Hey, it's time to slide in some encouragement for your day from your friends at Our Daily Bread.

The devotional reading for today is titled Not Rushing Prayer, and it was written by John Blaze.

Alice Kahola Suna recounts a story of how the Hawaiian people would sit outside their

temples for a lengthy amount of time preparing themselves before entering in. Even after entering,

they would creep to the altar to offer their prayers. Afterward, they would sit outside again for a long time to breathe life

into their prayers. When missionaries came to the island, the Hawaiians sometimes considered their prayers

odd. The missionaries would stand up, utter a few sentences, call them prayer, say amen, and be done with it. The Hawaiians describe

these prayers as without breath. Alice's story speaks of how God's people may not always take the

opportunity to be still and know. Make no mistake, God hears our prayers, whether they're quick or slow. But often the

pace of our lives mimics the pace of our hearts, and we need to allow ample time for God to speak

into not only our lives, but the lives of those around us. How many life-giving moments have we missed by rushing, saying amen, and being done with it?

We're often impatient with everything from slow people to the slow lane in traffic.

Yet I believe God in his kindness says, be still, breathe in and out.

Go slow and remember that I am God, your refuge and strength, an ever-present help and

trouble.

To do so is to know that God is God.

To do so is to trust.

To do so is to live.

Thank you. trust. To do so is to live. Now let's find life and hope in God's Word. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Psalm 46. God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help and trouble. Therefore, we will not fear,

though the earth give way, and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar

and foam, and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,

the holy place where the most high dwells. God is within her. She will not fall. God will help her

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