Bear in Mind
My phone locked up recently. Said it was "hibernating." The audacity of this manufactured piece of glass and plastic to think it needed a restful break more than me!
To hibernate is to become inactive or dormant. It's a resting state. I always get this mental picture of a mammoth grizzly, in a deep cave, curled in a fetal position resting the cold and dreary winter away. Hibernation takes "sleeping in" to another level!
Conveniences have made life loud! Sometimes we can't hear. Not that we don't hear with the appendages on each side of our head, but we absorb little or no information. Life as we know it is just too loud. And, I know what you're thinking. You can't stop life. Right? However, you can suppress the volume, or even remove yourself from the unwanted noise.
There are two main problems; loudness around us and impatience within us. Often the noise of the immediate drowns out the sound of the important. And then, when we don't hear what we want to hear when we want to hear it, we quickly move on to numbing devices that fill the empty space — more noise. Consequently, we remain in a cycle of restlessness, often without the calming peace and information needed for the next important step of our life.
Perhaps waiting and listening are inseparable. Show me a person that struggles with patience, and I'll show you someone that struggles with hearing the voice of God or hearing much of anything for that matter. Perhaps the number one reason we don't hear God is because we don't wait for Him. The next time you pray about something, test yourself. See if you can make a request without giving it a time frame. It's quite facetious to think that we could lasso an eternal God and fence him in with a calendar and clock!
I sometimes wonder if I need to hear The Lord speak as much as I need to just be still in His most powerful presence. He often speaks the loudest when He uses no words. His pure, perfect essence delivers supernatural information that cannot be found elsewhere. If you ever find yourself there, no one has to tell you how Devine it is. You know it. Maybe time stands still or ceases to exist. Either way, it doesn't matter. You just know you want to rest and stay awhile.
From this premiss, this place of rest, like my phone in hibernation, things can be reset. Who knows, maybe an update is in order or new software. You might try emptying your trash or clearing your history. Retaining your failures can often prevent revealing your future. Rest.
It's worth noting that the most popular Psalm 23 speaks of, "He makes me lie down." Our human tendency, when we get to "green pasture," is to consume! Evidently, that's not always the ideal.
Maybe you're not ready for full hibernation. You might try what I did recently. Go into "cybernation." Take a 3-hour rest from all computers, phones, etc. By the way, don't judge me until you've tried it. Three hours is harder than you think! Perhaps some quiet time away from the electronic chatter will work wonders for you.
From a place of rest, you can set yourself up to be your best!
Psalms 46:10, God says, "Be quiet and know that I am God…."
Shhhhh…Quiet,