Don’t Rush

We should not rush into God’s Presence, (unless of course there’s a crisis and we need the Lord’s immediate help).

We should take time to sit and rest and quieten ourselves before the Lord before beginning to speak to Him.

The steps into the Temple in Jerusalem are deliberately (awkwardly) spaced so that no one could run into the Temple! Every person had to walk slowly up the steps and thereby take time to prepare themselves to meet with the Lord.

"Guard your steps when you go to the house of the God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few." Ecclesiastes 5:1-2

As we approach God our focus is almost completely on ourselves; our feelings, our concerns, the things that are worrying and troubling us, even our cares for others. But as we spend time in His Presence our whole focus changes to be about His concerns; "thy name be honored, thy kingdom come, thy will be done".

Our Heavenly Father knows what we need before we ask Him, (Matthew 6:8), and so there will be times when the only thing that is needed is for us to be still in His Presence. And there are sometimes occasions when the Holy Spirit leads us, (constrains us), to be still and silent before the Father for a long time.

Revelation 8:1 describes how "there was silence in heaven for about half an hour".

And Psalm 131 describes these times very beautifully:

"My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content."

As we take time to stop and be still before the Lord we begin to learn how to follow the gentle promptings of the Holy Spirit. Pray for this person … Ask for the Father’s intervention in this matter … As royal priests in the Living Temple our Father is building, (1 Peter 2:4-5 and 9-10), we join in with others confessing our sins, interceding with them and for them and blessing them in the Name of the Lord.

And as we continue to lift different people and situations before our Father using different types of prayer as we pray in and with the leading of the Holy Spirit, the Peace of God which we can’t properly describe or predict or manage comes and overrules and holds our minds and hearts as we rest in fellowship with Jesus deeply aware that everything is under His Perfect Lordship.