STOP.

If we all just stopped, closed our eyes, and focused souly on God for even only minutes, setting aside everything that's going on, our lives would be so much less stressful. We always talk about how stressed we are and all the problems in our lives, but what if we were focused on more than that? A few months back at my youth group, my pastor asked us all to close our eyes, clear out all the problems and stress, and to souly focus on God. During those few minutes, some saw visions, pictures, words, etc. but for me I didn't see anything, it was more what I felt. I felt weightless, calm, safe, happy, and at peace. To think that in just those mere minutes I had felt more at peace and close to God then I had in a while. I wanted to write on this not to say that you need to be in the still quiet to be at peace and close to God, because you don't. I wrote this as a reminder that God wants you to have that, that time where you aren't worrying and stressing, but are instead with Him. After that night I felt refreshed. If we all took more moments in our lives to stop everything we are doing, sit down and close our eyes, and focus on Him we would be much less stressed and worried. God is all about being refreshed and renewed in Him; Psalm 23:3 says "He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake." ; Jeremiah 29:14 says "I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore you.."; 1 Peter 5:10 says "And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast." I like that last one in 1 Peter especially, it shows that God knows the pain we often go through and He understands it but He promises that even through that He will restore you. I encourage you to take more moments to just STOP. Starting now...go