Slowing Down
Slowing Down
Slow Down
The life-draining rhythms of our culture aren’t sustainable over time.
Matthew 11:28-30 | MSG “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
PACE
Proverbs 19:2 | NRSV One who moves too hurriedly misses the way.
Proverbs 19:2 | NLT Haste makes mistakes.
Hurry drains, exhausts, and distracts us.
When we go too fast, we miss what God wants us to see.
Healthy Pace
Proverbs 21:25 | NLT The lazy will come to ruin, for their hands refuse to work.
Proverbs 21:25 | KJV The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour.
God doesn’t want our
The Example of Jesus
Mark 5:21 | NIV84 “A large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake.”
Jairus
Mark 5:22-23 | NIV84 “Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, ‘My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.’”
When will the depth of your desperation override your pride?
Mark 5:24 | NIV84 “So Jesus went with him.”
An Unexpected Interruption
Mark 5:24 | NIV84 “A large crowd followed and pressed around him.”
Luke 8:42 | NIV84 “As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him.”
Mark 5:27-28 | NIV84 “When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, ‘If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.’”
Mark 5:29 | NIV84 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
Mark 5:30-32 | NIV84 “At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ ‘You see the people crowding against you,’ his disciples answered, ‘and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.”
Jesus knows the difference between those who casually hang around Him and those who desperately reach for Him.
Mark 5:32-34 | NIV84 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
Mark 5:35 | NIV84 While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher any more?”
Mark 5:36 | NIV84 Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
believe (pisteuo) = “to place confidence in; to trust”
When we’re at our worst, God is always at His best.
“Don’t bother.”
“Just believe.”
“Don’t be afraid. Just believe.”
Mark 5:40-42 | NIV84 “But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, ‘Talitha koum!’ (which means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). Immediately the girl stood up and walked around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished.”