful, persuasive winds of culture. He was making them a physical sign that they were different—that they were set apart children of the living God.
Have you ever had a food allergy where you couldn’t eat a particular ingredient? It singles you out. People ask why and you have to explain. You tell your story.
For some reason keeping kosher gets extra inconvenient in some Christian circles, where some people would rather you commit the sin of blasphemy than not eat pork.
And this led me to another epiphany: God simply wants us to trust Him.
If your faith in God only remains a belief in your head, and doesn’t eventually lead to changed actions, it’s no faith at all.
Not just a cliche “God’s got this” print framed on your kitchen wall—but a deeply rooted trust that would follow Him anywhere, do whatever he said to do, no matter what the cost.
These small moments of living out the Torah were changing my perspective in one of the best possible ways. My obedience was increasing my faith in this King of the Universe.
A journey of reconstruction
What began as an innocent trial of keeping the Sabbath led to us intentionally following God’s instructions in a holistic way. We left behind our life of Hallmark holidays in exchange for the ancient way that the prophet Jeremiah spoke of.
And I can tell you that He was right—it’s brought rest to our souls.
It’s created a deeply rooted trust in God as our Father and our King.
It’s established rhythms throughout our year, full of feasting, joy, and shalom.
It’s provided a new lens by which we read the Bible, one that is alive and active.
It’s made us more aware of how God’s Spirit is still at work in the world.
In essence, God has helped us reconstruct our faith, in a new way—one that’s rooted in Hebrew soil, with full recognition that we haven’t replaced Israel. Rather, we’re graciously grafted into this olive tree. A rich legacy from a Jewish heritage. One that a long line of prophets, and especially our Messiah also comes from.
God is no longer a foreign concept. No longer a belief I ascribe to in my head. No longer a god made in my image.
He’s the living King of all things.
He’s a good Father who loves us and wants us to know Him intimately.
He has good plans for us to prosper us.
He’s with us in the suffering and pain of life—not far and distant.
He hears our prayers and cries of His people.
He’s always at work to redeem and deliver.
He’s faithful and true—full of justice and mercy.
He loves us more than we could ever fathom.
And because I know these things to be true about His character, I am willing to follow Him wherever He may lead.
What’s Next?
Have you been on a similar journey? One of the most difficult parts was feeling like we were alone as we reconstructed our faith. Feeling in between the evangelical church of our upbringing, and unsure of where we fit.
So we started a ministry called The Ancient Way to help provide resources like articles, videos, and a podcast to help others rediscover the Jewishness of Jesus. I encourage you to go sign up for our newsletter, where we’ll send you a free guide to Sabbath as well as occasional articles about Jewish holidays and encouragement along the way.
Lastly, feel free to reach out. I’d LOVE to talk with you more about where you are on your journey and pray with you.
May you be richly blessed as you follow our Father and His ways.
And may he give you His Shalom!
