This is the first message in a six week series covering the book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. Some of the best things in life like joy, peace, creativity, love, and relationships are not compatible with hurry. Additionally, when we're in a state of hurry, we cannot give God all that we are and all that we have. First, we identify the issue and bring awareness to the problem of being over-busy.

After identifying the issue of hurry last week, we turn our attention to remedying the issue this week. First up? Time. The biggest limitation we have is time - there never seems to be enough. We need to learn to say "No" more often as most of the busyness we experience is self-inflicted. It takes time to establish, build, and maintain a relationship with our heavenly Father. We can't add more hours to a day, so what do we do? Imitate Jesus. Jesus was rarely in a hurry and constantly made time for his relationship with God. This may take radical change in our lives and schedules. So, we must choose: do we really want to follow Jesus or not?

Instilling silence and solitude in our lives is the next step in eliminating the hurry from our lives. Quiet time with God is often the first to go instead of our go to when he have over-busy lives. But we need this time to focus on our relationship with God.

Incorporating the Sabbath rest into our weekly schedule is so beneficial and instrumental in eliminating hurry from our lives. The key to Sabbath rest, though, is that it is no ordinary rest but a time to stop, rest, and focus on God.

Incorporating the Sabbath rest into our weekly schedule is so beneficial and instrumental in eliminating hurry from our lives. The key to Sabbath rest, though, is that it is no ordinary rest but a time to stop, rest, and focus on God.

There is often a cultural assumption that fast is good and slow is bad. But this not always the case and there are no examples in the gospels to point to where Jesus was in a hurry. Truthfully, living a happy life means living in the moment. Watch for some practical opportunities and ways you can practice slowing down.