Episode #156 The Power of THIS Pause. God is Your Refuge! – Cultivate Wonder

Hey friends, it's Jen. And I'm excited to spend these few minutes with you today as we draw near to God together. And we have these uncommon conversations with him, these set aside moments in the midst of our everyday lives and everything that fills our task lists and our calendars, and we get to seek the Lord together.

We're still in the midst of our series on cultivating wonder and we're taking a slightly different approach to that topic today as the thing that's really on my heart is bringing our needs before him. And that is a wondrous thing! It is beyond understanding that the God of the universe is involved and personally invested in our day to day lives. But that's who he is and that's what he does.

And as we go about our daily lives, there are so many opportunities for really conflicting experiences and conflicting emotions to happen in the same time period. Any given day provides opportunities for excitement and anticipation where we feel successful or proud of accomplishments and achievements and also are confronted with shortcomings and failures and missteps and oversights.

The verses that I want to read for us today come from Psalm 62. And even in this short chunk of verses, we see conflicting or just differing opportunities to come before God with whatever we're feeling and navigating in the moment.

And it begins with David saying that he's going to be quiet before the Lord, but only a few verses later, he then exhorts people to pour out their heart before God. And part of why I wanted to share that with you is because I think there's space for both.

If you find within yourself a longing or a need to just be quiet before the Lord, to listen. To notice Him there with you, to wonder at the reality of how He's at work in the world or in your circumstances. Do that.

Also, if you find yourself in a place where you really just need to pour your heart out to God. Maybe you're navigating distress or grief. Maybe it's frustration or disappointment. God invites us to pour out our hearts before Him.

And so I'm going to read for us Psalm 62:5-8 in the New Living Translation. It says,

“Let all that I am wait quietly before God,
for my hope is in him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress where I will not be shaken.
My victory and honor come from God alone.
He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.
O my people, trust in him at all times.
Pour out your heart to him,
for God is our refuge.” (Psalm 62:5-8 NLT)

Part of the reason that this was on my heart today is because I realized that I was feeling disappointed and somewhat discouraged about some things that I've navigated recently, and I needed to bring those things before God.

Sometimes I can feel a little silly or extra I can get judgmental against myself when I need to bring to him things that I disqualify as not being that significant.

This area of disappointment that I feel today can feel really small and inconsequential. I can even judge it a little bit harshly when I compare it against hard seasons I've walked through before, bigger circumstances I'm navigating, or really significant events that are going on in the lives of my loved ones or in the world around me.
But God says we can trust Him at all times. He says that we can pour out our hearts before him.

There are sometimes I just need to wait in God's presence. I need to draw close and notice and experience and remember that he is my refuge.

Other times I need to pour out my heart. I need to shed my tears. I need to tell God what I've been walking through, and that's part of me receiving the help and the refuge that He offers me.

This phrasing, to pour out our hearts, talks about spilling ourselves, to expend, to sprawl out, to gush, to cast out. We can bring our weaknesses to God in that way. It doesn't need to be neat and orderly; we can pour out our hearts before the Lord.

And “heart” here is exactly what you would think it is. To pour out your inner person, your heart, your soul, your mind, your will, your understanding—that you can pour those things out before God, because He is your refuge.
The last thing that I want to share for us is right after that chunk of verses in the New Living Translation, it says “interlude,” but in most other translations, it uses the word selah.

It's commonly seen in the Psalms. But the translation of this word is something that's still debated to this day. So I'm going to read just a few quick sentences for you from the Blue Letter Bible app. In the lexicon says that this word sela has been “discussed and tortured by the conjectures and blunders of interpreters.” It seems to have been used to mark the short pause in singing the words of a psalm. It's widely understood to be a musical term that's used to accentuate or to bring a pause or to interrupt singing while music continues to play.

And I love this idea in the context of our conversations with God today, because sometimes we need that interruption. To pause and take a beat in the midst of all we're going through as a practice of waiting before the Lord. As a practice of pouring out our hearts before Him and seeing Him and seeking Him as our refuge.

And so I'm going to read our passage one more time, this time from the ESV translation.

And our question to ask God today is this:

God, what does it look like for me to draw near to you in this way today?

“For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,
for my hope is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my salvation and my glory;
my mighty rock, my refuge is God.
Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us. Selah” (Psalm 62:5-8 ESV)

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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