31 | Beginning

Aaaaah.  Day 31.  Thirty-one days of stopping, resting, breathing, trusting.  

As I look back on this spiritual and writing challenge, I feel full.  It's not that post-Thanksgiving meal gorged-to-the-gills full.  It's a stretched-to-finding-new-space-to-breathe contentment.  It's a place of peace.  And joy.  (Oh, yes, and a little sliver of relief, too.)

We've had 31 Days to Be Still, sinking into God's word, meditating on the message.  I hope you've enjoyed the chance to in this sacred time with our living Lord.  I pray you've found one or two approaches that have resonated deep in your soul.

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We are at the technical end of this series.  I'm going to miss our conversations about resting in Godly stillness.  I so appreciate you joining me on this journey, whether your participation has been punctuated with comments written or spoken, or whether you have been a silent, spirit-filled partner in this pursuit.

But wait... we are not finished with our stillness.  Not by a long shot.  It is a practice that I pray each of us will continue, in our own inspired way.  

We are at the beginning of the next chapter of our devotion to God.

We are getting better at this being still all the time, with all the time we invest in him.  And we have all kinds of time to get it right.  So protect yourself from urgency, from pressure.  Proceed step by savored, slow step.

Hayley at TheTinyTwig.com captures this sentiment perfectly as she writes about living from a place of rest.  She encourages us to free ourselves from "getting it right," to living it with care.

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A woman who loves me sat me down about a year ago. She told me I had so much time... She challenged me to hold metaphorical hands with the Lord and just move forward, making sure to have energy to be in constant communion with God, making sure I had energy to love my people well, and even making sure I had energy to take care of myself.

I pray that each of us continues to hold hands with God, to take time and be wise with our energy, to live from God's peaceful place of rest.

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.  Romans 12:2 (MSG)

I pray that in the November and December and into the new year, you keep fixing your attention on God.  Stay open to the way God changes you from the inside out.  Recognize the impact your special brand of God-breathed stillness has in your "walking-around life."

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Continue to come to our living Lord and stay a while in the stillness.  Stand on the grace of your peaceful communion with Christ.  Repeatedly restore your energies. Rejuvenate your soul.  Let your heart be changed, stretched, and opened.  And from this welcome mat of God's grace, step into the world, walking in the footsteps of faith and living out God's love.

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Lord,

Each day this month you have taken my hand and pulled me into a place of peaceful stillness.  You have quieted my body, mind, and heart.  You have stirred my soul. You have fed me with the best nourishment I know.

Thank you.  

Thank you for your bright revival of my stale and tarnished  habit.  Thank you for beginning a new chapter in our time together.

Be with me daily as I continue to strengthen this habit of being still in your presence. Use this quiet practice to strengthen my faith and renew my heart and rejuvenate my soul.  And then use me, as only you can, to spread your love and grace in this world.  

Today is not an end but a beginning.  The beginning of the next phase of your blessed plans for me.  I have complete faith in your divine designs for my life.  Help me to match my faith with patience and perseverance each and every day.  Help me to recognize all the ways you bring the best out of me.  Because you always bring out the best in me — I just need to get still and take the time to notice.

Until this sweet, still time tomorrow,

Amen.