The 7th reading from Outflow talked about two things that keep us from hearing from God. Hurry and worry. I recently blogged about worry, so this post will be about hurry. It will just take a minute to read…I’ll try to hurry!
I think it is safe to say that most of us are in a hurry. We are convinced that we’ll get more done if we move a little faster. Scripture would agree that we need to work hard, but we also need to work smarter. And to do that, we need to slow down.
It is counter-intuitive. Want to get “more” done? Try doing less. In fact, sometimes we have to stop doing everything so that we can hear from God want He wants us to work on. Martin Luther said it this way: “I generally pray two hours every day, except on very busy days. On those days, I pray three.”
Imagine the woman that was healed in Mark 5.
When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. – Mark 5:27-29
Three things strike me about this scene. First, this lady had tried for twelve years to get well. She had been to every doctor and tried every treatment she could find. The result was that she only got worse. Then three remarkable things happened:
- She heard about Jesus. I wonder who told her about Him?
- She came to Jesus. She stopped working at the “logical” and sought after God.
- She touched Jesus. She got so close to Him that she could actually touch Him!
Imagine what was going through her mind. Imagine how discouraged and desperate she was. Imagine how close she had come to just giving up. Then she heard about Jesus, stopped doing her own thing, and came and touched Him. Imagine her joy when the simplest of all answers was the one that worked.
When I run life at full speed, I often am frustrated, worried, unsuccessful and tired. When I slow down and seek God, His quiet voice is there. Sometimes I hear Him loud and clear, sometimes I can barely hear Him…but He is always there.
How about you…what do you need to stop doing?
