Slow me down, Lord.
Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind.
Steady my hurried pace.
Give me, amidst the day’s confusion
The calmness of the everlasting hills.
A Deliberate Reflection:
Over the last few days, when might you have needed to slow the pounding of your heart by the quieting of your mind and then enjoy the calmness of His everlasting ways?
Break the tension of my nerves and muscles
With the soothing music of singing streams
That live in my memory.
A Deliberate Reflection:
What situations have you faced lately where tension and anxiety seem to describe how you have shown up?
Help me to know the magical, restoring power of sleep.
Teach me the art
Of taking minute vacations….
Slowing down to look at a flower,
To chat with a friend,
To read a few lines from a good book.
A Deliberate Reflection:
Are you feeling rested after a night’s sleep? When is the last time you literally stopped to…
…Take a minute vacation?
…Not only look at, but actually enjoy the smell of, a flower?
…Chat with a friend…with no agenda, unhurried?
…Read a book…just because?
Remind me
Of the fable of the hare and the tortoise;
That the race is not always to the swift;
That there is more to life than measuring its speed.
Let me look up at the branches of the towering oak
And know that … it grew slowly … and well.
A Deliberate Reflection:
What measures are you using to determine that your day was “successful”? Joshua 1:8-9 NLT
Inspire me
To send my own roots down deep…
Into the soil of life’s endearing values…
That I may grow toward the stars of my greater destiny.
A Deliberate Reflection:
Are you sensing a “deepening of your roots” in Christ or are you still in “shallow soil”? Colossians 2:7 NLT
Slow me down, Lord.
by Wilfred Arlan Peterson
A Deliberate Leadership Prayer:
Father, slow me down. Help my inner person, my soul, find its rest in You and in You alone.
Forgive me for living hurried, for listening to the seduction of speed; for attempting to be ‘efficient’ with You and with people. Help me to learn that with You, and with people,…slow is fast – fast is slow.
Help me find strength in You as I reflect on my need to grow and become more like You. May Your joy be my strength!
Protect me from the lure of my flesh that craves what is shallow, what is easy, what is fast. Help me obey, as You do the work of taking me deeper into You; of fulfilling Your purposes in me and through me.
Father, slow me down!
