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Do Not Depart

Encouragement and Tools to Abide in God's Word

You are here: Home / Encouragement to Abide / Intentional Spiritual Growth / Practice the Pause: Intentional Spiritual Growth through Stillness

Practice the Pause: Intentional Spiritual Growth through Stillness

January 14, 2020 by Jaime Hilton Leave a Comment

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Eat your vegetables so you’ll grow up nice and strong!

That’s what I tell my children at dinner, anyway. But the act of putting vegetables in your mouth does not make your body strong. The vegetables must be chewed, swallowed, and digested before they can do any good. So too, reading the Bible or listening to a sermon/podcast/teaching is only the first step in the process of spiritual growth. Like our physical bodies, our hearts and minds need time to chew, swallow, and digest the truth we find in Scripture.

When I think of growth – habits I want to build, changes I want to make – I think about action. What can I do? I make charts and lists to track my actions look forward to the end of the month when I will have a calendar full of check marks proving that I have made progress!

Growth takes shape under our intentional actions. Yet, it is during quiet moments of intentional rest that those changes take root. Meditation, silence, and rest. These are the tools of spiritual digestion, changing the Word of Life into energy to fuel our day, protein to build our spiritual muscles, and storage for later use.

Meditation

Meditation sometimes gets a bad wrap for its use in New Age practices. But the simplest definition is to think, contemplate or ponder something. Previous Do Not Depart writers have said, “Scripture gives a clear pattern of meditation filled with the One True God”.  Like tea steeping in hot water or yeast working through dough, “Meditation takes time to listen, reflect, rehearse, and rework God’s truth in our lives, kneading it into our souls and allowing it to grow and live in our minds and hearts.” (Read more about meditation here.)

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. – Joshua 1:8

 

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. – Psalm 1:1-2  

Rest

In my work as a writer and director, I sometimes find the most helpful thing I can do for a project is to step away. I take a pause from trying and doing and let the work steep in my heart. When I return, growth has happened. I see the story with new eyes and can move forward with the work.

Rest might feel inactive, but it is the outward expression of trust. Trust that the Lord is working on our behalf.

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. – Isaiah 26:3 

In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. – Psalm 4:8

Silence

Silence is another tool that can be misunderstood and misused. Culturally we tend to be uncomfortable with quiet, the same way we are with rest. It doesn’t seem productive. Yet, it is when we stop eating that our digestive systems go to work, giving life to the body. We have to stop talking so we can hear clearly.

Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. – Ecclesiastes 5:2

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. – Psalm 62:5

In the same way we plan for rest in our workouts, space between meals, and getting the right amount of sleep at night, we must learn to be thoughtful with our study, giving ourselves time to soak in the Word and draw life from it.

Spiritual growth is a marathon. An all you can eat feast. A life-long pursuit we take one bite at a time.

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About Jaime Hilton

Jaime Hilton is 1/6 of the Hilton Family in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She is the household manager and wife to Ray, the actor. Together they are in the trenches of parenting three children, ages 3-15. Thanks to homeschooling and her voracious reading habits she has her library card number memorized. In her (rare!) spare time she likes to write and work with local theater companies, directing and encouraging fellow artists to glorify God in every aspect of their work. Her favorite mornings start with a quiet cup of coffee and an inspiring book or blog. Her most passionate pursuit is studying the Word and discovering the stories within The Story. She blogs from time to time about life, faith, and theatre at www.alltheworldastage.org.

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