Lent Devotional: RestoreSample

Restore: Selah

When was the last time you stopped? I mean, really stopped. No work, no emails, no glare of a screen; just you, free from distraction, with plenty of space for holiness to sink in.

We live in a society that worships busyness, a society addicted to distraction and polluted by constant noise. It can be hard to break away from it, yet break away we must. If we are constantly moving and never listening, how will we hear the still, small voice of calm?

The Hebrew word selah has no direct translation into English, yet it appears 74 times in the Psalms and the book of Habakkuk. Scholars still debate its meaning, but our best guess is that it’s an instruction to pause and reflect – to let your entire being soak in God’s presence.

When we pause, we let God’s restoring power get to work. Think about some ways in which you might build more selah moments into your life.

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire
Thy coolness and Thy balm;
Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm.
Amen.

(John Greenleaf Whittier, Dear Lord and Father of Mankind)

Gideon Heugh, Tearfund