Counselor's Corner: What Does It Mean to Quiet Your Soul?

Our minds can get cluttered and contaminated with worries, frustrations, and stressors. When our minds become disturbed with the negative and what all is wrong or could go wrong, we become anxious and fearful. An anxious and fearful mind leads to unrest or a feeling of uneasiness.

With all the negative clatter that comes to us through people, circumstances, and even the news; we need time to quiet our souls. Our minds were not created to deal with the constant stress and negativity that is all around, we were meant to live in peace and harmony. Sometimes in life our peace can be affected if we don’t take the time to align ourselves with stillness. Stillness can be a foreign concept to our busy and fast-paced way of living, but stillness before the Lord is not only soothing to our souls but it quiets our alarming thoughts.

→Quieting your soul is especially important if you have been feeling the stress and strains of life and feel that you are more irritable, aggravated, or tense.

→Quieting your soul allows you to breathe and be at rest properly. Being tense or easily upset over matters causes your breathing to be labored, but being quiet and still will cause you to breathe normally.

How do you quiet your soul?

1.      Listen to your body. Are you feeling tense, aggravated, or irritable?

2.      Disconnect from the negative and disturbing clatter such as the news, certain people, your phone or email, and situations that evoke tension (you know what causes you to feel tense). Take a breather from electronic devices. You cannot quiet your soul while attached to these devices, because surely your phone will beep to let you know you have a text or an email, and you will not be able to help yourself to check it.

3.      Get up early in the morning and find your quiet place to connect to the Lord, this may be outside or perhaps you have a prayer closet. Before you even begin your day sit quietly with the Lord. Quietly means not giving the Lord your agenda or prayer requests for the day, but allow time for God to minister to you first. Quieting your soul allows you to hear God.

4.      Practice at least 10 minutes daily of being quiet and still. Quiet not only your words but your thoughts.

→Your soul and spirit are connected but they are not the same. Oftentimes, our souls are so anxious and disturbed that we have difficulty hearing God in our spirit. What is in your soul can be released and turned over to the care of the Lord during your quiet times.

There are benefits to having quietness before the Lord:

1.      Peace washes over you as you focus your attention on God alone rather than your problems. Quietness is a gateway for calmness and tranquility.

2.      Quieting your soul can allow God to give you direction and clarity.

3.      Quietness relaxes your body, lowers blood pressure and heart rate, and promotes creativity.

How will you quiet your soul?

Word of Encouragement: Counselor’s Corner Be Still to Hear God’s Voice

You will have difficulty hearing God’s voice if you are busy with one activity after another, or you are addicted to your electronic devices. It is important to get quiet before the Lord, and tune-out all distractions. This means turning off your cell phone or putting it away, turning off the TV an iPad and other electronics.

There are many things that compete for our time and attention, and numerous distractions pop-up unexpectedly. Learning to carve out regular time alone with God to hear His still, small voice is important in maintaining your peace, gaining wisdom and direction from the Lord for your daily life. For most people, having time with God first thing in the morning will help you throughout your day. If you have been feeling stressed, overwhelmed, anxious, or fearful, ask yourself, “Have I pulled away to be alone with The Father?” Things will come up in your life to compete for your time and attention even that will seem like a “good thing.” However, not everything that is asked of us or that comes our way is a good thing for us that is why we have to have time with the Lord so we can hear His direction.

A lot of people end-up living frazzled lives because they just do whatever comes in their path.

There will never be anything more important than daily time being still before the Lord.

I know this is a foreign concept in our western culture to be still, but too many people are not taking this valuable time and are enduring high levels of stress. We must learn to step away daily to connect with the Father. He has guidance and direction that He wants to bestow upon us, but we must receive that impartation daily, and not try and “store it up.” Our daily “manna” is given to us daily, not weekly or monthly. We must not put anything else before our relationship with God, and a relationship can only happen when you spend time together. God must first be on our schedules of priorities.

When we are still before God He will speak to us through His Word, through nature, through our spirit, through writing and journaling, and through worship. He can also speak to us through a combination of these things. Check your schedule and see what you can cut back, such as Face book, Pinterest, TV, iPad, and carve out time for God. Put God first in your life. It is okay to say, “No” to the demands of others, to shut your cell phone off temporary, not answer your emails and face book.

It is okay not to follow the crowd, and instead follow Jesus and sit at His feet.

In God’s presence you will find peace and rest. 

Soaking in His Presence

One of the most difficult things that I have learned to do is soak in God’s presence. Why you might ask? Well, I get easily distracted and during times when I am supposed to be still before the Lord I am going over my to-do list for the day. Any Type-A people would certainly understand my dilemma. I enjoy spending time with God and basking in His presence, but sometimes I just can’t turn off my mind!

It takes disciple to practice soaking in Jesus Presence. Some days you will not feel like soaking in God’s presence, do it anyways-it will be worth it!

Soaking in His presence is like a sponge that when it gets wet it absorbs all the water, just like when we soak in God’s presence we should be so saturated with God that we are drenched. When our “sponge” becomes dry it is time for us to soak again in the Lord’s presence. How do you know when your “sponge” is dry? You lack peace, joy, love, gentleness, meekness, humbleness, and long-suffering (sounds like the fruit of the Spirit). When we are not abiding with the True Vine, we are cut off from the life-giving fruit. We need to abide with the Vine to bear much fruit. The key is not being more active in church or ministry but abiding and soaking with Jesus. When we are connected to our source of nourishment than everything will flow as a result. When we decide to do life on our own strength, we are dooming ourselves to failure.

What does soaking with God look like?

It is not about doing but about being. So many times we are consumed with reading “x” number of pages from our Bible, or praying eloquent prayers. But what if Jesus’ way is much simpler, and He says, “Sit at my feet.”

I always start with praise music to help me with being so distracted. I always go to a quiet place and sometimes I light a candle. The key is that there is no formula to soaking in God’s presence. Jesus just says come and sit with me. Some days I am quiet before the Lord and sing worship songs in my heart, others times I am up dancing and singing out loud, and there are times I read several scriptures and there are days I read only one scripture. Sometimes I pray over my home and blow the shofar. I even will walk my property and pray over it if God directs me. My prayer life looks different every day. There are times that I am continually petitioning the throne of God for my family, and there are occasions where I do some warfare praying (as I like to call it). I also journal and sit quietly to listen to God’s voice. Yes, God does speak to His people. Like I said earlier, being still and quiet has been a challenge for me, but through disciplining myself in this area I am so much better.

While you are soaking with God leave your cell phone and all electronic devices out of the area you will soak with Jesus. These will become a distraction!

There is not a set time for soaking in God’s presence. If you are in a hurry in the morning, then try this when you get home at night. Some days you may soak for 30 minutes and other times 2 hours. Yes, this can be difficult if you have small children or a demanding career. It is important that we do not make soaking with God into something legalistic. We all have extra time, perhaps not watching T.V, or getting on social media will give more time to be in the Father’s presence. Soak when you can, but ask God to increase your time so that you can do all that you need to do. I am always amazed when I take this time to soak I always have more than enough time to get everything done, even though my flesh says, “No way.” Trust me your flesh will fight this time. I very rarely think I will have enough time to soak and do all what I need to do.

Nothing will change your life more than soaking in God’s presence In God’s presence His joy is poured upon us, as well as peace, Divine wisdom, strategic plans to defeating the enemy, and healing. Our minds will be transformed as well as we center our thoughts on Christ not our circumstances.

“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence is fullest of joy; at your right hand are pleasures fovermore. Psalm 16:11

In the cover of your presence you hide them from plots of men; you store them in your shelter from the strife of tongues. Psalm 31:20

What ways do you soak in God’s presence? What benefits come from soaking in God’s presence?