I was scrolling through Instagram and caught this statement by Randy Bohlender. He had posted a pic of Psalm 84:10 [For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.] And then he commented, “Where does your heart and mind go when it has a moment to rest? Don’t dull your spirit with mental chaff. Return to the inner sanctuary, even if only for a moment.”
This thought has been rolling around in my mind today. Where does my mind go when it slows down finally? I will admit that mental chaff tends to consume “the space behind the face” all too much. I’m an analyzer and it’s hard to get to that place of mental rest. I love it though, when I find one of those moments, and I turn on some John Thurlow worship and find that inner sanctuary – where it is sweet communion with me and Jesus, and the affirming, renewing words of God wash over me. 1 Timothy 2 caught my eye tonight as I was sitting in IHOP thinking about this, and I read the words of Paul to Timothy —
“The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live. He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we’ve learned: that there’s one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us—Jesus, who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free. Eventually the news is going to get out. This and this only has been my appointed work: getting this news to those who have never heard of God, and explaining how it works by simple faith and plain truth. Since prayer is at the bottom of all this, what I want mostly is for men to pray—not shaking angry fists at enemies—but raising holy hands to God. And I want women to get in there with the men in humility before God, not primping before a mirror or chasing the latest fashions, but doing something beautiful for God and becoming beautiful doing it.” —1 Timothy 2:1-8
That’s what I want as my default. The first thing. To start my day. When the mind quiets. When I’m sitting at a train crossing. Waiting in line at Starbucks. Pray. To be in humble communion and start filling the space so frequently taken by mental chaff with the incense of prayers.
