squats.

His wisdom comes to my mind through analogy and all that's required is complete attention and willingness to receive something good when it looks or feels bad.

One leg day at the gym, I stepped under the bar for squats. For some reason, I really hate them. Part of it is that I refuse to waste my time, so I don't cheat the weight or the depth, so I know it's going to be hard. I heard the words "work out your salvation with fear and trembling". Suddenly the "yoke" part made so much sense. Even though I do not enjoy the sensations of squats I willingly submit to them every week. With full engagement and attention...any distraction robs me of the effect I am after. One evening while making dinner, waiting (with tension) to hear from my husband when he would be coming, I heard "deliverance isn't a magic trick, it's obedience." So often would I beg God for patience, and felt like He failed me because I wasn't experiencing the rest He promised to those who ask. Ask, and it shall be given. So rather than seeing the wait as a Good Thing, I felt it was a cruelty. The thought I should have to suffer. The difference between effective gym time and ineffective is willing submission to suffering and difficulty.

Ah! So now, what is it we are working out? This is the victory that overcomes the world--even our FAITH.

Because of the Word: "God has given each of us a measure of faith..." I figured it was a fixed amount that each of us get stuck with, some more and some less. In effect, this blames Him for our lack of fruitful faith. When He showed me recently that faith is so much like muscles. Their effectiveness and capacity for movement is a direct result of attentive engagement, and willing submission to discomfort. Everyone gets the same number of muscles in the body, yet how well they serve each person depends on the decision to
Rest. This is the state of holiness. The time between sets or the days off are as important to the process of building capacity of substance as the lifting itself.

Restoration
Ease
Satisfaction
Transformation

Fully at home. Not needing a single thing.
I had always thought comfort and ease were wrong, because I was religious. I couldn't discern between self-indulgence and being relieved of things that were not my responsibility.
It is to hear:

of course I talk to you. 

of course I see you. 

of course I hear you.

of course I care for you. 

of course I approve and accept you! 

Take off your sandals--
This is holy ground.

"We ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it"

Here is where I intensely yearn to hand a piece of this bread some of you who live(d) under the yoke of religion with me. I've been a Pharisee, and I don't know if this kind of bread was ever offered to me and if it was, if I would have taken it. We can be very suspicious of anything we aren't conditioned to see!

What I didn't know was that the reason Sabbath was HOLY is because HOLINESS MEANS REST.

God wasn't trying to add another burden! He established Himself as love, and they interpreted it duty.He established Himself as righteous, and they interpreted it as a vindictive tyranny. This rest that has been ready since creation began, was rejected by Adam and Eve. It is the state of complete integration with mind, body and spirit fully at home because of intimacy with God Himself. As a part of the Mosaic law, [before Christ purchased this back by His blood] Sabbaths gave them a sneak preview of His complete ease for body, mind and spirit. I am sickened that almost any believer I know doesn't actually know that Jesus means THIS REST is for YOU!

Overflow.

That's what happens in all areas when Jesus comes around. Healing. Wisdom. Compassion. Humility. Peace. Abundance. Generosity.

I know I am at home with God

Rest comes with a full, satisfied breath 

I can hear His affirmation and affection, and they change me.

The love that I cannot contain flows out of me and affects every person in the vicinity.

I have all that I need.