What do you think of when you hear the word “unrushed”? Do you think of your last holiday or vacation? Do you find yourself wistfully recalling your recent long weekend away from the pressures of your life, or the quiet escape you used to enjoy along some beach, or your favorite mountain retreat from long ago?
Mention the word “unrushed” in relationship to time with God to your friends and colleagues, and you may get raised eyebrows, a good-natured chuckle, or a wishful sigh. Daily unrushed time alone with God may seem like a fairy tale, a beautiful idea that is simply impossible today.
Today we suffer from rushed relationships, hurried conversations, and hugs that are too quick to savor. Everything about this life often seems about how to do mundane things quicker and to accomplish meaningful things faster. But speed comes at a price.
Fast food saves time, but loses flavor. Facebook friends give us likes, but not always love. Quick time catching up with Jesus in prayer and His Word checks the box on our list, but may leave us short with the quest of our heart.
God is the God of grace. He does not require a certain amount of time to enjoy Him in the Word and in prayer each day. He meets us where we are and with what moments we give Him. But why not give Him more of your time?
Walking With Jesus
You can have daily unrushed time with God! Your time alone with God can slow down and simmer like homemade soup bubbling on your stove. You can savor the aroma of His presence and enjoy an unhurried conversation with Him in His Word and in prayer.
Enoch’s entire life can be summed up in four words: “Enoch walked with God” (Gen. 5:22). Here is the inspired account:
“Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him” (verses 21-24).
Enoch started walking with God after his life got busier, not slower. God’s Word says that he began walking with God after he became a father. With the added responsibility of discipling his son to walk with God, he began walking with his Creator himself.
Before you protest and say, “But that’s Enoch! He is the only one who walked with God!” Consider the life of Noah. Noah lived in a dangerously stressful time. God’s Word describes the time: “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart” (Gen. 6:5, 6).
Great friendships are about mutually sharing conversations and experiences.
It was in those days of wickedness and violence that God found a man who lived a different lifestyle. God’s Word proclaims: “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God” (verses 8, 9, NASB).
Walking with someone provides time to talk with them. Walking is not running. Walking allows you to breathe and have a conversation easily at the same time. When you are walking with a friend, you are both side by side, headed the same way.
My bride April and I discovered, even before we began seriously investing in our relationship with the intent of marrying each other, that we loved walking together! We went on walks together as classmates in college. We walked together as growing friends. We loved walking and talking side by side.
We tried running together, but we found out it wasn’t a great way for us to remain together. I had a fast pace, she a slower pace. The only time we ended up talking was when I would pass her on the track. For some couples running together is awesome, but for us, running was not together!
One day I took her hand as we walked, and we walked closer together. On a hike on White Oak Mountain I asked her to marry me! To my delight and thanksgiving to God, she said, “Yes!” For more than 36 years we have walked hand in hand as husband and wife. The walk provided unrushed time to talk and to listen together, to laugh and shed tears. Sometimes we talk the whole time, sometimes we walk without a word, just soaking each other up. We are planning on walking together every day possible now and to continue to do so together throughout in eternity, hand in hand.
Is your time alone with God each day a walk or a run? Is there a time for a meaningful conversation, or is the focus on “getting through” the moment so that you can say you’ve been there and done that this morning? Great friendships simmer like the soup on the stove.
Simmer Like Soup
Abraham had unrushed time alone with God. How do we know? Note how many times he heard what God specifically had to tell him. If you are running fast with God, you won’t have time to hear His still small voice.
Abraham heard God call him. “Now the Lord said to Abram, “ ‘Go from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you.’ . . . So Abram went away as the Lord had spoken to him” (Gen. 12:1-4, NASB).
Every place where Abraham set up his tent, he built an altar. The altar was his place to worship and communicate with God. The people of Canaan could tell where Abraham had camped. An altar at each of his encampments always stood as a silent witness to the man who was a friend of God’s, the man who had time for God.
Abraham invested in unrushed time alone with God. He was available and present when God took him outside and told him to count the stars (Gen. 15:5). He heard God when God called to inspire him. He wasn’t going too fast to hear God instruct and correct him.
Abraham took time to fellowship with God when God came walking by his home (Gen. 18:1-5). He made a meal for God and His two angel companions (verses 7, 8). He took time to walk with God and talk with Him concerning Sodom and Gomorrah (verses 20-33).
Abraham made himself available to hear God’s counsel when he faced his stressed-out wife (Gen. 21:11-13). He didn’t miss God’s testing call to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Moriah (Gen. 22:1, 2). He did not miss when God sent an angel to stop him from slaying his son (verses 11, 12). He didn’t miss when God blessed him for his faithfulness on that same mountain (verses 15-18).
When we rush with God, we miss out! We miss God’s friendship and His camaraderie along our daily journey. When we rush with God, we miss His life-giving counsel, His heart-thumping tests, and His loving encouragement.
He Still Speaks
When we get frustrated with God’s apparent lack of presence, we need to slow down with Him. He is here with us (Matt. 28:20)! When we wonder at His silence, we must linger in His presence. He still speaks!
He promises us: “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (Jer. 33:3, NASB). His expectation is that we would have two-way communication with Him! He longs for us to pour out our hearts to Him. He yearns for us to share our fears, our struggles, our triumphs, failures, and successes with Him. But then after we share with Him, what do we do?
If you tell me you are a software engineer and I ask you if you could help me with software advice, I must be ready to listen. If I discover you know all the trails of the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States, I would love to ask you for recommendations for a great hike. If I am planning a trip to your city and you tell me you know the best places to stay, the most stunning sites to see, and the most delicious and affordable places to eat, why wouldn’t I ask you for your counsel and then wait for you to tell me?
If only I talk in the conversation, I will not get to know you. Great friendships are about mutually sharing conversations and experiences. There is time to talk and time to listen. There is a flow in the conversation back and forth.
Noah was unrushed in God’s presence and heard God’s plans to save his family.
Moses took time to be with God, and he saw His glory passing before him!
Samuel listened and misunderstood and listened again until he discerned God’s voice.
David not only asked for how to face the Philistines, but waited to hear God marching in the tops of the mulberry trees.
Elijah prayed and waited seven times until he saw a cloud the size of a man’s hand.
Jehoshaphat fasted and prayed and waited to hear what God would do, then sent out the choir to face the enemy.
David cried out, “Make me know Your ways, Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for You I wait all the day” (Ps. 25:4, 5, NASB).
It is very early in the morning as a lone figure steps out of a small shack of a home and softly closes the door behind Him. He pauses under the stars. Closing His eyes, He inhales a deep breath of the cool, fresh morning air. He looks up again at a myriad of stars and smiles. He knows each one by name. He flung them into space.
Purposefully He strides through the darkness to a quiet, desolate place where He meets with His Father. Everything He will face this day will be powerfully influenced by this time of deep fellowship with His Father.
Years before He came to earth, He prophesied about what His Father would do for Him each morning:
“The Lord God has given Me the tongue of disciples, so that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple” (Isa. 50:4, NASB).
Every day Jesus Christ was on earth He was awakened by His Father so they could have unrushed time alone together before a full day of ministry began. Every day our Savior humbled Himself before God the Father to learn what His Father’s will was for that day. Every day of the week He was discipled by God the Father.
Why are we satisfied by so little with God? We rush into His presence with our worries, stresses, and fears. We rush out of His presence often the same way we rushed in. God is ready to give you much, much more.
