Slow me down, Lord!

"The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him . . ." (Lam. 3:25)

"Wait on the Lord: . . . He shall strengthen thine heart." (Psalm 27:14)

"Wait on the Lord . . . and He shall exalt thee . . . " (Psalm 37:34)

Slow me down, Lord! Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind. Steady my hurried pace with a vision of the eternal reach of time. Give me, amidst the confusion of my day, the calmness of the everlasting hills. Break the tensions of my nerves and muscles with the smoothing music of the singing streams that live in my memory. Help me to know the magical, restoring power of sleep. Teach me the art of taking minute vacations . . . of slowing down to look at a flower, to chat with a friend, to pat a dog, to read a few lines from a good book. Remind me each day of the fable of the hare and the tortoise that I may know that the race is not always to the swift; that there is more to live than increasing its speed. Let me look upward into the branches of the towering oak and know that it grew great and strong because it grew slowly and well. Slow me down, Lord, and inspire me to send my roots deep into the soil of life's enduring values that I may grow toward the stars of my greater destiny. In Jesus' name, Amen." - Unknown

We must learn to wait. When we do not know what to do we must simply do nothing. Wait till the fog clears away. Do not force a half-open door; a closed door may be providential. Ability to hold steady under pressure gives god unlimited sway. A hurried spirit is always from beneath (and out of breath.) "He that believeth shall not make haste."

There is grace supplied for the one who waits. The Psalmist knew this secret. He experienced this grace. "I wait for the Lord," he declared in Psalm 130:5. Waiting is a great part of life's discipline and therefore God often exercises the grace of waiting in the anxious hurrying person. "Waiting has four purposes," says Dr. james Vaughan. "It practices the patience of faith. It gives time for preparation for the coming gift. It makes the blessing the sweeter when it arrives. It shows the sovereignty of God - to give just when and as He pleases."

By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman, taken from "Streams in the Desert Volume 2"