I recently read a devotional in "Our Daily Bread" called Quiet Times. This is how it began:
My friend Mary told me that she had always valued the time she spent fishing with her dad. Not being a fishing aficionado myself, I was curious about what she found so enjoyable. “I just like being with my dad,” she said. “So you just fish and talk?” I asked her. “Oh, no, we don’t really talk,” she said. “We just fish.”
It wasn’t the conversation—it was the company.
It wasn’t the conversation—it was the company.
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Then this was contrasted with our quiet time, our time with God, our time in prayer. It got me thinking.....am I hindering the development of a close relationship with God because of all the noise in my quiet times ~ am I enjoying His company?
I pray ~ I praise God, I thank Him, I ask Him for things ~ in other words, I talk and talk and talk! I read the Bible or a devotional or ponder (and even sing) the words of a hymn ~ but I never stop. I'm never still, my mind is always full.
My quiet time isn't! Quiet that is!
I don't listen....I don't pause....I don't ponder. How can I hear an answer or instruction if I'm never still? "Be still and know that I am God" (Ps 46:10) ~ I don't think this means stop moving ~ it means just stop!
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and His hand gently covering my mouth ~ He's saying "quiet, slow-down, stop, rest, listen and hear". I'm going to try real hard to do that ~ because I truly want to hear Him ~ I just want to be with Him.
3 comments:
Amen.
God bless you, Jamie
A good reminder. We can fill up our 'time' with God with so much talk about ourselves rather than just listening.
Thank you, Marie. I needed to read that...needed to be reminded that my visits with the Father shouldn't be a one sided conversation.
Blessings, Susie
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