Holy Pauses

By Pastor Dan Hickling

“Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and spoke, saying: ‘I will sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea! The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him; my father’s God, and I will exalt Him. The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is His name. Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea; His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them; they sank to the bottom like a stone. Your right hand, O Lord, has become glorious in power; Your right hand, O Lord, has dashed the enemy in pieces. And in the greatness of Your excellence You have overthrown those who rose against You; You sent forth Your wrath; it consumed them like stubble. And with the blast of Your nostrils the waters were gathered together; the floods stood upright like a heap; the depths congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, “I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my desire shall be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.” You blew with Your wind, the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?’”—Exodus 15:1-11 (NKJV)

Allow me to get personal for a moment, or at least for a paragraph or two! If you’re a believer in Christ, every now and then you find yourself in one of those conversations that only Christians have. Conversations where you ask questions like, “What’s the one moment in the Bible you’d like to go back in time and personally witness?” My personal answer is always the same, “The parting of the Red Sea.”

My imagination can’t envision what that must have been like! The sights, the sounds, the rushing compression of the atmosphere all around as God’s unparalleled power was unleashed . . . not to mention the resultant rescue of His people and retribution towards Pharaoh’s forces. Such a wonder-filled moment makes one wonder how to even react to it!

We don’t have to wonder for very long. God’s Word tells us that those who witnessed this miraculous moment responded in the only appropriate way: they worshipped!

There are times in our journey of faith in this world when God works in such a way that all we can do is worship Him. No posting, no pontificating, no preaching . . . just praising! If you’ve walked with God for any length of time, you understand this. And if you haven’t followed the Lord long enough to understand this you can be assured that you eventually will. This is as it should be because life needs these holy pauses where our entire being, body, soul, and spirit are pointed God-ward in the activity that we will be engaged in for all eternity.

I’ll get personal once again by confessing that I don’t allow for these holy pauses nearly enough in my life, and I suspect that I’m not alone. For the fact is, we don’t really need an event like the parting of the Red Sea to worship God. He is always worthy of our worship because worship is really based on who God is, not just on what He does. To take it one step further, what He does doesn’t change who He is. The One who parts the sea for His people is the God who providentially permits pains, persecutions, and prisons. That’s the truth that empowered Paul and Silas to praise Him after being beaten, persecuted, and imprisoned (Acts 16:25).

Throughout Scripture, we’re given abundant evidence that holy pauses are always available to us, regardless of what’s happening around us. We simply need to settle this single point in our hearts and minds; our worship is based on who God is. If we truly understand and embrace this, we can declare alongside Moses and all Israel that the Lord is our strength, our song, and our salvation!

Pause: Why are holy pauses of worship possible at any point in our earthly lives?

Practice: Be intentional about putting this into practice before the end of your day.

Pray: Great and glorious God, give me an ever-increasing understanding of who You are and let me base my life’s worship on this. Shift my praise from what to who . . . who You are according to Your everlasting goodness. Amen.