Shhh. Be Quiet – Episode 48

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Welcome to the Sweet Selah moments podcast. We hope this little pause in your day refreshes and encourages you friend. Let’s take time to know God through his word and love him more and more. This Sweet Selah moments podcast is brought to you by Word Radio and Sweet Selah Ministries.

Nicole (00:21):

Welcome to episode 48, Shh Be Quiet. Well, this is an interesting title, Sharon. It’s not often quiet at my house. I actually really thought it would get at least a little quieter during the day at my house since three of my girls are finally back in school full-time, but … with a very chatty four-year-old at home still and a seven month old puppy who just discovered she can bark, silence is still a very rare gift.

Sharon (00:46):

It is indeed.

Nicole (00:46):

It is! Sharon how’s life at your house?

Sharon (00:50):

Well, I don’t have chattering girls living here anymore, although my two could chat up a storm, but I do have a noisy puppy who thinks she owns the street outside. Oh my word. She sits on the couch. She looks out the window and she gets highly offended if someone else walks on our street.

Nicole (01:07):

Oh, she’s so cute.

Sharon (01:07):

Oh, for crying out loud, I’m like, Bella, you don’t own the street.

Nicole (01:10):

Right.

Sharon (01:11):

You can tell me when the UPS man comes in the driveway, I actually like to know that, but we don’t need to know when anybody walks by. So that’s a little noisy, but I do remember more noise growing up in a house of four kids, myself. We would talk over each other all the time and just chatter, chatter, chatter. And my father would get so frustrated at dinner times because it would get louder as the meal progressed cause we’d each want to be heard.

Nicole (01:37):

Oh yeah.

Sharon (01:37):

You know? It was terrible. So one night my dad, this is in the old fashioned days of cassette tape recorders.

Nicole (01:44):

Oh yeah.

Sharon (01:44):

My dad secretly decided to record us to let us hear how awful we sounded.

Nicole (01:52):

Yeah, smart.

Sharon (01:52):

I know. So he recorded like a, I don’t know, twenty minute portion of our dinner. And then he played it back for us all. But the weirdest thing happened in the middle of it, Nicole, none of us realized it in the course of the meal, but we heard it on the recording. So we’re all talking, talking, talking and David, my youngest brother who’s 10 years younger than me, says in a really sweet, soft voice. Please pass the peas. We don’t hear him. We’re talking, talking, talking, talking, talking. So then we hear again, please pass the peas. Talking, talking, talking, talking, talking, talking. So then David goes PLEASE PASS THE PEAS and immediately we all stop and shout at him, David, there’s no reason to yell. Oh my word. So my father had not taped it to point out poor David.

Nicole (02:47):

Right.

Sharon (02:48):

But God highlighted that youngest kid who, I don’t know why he wanted the peas, but he did. Ray would never ask for the peas. My husband can’t stand peas.

Nicole (02:58):

Oh, Josh can’t stand them either. So funny, poor David. Do you just send him a package of peas every once in a while?

Sharon (03:06):

No really, he may not like them anymore because of it. So, but anyways, that’s a case in point; it was noisy in our house.

Nicole (03:13):

Yeah.

Sharon (03:13):

And I think it’s pretty safe to conclude that we live in a noisy world. We really do. Even if we live alone, we can get trapped into endless YouTube videos or podcasts. Although some podcasts are worth listening to, right? Or just noise of some kind or another, and yet silence is needed in our lives. So Nicole, the research person here, what did you discover about the body’s need for quiet?

Nicole (03:42):

Sharon, I really love discovering through science and research, the incredible health benefits of things that God tells us that we should do.

Sharon (03:49):

Hmm. Funny how that works.

Nicole (03:51):

Huh, look at that. It’s like he likes us or not. It just makes me giggle because God cares so much about every little thing in our life, even silence, you know, he’s amazing. So, silence is so important for our bodies and our minds. We are constantly dealing with inputs of all different types of sights and sounds and constant noise that makes our bodies really stressed. And so it triggers that that fight or flight mode, all those hormones are roaring and it’s not healthy for our bodies to be in that state. So, because we have all those high stress hormones floating and we don’t need to be running or fighting all the time.

Sharon (04:29):

Truth.

Sharon (04:29):

So science has shown that even a few minutes of silence each day greatly improves our mental health and our physical health. Being silent can help lower blood pressure, decrease our heart rate and steady our breathing, improve our thinking, help us sleep better, relax our muscles and improve our focus. So if we stop and be still and quiet for a few minutes, then we’re actually able to perform and function much better than if we just kept plugging along, stressed out with all that noise.

Nicole (04:57):

That’s fascinating. Really, I love it. God wants us to be still.

Sharon (05:01):

Yeah, he knows we’ll be better for it if we just sit still.

Nicole (05:04):

Yes, he’s built that into our bodies that we need ‘shh, quiet’. Even though with four kids and a puppy, Nicole, I understand how that’s hard to come by.

Nicole (05:13):

It is hard.

Sharon (05:15):

Well, the Bible has a ton to say about being quiet. And of course that’s really the heart of our ministry, to stop the busy right in the middle of it and take a pause and be still and hear the voice of God. Depending on one’s season of life, the times of quiet might have to be short, but they need to be there. They really, really do for our own health’s sake as well as because God tells us to.

Nicole (05:39):

Yes.

Sharon (05:39):

So we are going to unpack some Bible verses and passages today and talk about them. They are all about God’s desire that at least occasionally we should ‘shh, be quiet’. So Nicole, let’s start at the very beginning in Genesis. what did God do in days one through six of creation?

Nicole (06:00):

Oh, you know, he just created day and night, stars and planets, plants and animals, land and sea, heaven and earth, and a man and a woman. So he did a lot.

Sharon (06:09):

He did indeed. Yes, he was busy, shall we say?

Nicole (06:12):

He was very busy.

Sharon (06:13):

When we think of all the different kinds of animals. What, you know? Peacocks and hummingbirds and whales and orangutans.

Nicole (06:21):

There’s so many different varieties in each little sub-group too.

Sharon (06:24):

Yes, even with dogs.

Nicole (06:26):

It’s like, even the fish of the sea. Do you know how many fish are in the sea?

Sharon (06:28):

No kidding.

Nicole (06:29):

And the different varieties and the stars. Yeah. It’s just like so casual. He says like, oh, I made the moon and the sun. Oh and the stars.

Sharon (06:36):

And the stars, of which there are more than we can count.

Nicole (06:38):

Yes. What!?

Sharon (06:40):

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So busy six days.

Nicole (06:42):

Yes.

Sharon (06:44):

I’m thinking. So I’m going to read Genesis 2:1-3 that deals with day seven. “So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. On the seventh day, God had finished his work of creation. So he rested from all his work and God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.” Now my Bible says that an alternate word to ‘rested’ is ‘ceased’, just stopped. Isn’t that interesting?

Nicole (07:16):

Yeah.

Sharon (07:16):

Yeah. Either way all the busy-ness gave way to rest and a full stop. All the work of creation and the pouring forth of the creative power beyond anything we could ever grasp was over and God stopped. He also instituted that pattern for us. Work hard for six days and rest for the seventh. And whether we keep it strictly as some do or loosely it’s actually really good for the human body to rest one day in seven, God says so and he’s the one who made us So yeah, see, I dunno. So right at the very beginning of everything, stopping, quieting, it was there.

Nicole (07:57):

And the crazy thing is, God didn’t need to stop and rest, like he’s God. But he did that for our benefit, you know, to show us that it’s okay to rest.

Sharon (08:06):

Yes.

Nicole (08:07):

That it’s good to stop. That it’s a natural rhythm to do after work.

Sharon (08:12):

I love it. Yeah.

Nicole (08:13):

He’s so thoughtful. Okay. So now I’m going to read 1 Kings 19:9-13, the Lord speaks to Elijah, “But the Lord said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah? Elijah replied, I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty, but the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left and now they’re trying to kill me too. Go out and stand before me on the mountain, the Lord told him, and as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, there was a sound of a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloth and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And the voice said, what are you doing here, Elijah?” So this is very interesting.

Sharon (09:18):

Isn’t it?

Nicole (09:19):

You expect like the Lord Almighty to come in this massive raging wind or fire or earthquake. And so he’s standing there waiting to hear from God.

Sharon (09:27):

And how scary.

Nicole (09:27):

Terrifying to have rocks thrown loose around you.

Sharon (09:31):

Yeah, if God hadn’t protected him, he wouldn’t have survived it. I don’t think.

Nicole (09:34):

No. But he wasn’t there. He wasn’t in the earthquake. He wasn’t, he was that still small voice afterward.

Sharon (09:40):

Isn’t that fascinating?

Nicole (09:41):

It’s very interesting. I think he was trying to teach Elijah, like, yes, he has great power, but God comes in a gentle, still way to us. And we have to really look and be searching for that and not be like, oh, there’s so much noise over here. Maybe this is it. But just to be still and to listen, to hear that whisper.

Sharon (09:58):

Yes, I absolutely agree. It’s in the quiet that we hear him.

Nicole (10:02):

Yeah, absolutely. If we’re running around, trying to figure it out. And that’s my…, That’s…, I’m really good at that. Running around, trying to solve the problem right away with all the answers like, God, is this it? Is this it? And he’s like, just sit, listen to me and I’ll tell you.

Sharon (10:12):

Just sit. Exactly, it is. It’s so typical of humans to be doing the busy stuff. And when he’s like, if you will be quiet, you could hear me.

Nicole (10:23):

Yeah.

Sharon (10:23):

Right. So I love that, that God was in the still small voice. And if that’s how God speaks, I need to have some quiet in my life so that I don’t miss what he’s saying. And boy does Satan love to keep us busy and loud and distract us with noise and technology and stuff.

Nicole (10:43):

Right. So we can’t hear it.

Sharon (10:44):

Instead of us guarding and just carving out that this is my quiet time where I can be still and listen. Yeah. So important. Really important. Okay. So in Genesis we learned that God actually instituted rest and quiet as part of the rhythm of life. And then through Elijah, we learned that God speaks to us quietly. And sometimes we have to get away from the noise to hear his still, small voice. Well, the book of Job teaches us about quiet too. Job, just as a reminder, had lost everything, his property, his children, and his health. His friends tried to give him advice and got nothing for their troubles, but a proper scolding from God for adding to Job’s pain with their words. But they did one thing they weren’t scolded for. And I’m going to read about it. So it’s in Job 2:11-13. “When three of Job’s friends heard of the tragedy he had suffered, they got together and traveled from their homes to comfort and console him. Their names were Eliphaz, the Temanite, Bildad, the Shuhite, and Zophar, the Naamathite. When they saw Job from a distance, they scarcely recognized him. Wailing loudly they tore their robes and threw dust into the air over their heads to show their grief. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and nights. No one said a word to Job for they saw that his suffering was too great for words.” Oh my!

Nicole (12:16):

Wow.

Sharon (12:17):

They never got scolded for doing that. When someone is in grief and you enter into that grief with them and you cry with them and you just sit in hurt and you don’t try to fix it right away, it’s the best thing we can do for them. And you know, Americans especially are so uncomfortable with that. I can remember grieving and trying to do it calmly so I wouldn’t offend people. Isn’t that sad? Like, okay, we’re at the funeral. Dad Gamble died. I love Dad Gamble. I need to hold it together because I’m going to make people uncomfortable if I cry. Isn’t that weird?

Nicole (12:52):

It is.

Sharon (12:52):

It’s so sad.

Nicole (12:54):

It’s a strange thing that we have in our culture.

Sharon (12:55):

Oh my goodness. We rush other people through the grieving to make us feel better. Or if we’re the griever, we try to grieve very politely, you know? But Job was beyond words and his misery and his friends grieved with him and they were wise enough to say nothing and just sit with him. I need to get better at that, Nicole. I really do. I think this passage teaches us a lot about the power of silence in grief where your presence and your heart is needed, but your mouth is not.

Nicole (13:29):

Um huh.

Sharon (13:29):

That’s I think why attending funerals matter,s even if you don’t know what to say. And I didn’t realize that for a long time, I’m like, well, you know, funerals, but I’m older now and wiser. Cause I’ve had several funerals where it has mattered to me that my friends came and I don’t remember what they said. I remember that they drove an hour to Massachusetts where Dad Gamble was being ‘funeralized’ in a snow storm. Oh, to just have their bodies there for me.

Nicole (13:59):

To be there with you.

Sharon (14:00):

And their bodies mattered, you know? And I didn’t need their words. I needed to know that they had made that sacrifice. So it’s your being there that matters. So that’s something we can learn from Job’s friends who only got it right when they didn’t talk.

Nicole (14:13):

I know that’s, that’s a really hard lesson to learn though, Sharon. You know?

Sharon (14:16):

It is.

Nicole (14:16):

It just breaks my heart to see people in pain. And I always wish I could just, you know, say those right words that make the pain go away, but that can’t happen. And sometimes it is, it’s more important just to be there and sit with them in their grief and let them be still with God, you know, instead of trying to rush them through it.

Sharon (14:34):

Right.

Nicole (14:35):

It’s just not helpful.

Sharon (14:36):

Right. Yeah.

Nicole (14:37):

So on that note, I’m going to read two psalms and a passage from Habakkuk that all talk about being still before God. (I’ll) start with Psalm 37:7, “Be still in the presence of the Lord and wait patiently for him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes.” And then Psalm 46:9-11, “He causes wars to end throughout the earth. He breaks the bow and snaps the spear. He burns the shield with fire. Be still and know that I am God, I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world. The Lord of heaven’s armies is here among us. The God of Israel is our fortress. selah.” Habakkuk 2:18-20, “What good is an idol carved by man or a cast image that deceives you? How foolish to trust in your own creation, a God that can’t even talk. What sorrow awaits you who say to wooden idols, wake up and save us. To speechless stone images you say, rise up and teach us. Can an idol tell you what to do? They may be overlaid with gold and silver, but they are lifeless inside. But the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him.” It’s so hard to be still in silence before God sometimes.

Sharon (15:55):

Yes, it is.

Nicole (15:55):

But if we don’t do it, then we won’t hear what God is trying to say to us. And we’ll miss healing that comes from him in that stillness of just being in his presence. Sharon, I’m really good at approaching God with all the things I want him to do and fix. And I don’t just sit in silence, waiting to hear what he has to say to me.

Sharon (16:12):

Right. It’s, that’s a discipline, I think, you know? It doesn’t come easily to us to quiet ourselves. We’re not, we’re not good at that.

Nicole (16:23):

No, not naturally, ones that seek and like, listen to hear the answer. We just want to fix it quick and go forward and move.

Sharon (16:30):

Right, right. Even on a Selah Day you know, when I’m taking five or six hours to be alone with God? Sometimes it takes the first hour and a half to quiet my brain enough to be quiet.

Nicole (16:38):

Yeah.

Sharon (16:38):

It really does. I, I have to. It’s a discipline, I have to quiet me. And I have to just be willing to be still and think about a scripture or pray softly, but not have an agenda.

Nicole (16:52):

Yeah. It’s weird to switch into that mode. It almost does take a little bit to kind of like get to that slower quieter gear. We don’t go there often enough.

Sharon (16:58):

Yeah. We don’t go there.

Nicole (16:59):

So it’s hard.

Sharon (17:00):

And that’s why I like a Selah Day because in a quiet time, you know, you’ve got a finite amount of time in the morning. You want to meet with him, but you have obligations.

Nicole (17:08):

Right.

Sharon (17:09):

A Selah Day is a day set apart where you can be as slow as you need to be because you’ve got five hours. You’re not going to do anything else with them. But I find that by hour two or three the silence, it’s beautiful. You know, you kind of enter a new realm. I don’t know to explain it.

Nicole (17:29):

Yeah. Towards the end of the, of I know my Selah days, it just feels like my body is starting to understand how this works. My mind, you know, everything is in that place like, oh, this is good.

Sharon (17:39):

Yes.

Nicole (17:39):

This is very good. But you have to, it’s like learning any new skill. You kind of have to train your whole body to do this.

Sharon (17:46):

You do. You’re right.

Nicole (17:46):

It is a discipline.

Sharon (17:47):

So I start a Selah Day looking at my watch.

Nicole (17:48):

Yes, I know.

Sharon (17:48):

And I end a Selah Day going, I want longer.

Nicole (17:53):

Yeah. You think you’re never going to make it through the four or five hours. And then by the fifth you’re like, oh, can I have another hour? It’s so good.

Sharon (18:02):

Goodness. I can remember a couple of weeks ago I was reading in the book of Joshua and they had just conquered Jericho, woohoo, everything was great. And they next, were going to conquer this little village that didn’t have hardly any people to it. And they went to do it and they were completely defeated because there’d been sin in the camp, you know? But what struck me was Joshua and the elders response, they threw dust on their faces. They lay face down all day until sundown before God. What?

Nicole (18:35):

Oh wow. That’s a commitment to repentance.

Sharon (18:37):

I mean, I read it like three times. When have I ever laid face down until sundown because something grieved me and I wanted to hear from God.

Nicole (18:49):

Wow.

Sharon (18:50):

And that’s what they did. They didn’t know what was wrong. Something had gone terribly wrong. Walls had fallen at Jericho. And then this little village had chased them all out. What happened? They wanted to know badly. And so they just lay in the dust and waited, oh Sharon, if you could learn to wait, that would be so good because I want the answer right away. And because we’re in this instant society if God, doesn’t answer like within the first 15 minutes, I assume he’s not going to, I don’t wait.

Nicole (19:22):

Yeah.

Sharon (19:22):

And sometimes I need to still myself enough that I hear that quiet voice that Elijah heard. So fascinating. Well, there’s so many more verses than this Nicole. For example, Psalm 4:4 advises, “Don’t sin by letting anger control you. Think about it overnight and remain silent.” I really liked that one because my mouth wants to go when I’m angry.

Nicole (19:45):

This has many a time that saved our marriage. Just think about it before you verbalize those things.

Sharon (19:53):

And say to yourself, I’m not going to feel this way, even if I wait half an hour, I probably won’t feel this way.

Nicole (19:58):

It’s amazing what changes in a little bit of time?

Sharon (19:59):

Oh, yes. Yes. And then Isaiah 30 tells us that when we’re panicked, we should stop and be still and seek God. Lamentations three tells us that when we are in pain and suffering, it’s good to “Wait quietly for God’s salvation.” On and on and on in scripture, we find these verses. Our response is too often to pile busy-ness upon busy-ness. But God’s response is often to say, shh, be quiet for a while. Well, let’s go over to the New Testament as we close out this chat and observe Jesus, our great example, because Jesus definitely was busy.

Nicole (20:34):

Yeah, he was.

Sharon (20:34):

No question there. He had some long days of teaching and healing that actually were so busy they worried his mother and brothers and they’re like, he’s not going to survive this. He’s not even eating. How could he endure without rest? But Jesus like us, through the seasons of busy-ness also unlike us, intentionally stopped to refill along the way. So he’s like us in the busy-ness. We’re not like him in the fact that he stopped.

Nicole (21:00):

Yeah.

Sharon (21:00):

I guess that’s the way to say it. So, go ahead and read some passages about Jesus at rest.

Nicole (21:06):

Yeah. So these next three passages will give us a glimpse of Jesus at rest, which we really need to know about so we can model.

Sharon (21:12):

Yes.

Nicole (21:13):

So Mark 1:35, “Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray.” And in Luke 5:16, “But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.” And then over in Luke 6:12-13, “One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray and he prayed to God all night. At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles.” So quiet time was very important to Jesus. I mean, right before he started his ministry he spent what, forty days in the desert preparing for it?

Sharon (21:51):

Yes, he did.

Nicole (21:51):

So he valued it. And I think he was so good about modeling that for us as well. You know, in so many verses in the gospel, it says he got up early to be with God or sought a quiet place to talk to him. Jesus, God’s Son, couldn’t walk this earth as a human, without regular quiet times with his Father. How in the world can we hope to survive without doing the same?

Sharon (22:14):

Same! Exactly, exactly. And we can’t use busy-ness as an excuse because he really was.

Nicole (22:19):

This man was mobbed everywhere he was, to the point of like, people were afraid he’d be crushed or wouldn’t eat. It’s it’s incredible. We forget how busy.

Sharon (22:27):

Yeah, he had to carve out that time.

Nicole (22:29):

He did.

Sharon (22:29):

He had to and that meant he sacrificed sleep.

Nicole (22:33):

I was going to say he got up early in the morning. He prayed all night. He kind of got away.

Sharon (22:37):

Yeah. Yeah. You know, when you talk about sacrifices today, we don’t sacrifice animals. We don’t need to, Jesus was the perfect sacrifice, but we can sacrifice time to him. And sometimes we sacrifice sleep for him and we say fifteen minutes more sleep sounds wonderful. But I’m going to give him the sacrifice of time because I know actually, selfishly it’s actually going to help me too.

Nicole (23:02):

Right. It’s worth it. It’s a good sacrifice.

Sharon (23:05):

Yeah, yeah. So anyways, our Jesus modeled that for us. And so we’ve gone all the way from Genesis where God modeled it, also Jesus because they’re one and the same, you know, with the seventh day of rest. And now here we are watching Jesus take that time that he didn’t have and make sure that he was still. So, well, it’s June. Summer’s on the way and for many of us that means changes to our schedules. Vacations are more common, especially this summer where more people are vaccinated and less restrictions are in place. There may be even more vacations. And if you’re a teacher, student, or mom or wife of one, you’ll have your people home with you again, like I will and you will. I get my teacher home and you get your kids home. So in any case, this is a perfect time for a break. Sweet Selah Ministries practices quiet every year by stopping completely in July. It’s so much fun. I mean, we stop every single thing. There will be no blogs. There will be no podcast. We will not post anything on social media. We just quit. And people are like, how can you do that? Well, it’s kind of fun.

Nicole (24:14):

Yeah. God provides.

Sharon (24:16):

Yes. So what happens is we rest, we sit still, we listen and we fill up again for brand new year. So this is truly the end of season three. And we’ll tape again in August and season four will kick off in the fall of September. That’s how we roll at Sweet Selah Ministries. And I tell you, Nicole, July’s are so special to me, our July rest month. They really are. I like laying in the hammock and looking at clouds. It’s really nice.

Nicole (24:47):

Yes. It’s that luxury of being so still.

Sharon (24:48):

And I’m not tied to the computer and the phone, which the rest of the year, if you’re going to be posting social media, you have to check and make sure the comments are appropriate. There’s things that you need to do. It’s just part of the job. So July is kind of a technology rest for me too.

Nicole (25:02):

Oh, that’s nice.

Sharon (25:03):

And I really, really like it.

Nicole (25:05):

Yeah. We forget how technology is exhausting to keep up with. It’s a lot to manage.

Sharon (25:09):

It’s so much. And I usually do a June online Bible study. So I’ve been really busy in June with that cause I’ll do something every day. And the fun thing about the stop is you do a June Bible study and you have more people joining your ministry. You have more people excited about it. You’ve got momentum. So it’s hard to stop if you look at it from a secular perspective, right?

Nicole (25:34):

Right. Because we’ll lose all the new people.

Sharon (25:34):

Because we’ll lose all the new people if we do nothing? Yeah. And so I love how counter intuitive it is. It’s like, no.

Nicole (25:42):

It’s not a good business move.

Sharon (25:44):

It’s a terrible business move. It’s awful. And I love that about it.

Nicole (25:49):

Right!

Sharon (25:49):

Because we’re not in charge of the ministry, God is. And God has taught us to have rhythms and patterns of work and rest. And so we have, you know, the daily quiet time we have the Selah Day. And we have the month off, baby, yeah!. So that’s where we are right now. And for those you that are listening, you can certainly go back and listen to other podcasts and things like that. But we’re quitting for awhile. So, but let’s pray. I want to pray for everybody here that all of us can take some time to be quiet this summer. So Father, I thank you so much for this past year and all you have done in my life, in Nicole’s life, and the lives of those that listen. Father, you are good all the time and all the time you are good. And if we look back, we can count blessings even though it’s been a hard, hard year. As we move into a time of rest in this ministry, I pray for each listener that she too would have quiet in her life. Time to be still, time to wait on you, time to listen deep. Would you teach us Lord, this July? Would you teach us new lessons on who you are, how dear we are to you? Thank you Lord. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Nicole (27:22):

Wow, Sharon and I have so enjoyed our time with you this season, friends. Thanks for all the comments and thoughts you’ve shared with us. If you are new to this podcast, go to our website and check out seasons one and two during the summer months. You can find us @sweetselah.org/podcast. If you’d like to donate to our next season, we’d be so grateful. Go to sweetselah.org/donations, make your secure donation and put ‘podcast partner’ on the comments line. Until we meet again dear friends, via this podcast, have a wonderful summer and make sure at least some of the time you just ‘shh and be quiet’.

Speaker 1 (28:02):

We are so glad you stopped for a while with us. Sweet Selah Moments is a co-operative production of Word Radio and Sweet Selah Ministries. More information about this Sweet Selah Moments podcast, including show notes, can be found at sweetselah.org and at wordradio.net. Thank you for joining us for Sweet Selah Moments, sweetselah.org