Selah … Pause and Ponder

Review

As you take time to pause and ponder all that you have read this week, set aside a few minutes to reread the verses from the previous six days. As you meditate on these verses, choose one to write down and memorize; let it become the truth that replaces the wrong thinking that you have thrown into the trash. Every time you catch yourself believing and repeating the lie, stop immediately and be embraced with truth by reading or reciting this passage.

Record

Write down in your journal or notebook at least one specific lesson you learned this week that touched your heart and began to transform your thinking. Commit to making it a habit to review and include it in your prayer time. Be still and allow God to embrace you with the desires of your heart. Praise him in his attributes that strengthen your faith and thank him for the hope and help that can only come from knowing him in clearer and nearer ways this week.

Respond

Write one or two sentences on how you will apply this lesson in your life—at home, at work, and in the ways you think and act toward yourself and others. Allow the Holy Spirit to prompt you and provide the courage, humility, love, and anything else you might need to embrace righteous thinking and Christlike character.

Invitation to Prayer

Thank you, Lord, for calling me to rest and trust you with everything on my schedule and on my mind. Lord, help me to stop taking on more than I am purposed to do. I do not want to steal other people’s blessings or lessons by swooping up jobs you never meant for me. Open my eyes, heart, and schedule to the opportunities you designed for me—even when they are out of my comfort zone or zip code, so that your strength and love shines, not mine. Help me to invest my time wisely on the people and places you put in my life. Keep me from feeling guilty when I sit down or even lie down for a few minutes of rest or a sabbath nap. Keep me from running ahead or from lagging behind, and keep me under the embrace of your yoke as I walk beside you.