There is a longing—or angst—in the heart of every believer that desires a deeper, more intimate walk with God. And to experience this relationship with God, we must learn to “be still.” Learning the art of being still is indeed a daily discipline; a concentrated effort on our part to wait patiently for Him to speak.
For the most part, we rush into our day with so much on our minds–things to do, people to see, places to go, errands to run. Our lives are made up of deadlines, one right after another…or so we believe.
When we’re honest, we admit we often create “a gap of time” in our daily routine for God…the Creator of all that exists….including time itself! We proudly make a check-mark in the box when we’ve spent the 15-30 minutes or so we think we can spare for God. Wow…how arrogantly we’ve twisted our concept of time with Him!
And so we spend time running through our list of requests…for our kids, for our friends… telling God what we need, what we want…talking, talking, talking! Then we close with, “in Jesus name, Amen.” Bam…done! Devotional time is over! Put the check mark in the box. We said what we came to say, and we get up and walk away…on to the next “thing” on our list. Now do we feel better? Ouch!
So what’s wrong with this picture? Let me be clear…there is nothing wrong with sharing the desires of our heart with our Papa God. He loves it when we pour our heart out to Him. What’s wrong is that more often than not we leave our heavenly Father’s presence before we’ve given Him an opportunity to respond. We close His Holy Word as soon as we’ve completed the “prescribed verses,” according to our reading plan. Our thoughts wander on ahead…on to the next task. And when we get up and walk away too soon, we miss the opportunity to hear what our Lord and Savior—our Almighty Father—wants to speak into our hearts.
In order to discern the voice of God we must practice the art of being still. Papa God longs to breathe Himself into our souls. He longs to reawaken our spiritual senses. He is more than able to prepare us for our daily assignments…more than able to gift us with the desires of our hearts…gifts that are in accordance with His will.
But He doesn’t want to stop there. God wants to do LIFE with us! He wants to be present in our everyday walk…to lift us up when we stumble and fall…to be there for the “high-fives” of our successes (yes…Papa God loves to high-five me:). He wants to walk with us…all the way through our day…gifting us with an inner peace as we close our weary eyes at the end of another day.
So the next time you think you must just “get through” your quiet time, remember this: Pause…and hear His voice! Be still and listen to what He has to say. Then get on with your day…you and God. Invite Him along…and let Him be your driver! You’ll be glad you did! ~ IN HIS STRONG LOVE ~ rose
“Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand….pay close attention to what you hear. The closer you listen, the more understanding you will be given – and you will receive even more.” Mark 4:23-24
Rod & Rose 