He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s! PSALM 103:4-5 NLT 

Some days it feels impossible to silence our minds or slow the pace of our lives. Our schedules, demands, and responsibilities move us through our months so fast that we barely have much strength left. When it comes time to journal, soul search, or prayerfully reflect on our days or weeks, we might end up dozing off instead. Our heads hit our pillows, and the next thing we know our alarms are going off again.  

In Psalm 4:4–5, David encourages us with these words, “Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and trust in the Lord.” Meditating on your bed isn’t sleeping. It’s silencing your mind enough from the distractions of the day in order to focus your thoughts. David reminds us (in the passage at the top of this page) that meditating and stillness go hand in hand; they give us space to create the courage needed to trust God. He calls “trusting God” a sacrifice of righteousness because it asks something of us to trust Him. It asks that we let go of our own plans and processes while resting in His. Did you know that trust is a sacrifice? It is. 

Meditating in stillness and trusting God can be challenging in a world where we’re told to set goals and do what we have to do to achieve them. In the flurry of getting from here to there, we tend to lose sight of the fact that sometimes God wants us to simply wait on Him.  

Being silent and standing still go against the world’s way of doing things, but God’s way of doing things will get us to the best place at the perfect time. And our minds and bodies won’t suffer as a result of stress in the process.  

God fills our lives with good things. If what we’re doing, choosing, or racing to accomplish is fraught with stress, leaving little or no time for stillness and trust, there’s a good chance God isn’t in it. And it’s a good time to realize we need to let go and let God resume the lead. 

A lot of things in our lives can wait if we really think about it.  What we want to get done isn’t always what we have to get done. Silence allows God to come in and sort things out. He knows what love would do and what lies ahead. If we trust His hand to guide us, it will always be good. 

Jesus, make my heart sensitive to You and Your purpose for my life. Keep my priorities in line with the path You want me to follow. Amen. 

This is an excerpt from It’s All Good: 90 Devotions to Embrace Your Now by Heather Hair– a devotional now available on DaySpring.com. Shop all books, journals, and devotions from DaySpring here.