Struggling to pause, to be still, to be silent is a tale as old as time, but we are living in an age when those who know how to wait on the Lord, or anything else for that matter, are on the critically endangered species list. Join us as Pastor Sarah shares a message about how important pausing in prayer is and lays out a framework for how to do so.
Pausing to Pray
Speakers
Sarah Blount
Lead Pastor
Worship
Notes
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A life hidden in Christ is a life peppered with pauses.
P - is for pause
R - is for rejoice
A - is for ask
Y - is for yield
The best way to start praying is to actually stop praying. To pause. To be still. To put down your prayer list and just sit and be quiet for a bit. To stop talking at God long enough to focus on the wonder of who he actually is.
Pete Greig
Psalm 62:1
Truly my soul silently waits for God; from Him comes my salvation.
Psalm 62:5-6
For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
Psalm 25:5
Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.
Psalm 27:14
Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!
Psalm 37:7, 9
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; … those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.
Psalm 40:1-2
I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
Psalm 130:5-6
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.
Isaiah 40:31
But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 49:23
Those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.
Isaiah 30:18
Blessed are all those who wait for him.
Acts 1:4
He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father.
Lamentations 3:25
The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
A minister has no more solemn duty than to teach people to wait on God.
Andrew Murray
Luke 10:38-42
Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.
Blaise Pascal
It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick.
Uncle Screwtape
Framework for Pausing in Prayer:
01 - We Pause to Recenter
My house being now all stilled.
Saint John of the Cross
Revelation 3:20
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
02 - We Pause to Behold
God is not a product to be consumed. He is a wonder to behold.
Beholding is “the practice of looking to God with an open soul, admiring Him, allowing Him to be, and watching Him move in and around our lives.”
Strahan Coleman
Do we care about being with God or only about what we hope he will provide for us?
Psalm 27:4
One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.
03 - We Pause to Listen
Your soul has things it needs to say to God. And God has things he wants to say to your soul.
There is a wisdom that comes from silent listening that is different from what comes from talking things to death. There is action that comes from waiting on God that is utterly different from reactivity.
Ruth Haley Barton
God is at work. Am I at wait?
2 Peter 1:3-9
Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received….So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus.
The ABCs of Pause:
Assume A Paused Posture
Breathe Deeply
Carry On
We now live in a time when consumer Christianity has become the accepted norm, and all-out engagement with and in Jesus’ kingdom among us is regarded as somewhat “overdoing it.” By contrast, the biblical pattern is, from beginning to end, “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only.
Dallas Willard