Your Nightly Prayer: Evening Prayers for Christian... - Learning to Let the Season Slow You Down
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Our culture hands out badges of honor for busyness. The more plates spinning overhead, the more commitments stacked on top of each other, the more impressive the juggle, the more we are celebrated for it. And yet, as most of us eventually discover, that way of living will crush you. Not immediately, but over time, quietly, until one day the weight becomes impossible to carry and there is nothing left to give.
God created us with limits on purpose. The human heart needs invitations to rest and recalibrate. We see it throughout Scripture: people called into seasons of private intimacy with God, away from the noise and the demands, where something could grow in them that the busyness would never allow.
Psalm 62:1 begins with one of the most countercultural postures in the Bible. For God alone my soul waits in silence. Not for the circumstances to improve. Not for the to-do list to clear. For God alone. In silence. The soul stilled and waiting, freed from the pressure of carrying every decision and every worry alone.
Noah is one of the most striking examples of a slow season lived faithfully. Building an ark is not quick work. It unfolds one detail at a time, one instruction at a time, one day at a time, while the people around you wonder what on earth you are doing. But Noah waited on the Lord for direction and kept showing up to the slow, unglamorous work. When the storm finally came, he had a heart of praise.
Slow seasons are not punishment. They are not evidence that we have fallen behind or that God has forgotten us. They are gifts, invitations to listen more intently than the pace of ordinary life ever allows, to be still enough to hear the voice that gets drowned out when the plates are all spinning.
What is God asking of you in this season? Has He asked you to slow down, to be still, to set something down? Whatever the invitation, lean in. Embrace the silence. And let slow joy mark the journey ahead.
Ponder Tonight
A season of slowness is not the absence of God's activity. It is often the very condition in which He does His most significant and formative work, because it requires us to listen rather than produce.
Noah's slow, faithful work on the ark was incomprehensible to those watching from the outside. But it was exactly what God had asked of him, and the willingness to persist in that calling without needing it to make sense to anyone else is one of the most powerful pictures of faithful obedience in all of Scripture.
Busyness can become a way of avoiding the promptings of God, filling every moment so there is no quiet space in which His voice can be heard. Asking honestly how busyness has kept us from following His leadings is one of the most important spiritual inventory questions we can bring to Him.
Stripping away what God has not asked us to do is not laziness or irresponsibility. It is obedience, and it requires the courage to live differently from the world's pace.
Tonight's Scripture
"For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation." — Psalm 62:1, ESV
Your Evening Prayer
Father,
Thank You for the invitation of slowness and stillness. Our culture tells us that being busy somehow makes us better and more worthy. Holy Spirit, convict us when we fall into that trap. Strip away what You have not asked us to carry and remind us that listening for Your voice is the most important thing we can do.
Give us the confidence to live differently from the world. Help us lay down the pride and the noise that keep us from slowing down and trusting what You are doing. Keep us tethered to Your feet and Your plans, attentive to Your voice, and willing to persist in
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LifeAudio — Your Nightly Prayer: Evening Prayers for Christian... - Learning to Let the Season Slow You Down. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.
Life Audio Thank you for tuning in to your nightly prayer, a podcast designed to help you rest and connect with your father in heaven as the day ends. God is ready to meet you in this moment of peace as you settle into sleep. After this short word from our sponsor, we'll encounter tonight's devotional, learning to let the season slow you, written by Chelsea Domatis and read by your host, Brooke McLaughlin. It is God who directs our paths. I'm Christi Graham, host of the show on the ground with Samaritan's Purse, and I recently talked with Franklin Graham, my father-in-law and president of Samaritan's Purse about how he stays grounded. To hear this encouraging conversation,
listen to this episode of On the Ground with Samaritan's Purse, wherever you get your podcasts. Again, that's On the Ground with Samaritan's Purse. Tonight's Scripture For God alone my soul waits in silence, from Him comes my salvation. Psalm 62 1 Something to ponder. One of my favorite things that has developed in my faith is that a season of slow isn't a form of punishment. It's a gift of respite. We live in a culture that gives busyness a badge of honor. People celebrate when one is spending a dozen plates about their head with commitments and needs. But what I've learned is that way of living will eventually crush you. God created us with limits and a need for slowness with good reason. The human heart needs invitations to rest and recalibrate. We see this all throughout the Bible. People would be called
into a season of private intimacy with God. It grew them and gave them an opportunity to dwell in the presence of God without the world's needs vying for their attention. Psalm 62 was written with the intention to invite us to wait on the Lord and his clear direction. It frees us from thinking we have to walk through life carrying the weight of all the decisions to make. Instead, we have the gift of going to the Father with all of our decisions. We get to take every care and worry to his feet. We get to sit in a posture of rest and slow, though it feels like the world is passing by at a breakneck pace. Think of Noah and what was taking place in his heart and mind when God asked him to build an ark. This was a slow process, a work that took great time and the Lord's direction. God gave every detail, and Noah had to wait upon the Lord for what to do next as he waited for the inevitable storm. When the storm finally
came, Noah had a heart of praise for he had listened to the Lord and done the work that others thought was useless. His season of slowness provoked outsiders to look at him in confusion, yet he persisted in walking faithfully forward in God's calling. What is God asking of you? Has he asked you to be still or to slow down? Is he calling you to rest in his presence as he brings clarity to your life and the circumstances you find yourself in? Whatever the asks are, lean in, set down the million and one things at his feet and ask him what he'd like to do in this next season of your life. Slow seasons are gifts. Stillness reminds us that God does not need us to always be doing things for him. Rather, we need to listen to him intently, embrace the silence, praise him for the words he will speak, and let slow joy mark your journey ahead.
You are a nightly prayer. Father, thank you for the invitation of slowness and stillness. Our culture tries to tell us that being busy and tasked with a million to-do's somehow makes us better and more worthy. Holy Spirit, please convict me when I fall into that trap. Strip me of what you have not asked me to do and remind me that listening for your voice and direction is the most important thing I can do. Give me the confidence to live differently from the world. Please help me lay down my pride in what hinders me from slowing down and trusting what you're doing. Make me a hearer and doer of your word. Keep me tethered to your feet and your plans. In Jesus name, amen. Three things to meditate upon. Number one, what has the Lord asked you to lay down?
Two, how can you live more still? And number three, do you take your cares and needs to the feet of Jesus? Reflect on tonight's prayer and share how God met you there. Join the your nightly prayer discussion on the crosswalk forum. A moment of peace and reflection to end your day.
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