New Wine family and friends of New Wine,

We live in a world that is ‘go, go, go…’. We have conditioned our lives to ‘I want it all, and I want it now’. Even our relationship with the Lord, and indeed our spiritual life, is beating to this drum. The result is a life that is ‘busy’, harassed and stressed. There is, however, another way, which will lead to contentment, peace and joy. This other way, which I want to share around, is ‘the Jesus way’.

Jesus, the Son of God- your God, and my God- modelled for us a life that was unhurried, a life that was at peace, a life that was lived in the presence of God the Father. One of the keys to this life, that Jesus modelled, was the priority He gave in His daily rhythm to rest, quiet spaces, and being in the presence of His Father. He modelled what I want to call, ‘holy pauses’. He pushed the ‘pause’ button often in each day, and I believe that is why
we see His life as being devoid of ‘busy’, ‘hurry’ and ‘make haste’. The Bible calls this principle, the practice of ‘Sabbath’. The word comes from the Hebrew word, ‘shavat’, which means ‘to cease or to desist’. In other words, embracing the principle of ‘Sabbath’ or ‘holy pauses’, means I make time to ‘wait upon the Lord’ (Is 40:31); I make time to ‘wait for the Lord’ (Lam 3:25); I set aside spaces in my daily, weekly and monthly rhythms to pause & stop and listen for the Lord’s voice.

The word ‘wait’, which is used over and over in the Bible, comes from the Hebrew word,‘qavah’, which means: to wait for, look for, expect & hope, waiting hopefully. We must cry to God, we must pray unceasingly, we must praise and give thanks aloud and often, but we also need to set aside time, and spaces, where we simply ‘wait upon the Lord’- waiting for His voice, His leading by His Holy Spirit, and the revelation of Himself to us. David in the Psalms encourages us to intentionally ‘pause’ often: ‘Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord’ (Ps 27:14). Remember, when we pause, when we ‘cease’, when we ‘desist’ from words and doing, the Lord does His greatest work in us and through us. When we stop and pause and wait in the quiet for Him, we come to the end of ourselves, and we surrender fully to Him. This is what the Lord longs for, every day, from everyone of His children.

I have discovered that one of the great blessings of ‘holy pauses’, is that the Holy Spirit reminds me of who our God is, and what He has done, and He reveals Jesus afresh to us (Lam 3:19-24). In so doing, my faith in Jesus, is re-affirmed and renewed. As my faith ignites again, my vision and outlook for the future changes to one of ‘hopeful expectancy’. In a most powerful way, these ‘holy pauses’, these ‘waiting on the Lord’ spaces, become bridges for our faith and hope in Jesus. The Bible also gives us a number of reasons why we should keep the ‘Sabbath’ principle, and intentionally pursue ‘holy pauses’. As said earlier, the best reason is that Jesus, our Lord and Master, embraced and lived out this principle. Furthermore the Bible tells us that as we wait upon the Lord and wait for Him in these ‘holy pauses’, our confidence in the Lord and His promises grows (Ps 27:13-14), our strength is renewed (Is 40:28-31), we are assured of His salvation (Lam 3:26), and the Lord will reveal Himself to us and He will speak to us (Hab 2:1-3). Finally, the Bible tells us that these ‘holy pauses’, these set aside times of waiting for the Lord, are actually good for us- spiritually, emotionally and physically (Prov 8:34).

Some of the lyrics of the great old hymn, ‘Dear Lord and Father of mankind’ express beautifully what I have been saying: “Drop Thy Still Dews Of Quietness, Till All Our Strivings Cease; Take From Our Souls The Strain And Stress, And Let Our Ordered Lives Confess The Beauty Of Thy Peace… Breathe Through The Heats Of Our Desire Thy Coolness
And Thy Balm; Let Sense Be Dumb, Let Flesh Retire; Speak Through The Earthquake, Wind, And Fire, O Still, Small Voice Of Calm!”

So, ‘be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait and hope for and expect
the Lord’ (Ps 31:24 AMP)

Bless you all,
David Stansbury