A slow down prayer

I have written about it before. How we can't be digging up seeds after we have them planted.  We have to do the weeding and wait for the harvest.

Slowing down seems to be a constant topic.  We all have so much to do. I wonder - do we?

From shirts to books from pastors to the boys from Duck Dynasty the message is becoming pretty visible - if you don't have time to spend with God or with your family doing what you love you are doing too much.

And those of us who wait. 

On healing. 

On husbands in fields of harvest or war.

On doctors. On help.  

We wait and we are so tempted to rush. To make things hurry and go faster. I'll just put my head down and plough on through until I get to point B.  We say when Point A seems so far distant from our Point B.

We forget that God doesn't need to rush things.  Time has no spaces to Him. It has no dividers either.  It is one long continuous spiral of life!  We need to break it up, to measure it, to put spaces between the moments to hold on or speed it up.

God does not want us rushing either.  Not through life.  Not past the blessings that bloom, fly, giggle and scream into our lives every day, every hour, every moment.

Are you nodding, knowing the verses, about seasons, and time? Knowing the verses for God's timing. For patience.  Are you wondering if there is anything new under the sun?

Think about this for a moment.  Jesus did not rush His trial.  He did not rush His walk with the cross.  He did not rush His time there either.    We think about what He did dying for us there, but really the true miracle is that He took His time from that moment to the empty tomb doing something utterly amazing.

He gathered up every sin. PAST. Present. FUTURE.  Every single one, in what I call a 'net of love'.  He took His broken body and blood, and like only one with perfect richness and timing can bought our debt. Forever.  He bought it, carried it and if we asked Him about it He would say, "It is gone."

He knew that He could not rush.  His human body screamed for fast forward!  His Holy Self knew what had to be done.

The testimony of His walk. His crucifixion. His death. His resurrection would be meaningless without the purchase of our debt.  He died for us. And He took exactly the correct amount of time doing it.

I could go on about seasons. Planting. Harvesting. All of the things that show the stately order and timing of things.  But I won't.  

I want you to think about why you are rushing?  The devil drives us blindly past the blessings of the now for the ever moving point called 'there'.  And it works!  In our rush we are blind. We are voiceless. We are stuck in a rut.  We are moving too fast to read a devotional, to read our Bibles, to pray with a friend, to offer help when help is needed.  If I can fit it in.  Instead we need to make it first, and fit in the rest!

Some flowers bloom for a single day. Babies are babies only once. If you don't look out the window you'll miss seeing something amazing.  Like a late blooming sunflower. Baby hummingbirds learning to fly. Migrating cranes. Kittens just opening their eyes. 

Dear Lord. 

Please help us to slow down. 

Let us see Your works in a

way that brings us to You in

praise and not in a rush.

Let us be able to say, Lord,

"Yes Lord! We saw that!" 

Instead of , "But I was doing." 

Or "I was hurrying to..."

Lord let us see the blessings

small and wonderful that

You abundantly bless us with

in every hour of every day.

Even through our tears and

our loneliness let us slow

down enough to see them

and know they are from You.

Thank you Lord, for the

blessings we see and forgive

us for the ones we hurry

past. Especially those.

Your children pray.

Amen

See another poem here at Sunflower Poetry