Episode #339 Staying Connected to God When Life Won’t Slow Down – Learning to Enjoy Life with God

Hey, friend. Today we're offering prayer for the busy soul. So if you feel like you are running, you're hustling, there's just an unending to-do list that you couldn't possibly get done, and it feels impossible to pray because you can't barely even finish your morning coffee, today's episode is especially for you. The good news is that God isn't necessarily asking you for more minutes in your day. He is inviting you to experience him in more moments with what you already have going on.

We're tackling this topic today through the lens of Psalm 46, because while you and I have a lot of things going on, also does ,too. He is at work in the world, and so I'm gonna be reading the whole of Psalm 46 today because it's giving us some context as to the things that God could be at work doing.

God is mighty. He is Creator and Sustainer of all. He is at work in the world and he is drawing us all to himself. Even in this moment, as you and I are drawing our attention to him and are seeking to talk with him and experience life with him, he is doing the same thing. Making the same invitations to countless people around the world.

One of the things I enjoy about Psalm 46 is it includes the word selah. And most theologians think that selah was very likely a technical musical term. It was probably showing an accentuation or a pause or an interruption in the vocals as this psalm, which was a song, was sung.

And I like this in light of what we're talking about today because no matter what's going on in our day, there's a moment where we can pause. Even in the midst of doing something, we can still be in a conversation or running an errand or handling a task and have an interruption to recognize, “God, I need you here with me. I'm gonna pause and pray internally, even while I'm still engaging in this conversation.”

And so as I read Psalm 46, I'm gonna read the word selah and treat it like a pause, inviting God to meet with us in that exact moment. And so beginning with Psalm 46, verse 1:

God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2
Therefore we will not fear though the earth give way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,

3
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah
4
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.

5
God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.

6
The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.

7
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
8
Come, behold the works of the Lord,
how he has brought desolations on the earth.

9
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the chariots with fire.

10
“Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”

11
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

There's so many things that are powerful about this psalm.
God is not undone by the things going on on the earth. God himself causes wars to cease. God himself calls us to rest, to receive him as fortress and refuge. And I love the added layer of considering what it means to pause, to be interrupted, to take a breath in the work, in the singing of the psalm. To recognize how these interruptions can give us space to turn to the Lord as our refuge.

Even in the midst of everything that you have going on today, you can practice verse 10. You can take a moment to be still and know that he is God. That he was and is and will be exalted in the earth, and that includes in you and in what you're going through.

These pauses allow us to turn to God, to talk with him in prayer, to receive the refuge he offers us.

Where I sometimes can feel the pressure to perform, even to perform in my prayer for him, he's like, “Just take a breath. Come to me. Receive me as your refuge.”

And so that is the conversation that I think God invites each of us into today. I've had these moments of turning to God as my refuge in a hard conversation. In the midst of a diaper change or helping a kid with his homework assignment. We can turn to God in every moment.

And so here's a question that you can take to him today:

God, what small moment can become prayer instead of pressure?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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