The Art of Being Still

[00:00:17] And I am back after. I don't know, I think I have not release an episode on this podcast probably in six weeks. [00:00:29] You know how life can be sometimes. [00:00:32] One of the things they tell you when you are trying to be like an official podcaster, like, for real, you're not supposed to be inconsistent. So there you go. [00:00:44] Sorry about that. [00:00:46] But you know what? Sometimes you just need a break. [00:00:50] And speaking of breaks, I'm just curious if I, the only person who is addicted to constantly moving, constantly scrolling on my phone, always feeling like I need to be productive. Like, even when I have a day off, I am tortured by. [00:01:08] I feel like I'm supposed to be doing something. Like, what is it that I'm supposed to be doing that I'm not doing? Does anybody else feel that way? Can you relate to that? That feeling of feeling guilty because you're not moving all the time? [00:01:23] And I think that that is a direct result of our culture and the way that we live in America and a lot of other countries, but really here, where things are so progressive and, you know, the downside of being, not being in a third world country is we are so busy in a bad way. Like, you know, we've lost touch with, I think, our humanity, but also what it really means to be alive. We don't fully live in the present moment very well because our mind is scattered into, you know, hundreds of different directions and all the different choices that we have to make that day. [00:02:07] You know, just in all the stress of living in a society that is so media driven and so busy and our schedules are jam packed full to the brim. And here's the thing, like, you know, you. You can go like that for a while, but eventually you burn out. [00:02:27] And, you know, it took me years to realize that that was actually like a sin to live like that. [00:02:35] Huh. That sounds pretty harsh. But for me, I began to realize that I was striving and I was living in a way that I was not meant to live. And that's what was causing all of the anxiety, all of the depression. It was. It was not necessarily like, yes, there's some physiological things going on, but the physiological things going on in my brain were a result of me not doing the things I should have been doing to take care of myself and not trusting God and not living in such a way that I was like, living and walking in this rhythm with the Holy Spirit, as opposed to living the way that the world lives. I think that's part of our problem is when we, you know, are. Because I Always. I'm going to talk a little bit about the Israelites and being in Egypt and getting released and how God, the exodus of that and what that looked like for them. But I think that we are so similar, you know, we. We. We tend to judge them. We tend to say, oh, my gosh, how could y' all be so dumb? Why weren't. Why don't you just repent? Why don't you just stop complaining? Why don't you. Faith, you know, but we do the same things. [00:03:43] Because I really believe that instinctively or innately, we are born into this world and we're born into this, this way, this perspective, and we grow up in it, where we see our parents constantly working, constantly striving. Yes, yes, I went to church, and I'm so grateful for that. But I just remember being busy all the time, and a lot of it was my own doing. It was, you know, of course you have to go to school, but it's that component. But then getting involved in so many sports and then being in so many extracurricular activities, and I'm not saying that all that is bad, but there comes a point in your life where you kind of lose yourself. You kind of lose your. [00:04:28] Your anchor, so to speak. Like, and you're just. [00:04:32] You're driving on autopilot. Like, you. You don't even really know why you're doing some of the things you're doing. You don't even understand it. You're like, you know, you. You feel, like, just kind of lost, but just going somewhere, but you don't know where you're going. And that's the way I felt for so many years. [00:04:50] And. And it's not until, like the last. I would say the last year or two, it's been progressively getting. [00:04:56] I've been getting more clarity about this idea that I'm going to talk about today, which is the art of being still, by the way, it's been. It's taken me some time to really adopt this lifestyle and to change my mind about being busy all the time, being, quote, unquote, so productive, you know, I mean, it's almost like that's how we gauge our worth. That's how we gauge each other's worth. You know, Like, I mean, it's like, well, how busy is that person? If they're super busy, they must be really important, but if they're not busy, then I guess they're not important. Is that what we're saying? Is that what we believe about ourselves as well? Like, if I'm not Busy doing things for the kingdom all the time. Do I not have any value or worth? [00:05:41] That's a really huge statement to make and it's really something I think it's worth our time to think about because what happens when we get so busy is we lose the substance of who we are and the fruit of what God wants to bring. Like, the fruit becomes very like have you ever been here, here in our area in East Texas, know like watermelons grow here very well. And there's a real big difference between like if I were go to, to go to the store or maybe I was in, I don't know, another, another state that doesn't really grow watermelons very well, like I don't know, Kansas or something. [00:06:22] And I would try to eat a watermelon there versus when I could get here in the summertime. There would be a huge difference between the fruit and the taste and the quality. And that's what I'm trying to say is, you know, yes, you can do lots of things, but they're very shallow and they're very tasteless almost. [00:06:42] They don't have that quality that, that I feel like God wants to give us like this fruit that is so good and so delicious and so satisfying. [00:06:53] That's the kind of fruit that he wants us to have. And sometimes, you know, it could be a season where you actually do less instead of doing more and by doing less you actually accomplish more. [00:07:09] So counter productive to, to our Western minds or counterintuitive weather rather. But it, it works. I'm living proof of adopting this, this belief which is the Sabbath rest, which I talked about a few episodes back. You can go listen to that Sabbath over striving. [00:07:28] But I'm really just enjoying learning this principle and putting it into practice into my life. [00:07:36] I just got back from a retreat where this, this was so evident to me because I didn't have my phone for like three and a half days. [00:07:45] And I remember telling my husband who he kind of forced me to go to this retreat and I kept telling him I don't have time, I don't have time. I've got all this stuff going on with my loans, with my, with my work, my mortgage stuff, stuff. And then I need to do this, I need to do that and I can't, I can't, you know, what if people need to contact me? What if I can't? You know, I'm not there, I don't have anybody to answer my phone for me. I don't have an assistant, blah, blah, blah, it just kept going. And you know what? [00:08:11] By the third day, second day, actually, of this retreat, I could have. I could care less if I ever saw my phone again. [00:08:21] It was so liberating. It was so. So full of freedom for me. And what I realized happened to me is I was able to reconnect with the Lord and hear what he was saying because I got still enough and quiet enough to hear Him. [00:08:39] The phone was really, really. And is still a distraction. [00:08:45] And I'm just, like, wondering if there's anyone listening to this. Are you. You know, are you honest enough to admit that the phone, for you is a distraction? Actually, it's. It's worse than a distraction. It's almost like your master. Like you're in slavery to your phone all the time. [00:09:02] And here's the thing. If. If all you're hearing are other voices, because that's what your phone is, right? It's somebody texting you, somebody calling. It's social media. It's YouTube, it's Facebook, it's Instagram, it's TikTok, and it's somebody else's voice. [00:09:15] I mean, what is God saying? And can you even hear it? Because, like, he's having to compete with all these other voices. And the thing I've learned about him is he will. Will hardly speak unless we're quiet enough to hear it. And I think that is because he. [00:09:34] He requires our full attention, our respect, our reverence, and he will not be disrespected in such a way where it's like he has to compete with all the other voices. I really feel that way. Like, he. He needs us to know and to learn that he is our top priority. And his voice matters more than any other voice out there. [00:10:01] I don't care who it is. His voice is the most important. [00:10:04] And sometimes he is going to require you and I to be still before him, before he will release a word. [00:10:13] He wants us to rest in him. He wants us to pause. He wants us to breathe. He wants us to stay calm so that he can remind us that he's with us, that he's for us. And he can give us direction and clarity, and we can hear him because he has strategy. But how can he release strategy in your situation if you are never quiet enough to hear him? [00:10:37] I mean, I feel like we're just all out here running around, desperate, you know, trying. Trying to figure a way, a way out of this situation. I've got to create a way. I've got to do this. I got to do that. I got to figure this out. Oh, my gosh, I need $10,000 next month. I got to figure, what if you just got really still before the Lord and stop striving so hard to make it happen? [00:10:56] Do you trust him enough that he. He's already made a way that he wants to tell you. [00:11:02] He wants to tell you. [00:11:04] I mean, this is just huge to me, and I just want to cover it a few. Make a few points about this today. [00:11:13] And I hope that they will actually strengthen you and encourage you and not condemn you. [00:11:20] It's never my heart, right? [00:11:23] So, you know, here's the thing. Stillness can feel really unproductive, and it can feel almost impossible to wait on God. Like I was saying a minute ago, I didn't have time to go to this retreat and wait on God. I had to take care of these loans. Like, if I don't take care of them, I'm gonna lose them. Or if I'm not available to people when they call, then I'll lose the deal, and then what am I gonna do? Blah, blah, blah, you know, and so it's like. [00:11:48] It's like feeling so overwhelmed and so connected to your problems that you can't even stop thinking about them for two seconds so that you could hear God. But you guys know, I'm just gonna say this really quick. Psalm 46:10 says, Be still and know that I'm God. I had a whole episode about this a while back. It was probably that. That Sabbath one, but being still before him. But I Love what Exodus 14:14 says. The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still. [00:12:20] So this is coming from the story of when the Israelites are coming out of Egypt and the plagues have already happened, and they are getting ready to cross over, and then God takes them by route towards the Red Sea, or the Sea of Reeds, I think is also what it's called in some translations. But so they end up here at this. This sea in this impossible situation. And if that wasn't already scary enough, here comes Pharaoh and his little army. [00:12:57] And so God doesn't say, hey, everybody, take off running and screaming and figure out a way to get out of this, or hey, take up your swords and your. Because they didn't really hardly have any weapons. Think about this. They didn't need weapons. They had come out of Egypt. They had been servants. [00:13:14] So they don't even have a way to protect themselves. Have you ever thought about that? [00:13:19] That's a little bit scary, right? [00:13:22] So let me just start in verse 10, I'm going to back up just a little bit and read you this. As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians coming after them. The Israelites were terrified and cried out to the Lord for help. They said to Moses, is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? [00:13:43] What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? So now they're blaming him for their freedom. [00:13:49] God's trying to give them freedom, you know, and there's this process that he wants to. He has to take them through to get to their freedom, which is so spiritual. It's so such a correlation to the. The new believer and what we have to go through as well, the sanctification process. [00:14:05] And then they said, isn't this what we told you in Egypt? Leave us alone so that we may serve the Egyptians? [00:14:12] It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. They would rather be slaves than to die in the wilderness. [00:14:19] But Moses said to the people, God bless Moses, y'. All. He had so much patience. [00:14:25] Don't be afraid. Stand firm and see the Lord's salvation He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. Here it is. The Lord will fight for you. And you must be quiet. [00:14:45] You must be quiet. Have you ever been in a situation where you're so terrified that you just want to scream or you want to run? [00:14:54] Because that's. That's actually our instinct. When we feel threatened, our fight or flight kicks in. So we either fight flight or freeze. [00:15:04] And so here God is telling them to deny their physiological response and trust him and be quiet. He said to be still, to be quiet. [00:15:18] So this. And also, when I was looking at this Hebrew word for this, this word to be still. [00:15:24] It's also. [00:15:26] Of course, it means the things you think, but it means to be calm. [00:15:30] It also means to be deaf, to be still, to be deaf. It's almost like he's saying, I want you to be deaf to what the enemy's saying to you. [00:15:42] Whoa. [00:15:44] Wow. [00:15:45] So here's the enemy screaming. [00:15:48] He roars like a lion. [00:15:50] He's running around roaring like a lion, seeking whom he may devour. But God is this. Typically we see in scripture, and in my own life, I've experienced this still, small voice of the Lord. [00:16:03] And so he's saying, okay, I want you to be calm. I want you to be deaf to the enemy, and I want you to be still. I want you to be quiet. [00:16:13] Which is the exact Opposite of everything in us in the way that we're physically wired. God wants us to deny that and actually spiritually come up under his wings and emotionally surrender to him and be still and not run and deny those impulses that seem to be so strong. And I just want to say that to you today, that whatever season or situation that you find yourself in that seems so terrifying, I can almost guarantee you that the Lord is probably telling you to be still. [00:16:55] And why is that? Well, he's going to fight for you, for one thing. [00:16:59] He's going to fight for you. But also, if we were to keep reading, which I'm not, He actually gives Moses the instruction, and he says, you know, take your staff. Takes his staff and he parts the wire. God gave him instruction and strategy, but he. He demanded that they be quiet and be steady still and stop listening to the enemy. [00:17:18] And that is such a powerful reminder today for all of us that when we face something you have. We have got to learn how to be still. [00:17:28] But you know what? I think it's. It's not just, you know, these big, huge moments in our life where we have to be still before the Lord. I think it's living in a way where you. You're always kind of in this place of stillness before him and calm. [00:17:43] You're in a calm before him because it makes it a lot easier when you do find yourself in these really terrifying situations. If you can practice it in the smaller ways in your everyday life when you have a huge catastrophe hit your life because you have really learned how to live in this Sabbath stillness before the Lord, then it won't be as difficult for you. [00:18:11] You won't be as prone to just, you know, fight, flight, or freeze. [00:18:17] Like you'll. You'll know how to. Because you've. You've kind of disciplined yourself in such a way that you live like that every day. Let me give you an example of this. [00:18:27] This is why it's so important, I think, to know that we are triune beings, that we do have to deal with the physical side as well as our. Our soul and our spirit. [00:18:38] And if you can learn how to calm yourself down, get out of fight or flight, come back into, you know, your. Your nervous system. That is, it's really designed for digestion and rest and peace and quiet and. And just not living in survival. But, you know, so many of us live in survival that we don't even know how or what it feels like. Like, do you even know what it feels like to not live in survival? [00:19:06] Because this is what I'm walking through right now. But something I've just started to do. I mean, like, really just started the last few days. [00:19:13] So I can't even really say that I've been doing it a while. But I found this really great YouTube channel because I just had this prompting to look up, like Christian meditations on YouTube. [00:19:27] And I found this channel and it's fantastic because it's like these 10 or 15 minute guided meditations of just reflection on scripture or prayer, or just gentle whispers and reminders of God's voice and calming me down. Calming me down. Right. [00:19:51] And that's what we all need to learn how to live that way. [00:19:55] Because when you do that, you can hear him. [00:19:59] You cannot hear him if you are constantly running for your life. [00:20:06] I feel like, I feel like most Americans are running for their life right now. Especially I'm thinking about what's going on. I mean, we're in the middle of a government shutdown. And you know what? I've just kind of had to stop looking at the news, man. I'm just like, lord, you know, you got me, you got me, you got my family, you got my friends, you got this nation. [00:20:26] I can't worry about something that I cannot control. Right. And honestly, what really can we control in our lives? Have you finally come to the point where you've realized you can control very little and that you're better off just surrendering? [00:20:40] Yes. I mean, that is total freedom. Freedom. When you learn how to surrender, you'll find freedom because it's on the other side of this surrender. [00:20:50] So I, I just, I just want to reiterate or kind of just maybe phrase this a little bit different about what being still actually means. [00:20:59] Because if you don't understand that you're not going to do it, you're not going to do it at all, and you're not going to do it correctly. [00:21:08] It doesn't mean that you're not doing anything. [00:21:12] It's not doing nothing. It's doing the right kind of nothing. [00:21:16] It's about surrender, trust and alignment. [00:21:20] And God often works the most in the silence between seasons. Man, oh man, when you start to realize that he goes before you. So before you even got to the really bad situation that maybe you're facing, he already went before you and made a way. He already has. He already has the answer and the solution. He also goes behind you and then he's with you in the middle of it. I mean, I don't know what else we can ask for. He's gone before Me. He knows he's with me in the moment to help me walk it out. [00:21:51] But he works the most in the silence between seasons. And I think sometimes we think because it seems quiet, it. He must not be doing much, but that is just like absolutely the opposite. Think about when you plant a seed. It looks like nothing is going on for so long. [00:22:07] I mean, it could be weeks before you see anything popping up out of the dirt. But something is happening. New life is sprouting forth. And I think it's the same thing here. He's always doing something, and especially when we can't see it. [00:22:23] So, you know, I think that there's this tension that exists between stillness and striving in our culture. [00:22:33] You know, our culture. I said this a minute ago. Our culture rewards hustle, performance, and constant motion. And these are some of the things that I feel like are said in one way or another. [00:22:45] You know, it's. It's like the busier you are, the better you are, right? Or, like, if you want it to happen, you gotta. You gotta hustle, hustle, hustle. All this stuff about hustling, and it's exhausting. [00:22:57] And I burn out, and I. I can't live. I mean, I even know Christian, you know, leaders, authors, speakers who, like, they wear me out and they say stuff like this. And I don't agree with it. I'm just gonna put that. I don't agree with this kind of lifestyle. I'm not made this way. [00:23:15] Maybe they are. I am made to be connected to the vine. That's really what we're talking about, is connection to the vine. We're just saying it in a different way. You know, if you don't stay connected to the vine, eventually you will die. [00:23:28] You cannot sustain it by yourself. Right? The vine is what pushes life to the branch. [00:23:36] Okay? The branch can't, of its own will create life in itself and bear fruit. The life, the DNA, the plan, the specific kind of fruit comes from the instruction of the vine. The vine is where the life is. And it just pushes forth into the branch. That's our role. We're just the branch. [00:24:00] And so sometimes God requires stillness in. In those seasons, even some, you know, like with the branches and vines. I mean, sometimes an overproducing vine, you will see the vine dresser. You'll think, oh, my gosh, that vine, that specific branch on that vine is producing so many grapes. It must be an amazing branch. But then you'll see the vine dresser, actually prune it back. I mean, prune it back really bad. And you're thinking, why would you do that? Why would you cut off or prune back that branch that was producing so much fruit? [00:24:35] Because it's, it's causing problems. And, and the vinedresser knows that that branch can't sustain that much fruit. [00:24:43] It just can't. It's not made for that much fruit. So he'll cut it back to give it a break, to let it breathe, to let it reset, to let it pause, to let it heal. [00:24:52] Heal. Healing is huge for, for us. You know, I think a lot of the reason that my life the last year has been full of me working a lot, but it's also been restful in some ways because God is almost forced me to trust him because I couldn't save myself. [00:25:10] I couldn't save myself. So he forced me in these situations that he kept putting me in to distrust Him. But it's taught me how to rest and how to be still before him, to let him take care of me. But really it was for my healing. [00:25:26] I needed to heal. [00:25:28] And so he had to make me stop so I could heal. I remember when I was about to 14, I was on. I was in basketball at school playing on the basketball team and I had this really weird accident where I kind of got sandwiched between two girls and it really caused, it caused me to break my, my collarbone. [00:25:53] It was a really weird angle that they kind of snapped me in and I heard it pop. And that's a really big bone, you know, your collarbone. And it hurt. It hurt so bad. And I had to go to the emerg emergency room and really all they could do was, okay, you're going to be in a lot of pain for a while and you're going to have to wear a splint. [00:26:11] And I remember crying. I mean, four weeks into it and I still felt like I was still wearing the splint and I felt like it wasn't healing. My mom even took me to the doctor and they're like, yeah, you're not healing. Like, I don't, we don't know. You need to, you need to rest more, you need to drink more water. You need to calm down, stop doing, don't do anything, you know, extra just so I had to stop playing sports. I had to stop. I mean, I was in band. [00:26:36] I had to stop doing all the things that I love to do that were extracurricular because I couldn't even raise my left arm and I couldn't sleep on my left side. I was in pain and it took longer than it should have. Why? Because I wouldn't be still. Probably because I wouldn't allow the process to happen that needs to happen when we get healing. I mean, there's things that have to happen. There has to be rest, There has to be nourishment, and there just has to be a time, There's a process, you know? So I think. I think of that while I'm talking about this. And when you are broken, and you are. You've gone through something traumatic, which I had gone through. I'm sure a lot of you have gone through, or you may be right now, and you feel like you want to do fight, flight, or freeze, but really God's wanting you to be still because he wants to heal you. [00:27:27] So don't try to get busy in an attempt to just, like, not face your pain, but actually go with the flow of what God's doing, which is the surrender, which is the being quiet. He may stop all the other things in your life and say, no, I don't want you doing anything. This is all I want you to do. I want you to be with me. I want you to rest. I want you to get the nourishment you need right from me and from the body of Christ, from the relationships that are healthy in your life. [00:27:56] And it's okay that it takes some time. Mike, my husband, he is just now going back to work. It took him a full year after this suicide attempt to be at a place where he's healed enough that he can work again. [00:28:12] And that's okay. [00:28:14] And that's okay. You know what? But the enemy tried to beat him down that entire year and make him feel like he wasn't a good enough man, that he wasn't being a good provider or husband because he could. Couldn't work. And there were times when I would feel frustrated, if I'm being honest, you know, like, I'm over here trying to support us. I need help, you know? But then the Lord would remind me, nope, I'm not releasing him yet. I'm your provider, first of all. But Mike is not ready to go back to work. [00:28:41] So it's all about healing sometimes, you know? And I know it's hard, but honestly, you know, we treat stillness like it's a laziness. [00:28:54] But spiritually, stillness is a form of warfare. I don't think we realize that it's saying, I trust God enough not to manipulate the outcome of this situation. [00:29:05] Can you really say that you trust God enough to not manipulate the outcome? [00:29:09] You know, and there's so Many other things that I think contribute to this lack of stillness. It's the, like, you know, the fear of falling behind. Have you had that fear? Like, I'm getting older. If I don't get this thing done, I'm never going to get it done. [00:29:23] Or there's. There's an anxiety of silence, you know. Have you ever been around people who can't stand for things to be quiet? [00:29:31] Like they. They feel like they have to say something, but sometimes you don't need to say anything. [00:29:37] But there's an anxiety that we get if it's too quiet. [00:29:42] Then there's the addiction to productivity. Do you have the addiction to productivity? Because I have struggle with that. I'm recovering from it. [00:29:52] And then there's the guilt that we feel for resting. [00:29:55] Do you feel that way? Like, do you feel guilty on your day off, your one day off every week or whatever? Do you feel like you're supposed to be doing something? What is that all about? [00:30:06] You know, I mean, it's. It's biblical to have Sabbath days. It's biblical to rest, to trust God. We've talked about this in the past. [00:30:14] So here, here is the. The spiritual purpose of stillness. Let's talk real quick about this. And I'm gonna have to wrap this up, guys. [00:30:22] So the spiritual purpose of stillness. What. What is it? It's a space for revelation. [00:30:28] So here is your light bulb moment. God speaks when we stop talking. [00:30:35] God speaks when we stop talking. [00:30:38] Have you stopped talking yet? [00:30:40] Are you out of words yet? [00:30:42] Have you gotten to the point where you. Just like he said in Exodus 14:14, the Lord will fight for you. You must be quiet. [00:30:50] Are you being quiet because he wants to reveal things to you? It's a test. It's a test of your trust. [00:30:57] Waiting without trying to control is radical faith, right? Waiting without trying to control things is radical faith. And Satan hates that, by the way. [00:31:07] But the Lord loves it when we have radical faith and we're still enough to wait on him. I think about the difference between David and Saul. [00:31:17] David always waited on the Lord, Saul did not. [00:31:20] And God stripped the kingdom from Saul in his house forever because he would not wait on the Lord. [00:31:29] So another spiritual purpose of stillness is it's a reset for the soul. So it detoxes your spirit from hurry in comparison. [00:31:38] But really what sticks out to me is hurry. It detoxes us from hurrying. [00:31:44] I mean, that's a really hard taskmaster, always being in a hurry, always feeling like you're behind, always feeling like you have to rush. [00:31:52] I have this constant thing that comes over me, anxiety, especially when I go shopping or I'm in Walmart or anywhere or driving. I feel like I'm in people's way all the time. I'm always trying to hurry and get out of their way. [00:32:05] Have no idea what that's all about, but it's a. It's a real thing and I think also spiritual. One of the spiritual purposes of stillness is it's a form of worship. And we don't think about it that way. We always think about worship as being. And it is, you know, singing, praising God, dancing, like this. More this thing that we do when we go to church. But it's so much bigger than that. It's also stillness before the Lord is an act of worship. It's a form of worship. [00:32:38] It's saying that you are God and I'm not. [00:32:41] And I'm willing to just stand here and honor you in stillness because you are so holy and I want to reverence your name. That's what it's saying. [00:32:52] You know, I think stillness is the soil where faith grows roots, and we just rarely stay still long enough for them to take hold. Isn't that the truth? This is the whole vine in the branch thing. We just don't stay connected and still long enough to bear fruit, the fruit that he wants us to bear. [00:33:11] So, you know, just some practical ways. As we're wrapping up, I just want to leave you with a few practical ways, you know, like, what could you do to practice stillness? [00:33:24] One of the things that I try to do is to either drive silently or take silent walks. And, you know, because, like, the temptation is even. Today I went for a walk. The temptation was to put my earbuds in and listen to music or a podcast or something. And I tried to. To be honest, I tried, but I couldn't get them to sync up with my phone. So I ended up walking without any. Anything. I didn't have anybody with me, so I wasn't talking. [00:33:51] It was just stillness. And you. Honestly, it was refreshing because I feel like it gives God space to show me things, to talk to me, to just be with me. [00:34:04] I think another thing that we can do is like a morning Selah. [00:34:10] This is hard, but I think it's worth trying and I'll try it. If you do 10 minutes of no music and no phone, just breathing and awareness of his presence, man, I think that is so powerful, you know, like, leave your phone on the. On the charger and just get. I don't even. Man, this is so Hard just thinking about it, but it can be done because I did it for three days, y'. All. I didn't have a phone for three days, and it was so liberating. [00:34:33] Just, you know, get up in the morning, leave your phone on the nightstand, and just for 10 minutes, go, breathe. [00:34:41] Go just sit there before the Lord. You don't even have to pray. Just breathe. [00:34:46] I bet this really works, y'. All. I really want to try this. [00:34:51] And I think even vocalizing our surrender in a prayer, short prayers. I'm not saying you have to. Maybe you can do it with journaling. Maybe you could write out your prayer of surrender to the Lord that day. [00:35:04] You can just say something like, God, I trust you to move where I cannot. [00:35:08] I trust you to do the things I can't do and leave it at that. [00:35:14] Or, you know, I think even taking a day, I really want to do this, too. A weekly still day. Like, it is truly a Sabbath. Like, but on the day that you practice Sabbath, if you don't practice Sabbath, you should. [00:35:26] But on that day, don't even, like, have your phone with you. [00:35:33] I'm seriously thinking about this. It's just, like, don't even have the phone with me, though. Can you imagine? I mean, are you. Are you getting anxiety just thinking about not having your phone a whole day? [00:35:45] Oh, yeah. So I hope that this really speaks to you today. And just. Just remember, when you stop striving, you start seeing. [00:36:01] When you stop talking, you start hearing. [00:36:06] So let that stick with you this week. And I pray that you can posture your heart in such a way that you can hear the Lord. As a matter of fact, let me pray us out before I let you go. Lord, we are so grateful that you send us these reminders of being still before you. [00:36:24] I pray that you would help us put that into practice more and more every day, that we would learn to live a Sabbath lifestyle all the time. God, just the things that you want to give us. [00:36:35] I feel so strongly there are things you want to give us, Lord, but we're never still long enough to receive them and to bear the fruit of it. So, Lord, Holy Spirit, please be with everybody, everyone listening. Please remind us all to be still before you, to be quiet and let you speak. [00:36:54] And in Jesus name, I just release that over all of us. I. I pray you guys have a good week, and I will be back next week by ha.