August Breather Month
We invite all of our Lifesprings community leaders, prayer partners, stewards, and friends to join us for the month of August in practicing sabbath rest as God might lead. Over the next four weeks, Tuesday Together writings will center around the theme of rest. In place of all our regularly scheduled meetings, we invite our community to spend more intentional time each day in silence, solitude and rest with God, to focus on “being” with Him rather than “doing.” There is no formula or set of rules for “breather” month — just take time to “be” with God.
Here is a PDF with some suggestions to help you draw closer to God during the month.
We pray breathing a month of refreshing Sabbath air will be a time of life giving and soul strengthening for you
Listen:
“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”(Psalm 91:1)
Reflect:
This past month, my husband and I loaded up our truck and two toddlers and headed into the Colorado mountains. We hiked, swam, and rode bikes under the vast expanse of sweeping mountains. It was wonderful and exhausting. But all along the sometimes-hazardous journey, my third baby slept peacefully in my belly. On steep hikes, in choppy waters, on winding roads, my baby abided untroubled within the shelter of my body.
The promise of Psalm 91:1 is not that we won’t experience trial or danger, but that she who dwells in God’s presence will be covered by the shadow of the Most High no matter the circumstance. Like a baby in their mother’s womb, we can abide in the shadow-like peace that stems from unwavering trust of our protector. But unlike the baby in my womb, we get to choose whom we will trust, and where we will turn when our hearts ache for comfort and peace. There is protection and rest that can only be found when we abide in Him, but we must choose to make him our dwelling place.
St. Augustine wrote “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” Not only does God desire us to live within Him, he designed us to do so. To dwell. To abide. Consciously and intentionally in the One who made us.
Like a baby sleeping in a womb, if you will, daily, make God your home, then you will live in the rest and peace and confidence of the Almighty: your defender, protector, lover of your soul, who made you for Himself.
Prayer of Response:
O Lord, help me to make you my dwelling place. Increase my trust so that I can truly rest in your presence, no matter my circumstances. Let me live always in the shadow of the Almighty. Amen.
Questions to Ponder:
- Is your heart restless today? How can you surrender the worry of your heart to Jesus?
- What is one change you can implement this week to make time and space to rest in Jesus?
Breath Prayer:
As a new weekly rhythm, join us in praying breath prayers each day. We invite you to write your own as well.
Inhale(Breathe in): Holy Spirit
Exhale(Breathe out): Help me rest in You.
—Submitted by: Holli Tubbs
Holli is a stay-at-home mom, who lives with her husband James and their two kids in Colorado Springs, Colorado.