Selah – Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of Selah!

In my first blog, we learned that Selah means to stop, pause, take a break, reflect or meditate. Sounds like a great thing to do, doesn’t it? But how often are we doing it?

When you look at this picture, what do you see?

I see a lot of busyness, chaos and confusion.

Could a singer or musician follow this and make any sense of it?

 

 

Now look at this picture. This is a much better picture showing us the way a piece of music should look like, easy to follow and to sing or play to. Now, think about a typical day in your life…. Which picture tells the story about your day? For me, I have days that look like either picture depending upon the circumstances and sometimes (more often than not) my day looks like a combination of the two.

What do you think your picture would look like, if you remembered to stop, take a break, rest, breathe and experience a Selah moment with God?

The rest doesn’t mean that life stops. Just as a singer or musician taps their foot in beat with the song, even when they come to a rest, their foot is still tapping. We stay in beat with God’s song even during the rests.

How often do you stop and rest? I don’t mean the rest when you go to bed at night or when you are sitting on the couch watching a movie. I don’t mean when you are sitting at your computer looking up recipes on Pinterest or reading your emails. Your body may be at rest, but your mind is not.

How often do you just sit and pray and talk to God? How often do you sit in His presence, connect with Him, praise Him and worship Him? No iPhone, computer or TV. No Facebook, emails, Pinterest, Instagram or Snapchat.  If this is a hard question for you, then it’s time to think about the importance of creating selah moments in your life.

God wants you to rest, ALL of you! He especially wants you to rest your mind in Him. It’s important to dig into God’s word and spend time with Him and discipline ourselves to study the word. This is when we need our selah moments.

 

Do you ever read a devotional or see a motivating verse and post it and think, ok, that’s it for the day? Check that off my to do list. Being on social media reading a verse or seeing a picture with a verse attached is nice, and it can be motivating or uplifting, but it is not digging into the word. It’s not connecting with God.

If we are not taking the time to pause or take a break, then we can’t hear or discern what God wants us to do, I don’t know about you, but I am not my best when I am tired which makes it very difficult to hear God’s voice. We long for rest and God longs for communion with us. God is the answer to providing the rest we long for and the rest we need.

Matthew 11:28-29 (NLT) tells us:

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Now let’s really let this verse sink in and  look at The Message version of this same verse:

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me-watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Powerful isn’t it? Did you catch God’s promise to us in that verse? “Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

“We run at a breakneck pace to try and achieve what God simply wants us to slow down enough to receive. We receive from Him everything we need to produce the fruit, therefore we must remember to stay connected to Him.” Lysa TerKeurst – Finding I Am.

The fruit of self discipline correlates with saying no. Selah is about surrender, putting God first, choosing our best yes and being obedient to God. Ladies, it’s time we put God first in our everyday lives. God needs to be our top priority!

Quiet time with God is an invitation for an intimate conversation with Him. It’s the time where you give your full undivided attention to Him. During your quiet times, God will speak truth into your heart. He will fix your eye sight and straighten out your perspective. He will restore you! God honors us when we are obedient. He will bless you and give you a sense of peace that surpasses all understanding.

You may be thinking, what does this look like? How can I achieve it? It is important to realize that the significant word to remember is “relationship.” It’s getting to know God, not just know about Him. We need to learn how to build a relationship with God, not just memorize bible verses or statistics about our Creator.

For me, (and this can be different for everyone), typically my best time to spend with God is first thing in the morning before anyone else is awake. I start with praying (which is just having a conversation with God) and I ask Him to help quiet my mind, and to open my mind and heart to what I am about to read.

I may be reading a devotion (Proverbs 31 have daily devotions for women that are fantastic) or working on a bible study. This leads to me looking up bible verses and getting to know God’s word. I will be honest, I only know a handful of verses by heart, but this doesn’t limit my relationship with Him. I try to end my time in prayer as well (which doesn’t always happen) but especially when something has spoken to me during my morning time with Him, I want to thank Him for helping me understand another part of Him that brings us closer together.

Remember, you can have Selah moments with God throughout your day and it can look differently to each of you.

Today I challenge you to slow down, pause, and reflect about the importance of putting God first in your life and to experience selah moments with your creator each and every day.