4 Tips to Take a Spiritual Pause with God
Do you often find yourself thinking something like this:
“I really ought to connect more with God. I need to pray more. Meditate more. I just don’t have the time!”
Friend, me too.
You know what I’ve learned?
I’ve over-thought this too much. Taking a spiritual pause to connect with God isn’t as impossible as it may appear.
It’s also been so encouraging to remember this profound verse:
You can live intentionally with passion and purpose as God’s beloved. You can live intentionally by giving yourself a spiritual pause (and a big fat break from needing to do all-the-things!).
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Let’s dive in!
- You can start taking a spiritual pause now!
- Decide when to take a spiritual pause
- Decide where you'll take a spiritual pause
- Decide how you'll take a spiritual pause
- Enjoy your spiritual pause
- Perks of taking a spiritual pause
- Two resources to help you start incorporating these tips in your life
- Articles related to taking a spiritual pause
- Wrapping up how to start taking a spiritual pause
You can start taking a spiritual pause now!
During one of our marriage retreats, my husband and I both expressed that we wanted and needed to take more time to connect with God.
This wasn’t a surprising topic for either of us. In fact, we’d talked about this conundrum for years.
The difference this time was that we were making a more concerted effort to be intentional and pursue peace (our big focus for the year!).
Rather than talking about why we weren’t doing it, we decided to just make the time for prayer and meditation.
We call it a spiritual pause.
Here’s how we got started, and you can, too!
Decide when to take a spiritual pause
We needed a standing time every day to focus on worship in order for it to be sustainable. Plus, it could then become something we really look forward to each day!
To set yourself up for success, consider these factors:
- Put it during a time of day when you have more autonomy and white space. For us, we had the most wiggle room in the evenings after Little Man was in bed.
- Accountability to keep it up! Hello, spouse!
- Stacking it with a predictable, daily activity so that’s it’s harder to forget and/or just not do it. For instance, that could be mealtimes, your child’s bedtime routine, your own bedtime routine, etc.
- Plan for it regularly. Personally, it’s been helpful to incorporate this into my weekly planning – when I’m going to do it and what Scripture I’m dwelling in.
After much experimenting and pivoting, we settled on having a “spiritual pause” after Little Man’s bedtime.
And, you know what? We might have to pivot again. That’s okay.
How long should your spiritual pause be?
It’s really up to you. Sometimes it might fluctuate depending on the day.
If this is new to you, I encourage you to start small. Take a few minutes.
As the days go by, I’m pretty confident you’ll begin to want more and more of this time with God.
Decide where you’ll take a spiritual pause
Make it easier to go right into your spiritual pause time by deciding where you’ll go.
Perhaps it’s your bedroom, the living room, your backyard, or wherever. It doesn’t always have to be the same place. Just make it easy for you to make a beeline to your space so you can enjoy your spiritual pause.
Since you’re building a new habit, keep it simple. You can always move as works best for you.
Personally, I alternate between a few places, including the cozy ottoman in our bedroom, our home office desk, and my yoga mat. (I really like to digitally journal with Evernote.)
Decide how you’ll take a spiritual pause
You definitely don’t need to plan every moment of your spiritual pause!
It might be helpful, though, to have a few go-to options to help you shift into your spiritual pause time.
This individual worship time could include:
- Praying
- Meditating
- Journaling
- Reading Scripture
- Digging into a Bible study book
- Listening to music
- Stretching
Personally, my approach to this time fluctuates depending on how I’m feeling.
Sometimes (especially if I have a migraine!) I’ll start this time by listening to worship music to help myself shift gears.
One earbud in, one earbud out helps when you’ve got a little one. I know – classy.
Most times I pull up entry for the day in Evernote to reflect on the day. My head and heart are more open when I first take a few minutes to reflect on the day.
For me, that includes jotting down what went well, what was challenging, and what brought me wonder or gratitude
Stay tuned for a post about a loosely structured journaling template to reflect on your day, let go of the day’s burdens and get prepped for the next day!
As I shared above, it can also be helpful to plan in advance what Scripture you’ll dwell in during that time. This is where weekly planning can be so helpful in setting the tone for your week!
Want some guidance to truly and deeply worship God?
I encourage you to read Linda Dillow’s book Satisfy My Thirsty Soul: For I am desperate for Your presence.
In it, she explores what it looks like to truly worship God with your life.
She also discusses the idea of a 20-minute worship experience – and building up to that over time.
It’s a great read and one that I keep coming back to over and over again.
Enjoy your spiritual pause
Friend, I encourage you to not focus overly much on getting the when-where-how “right.”
Just be there.
You are God’s beloved. He wants to be with YOU.
You’ll figure out what works best for you as you go.
Sometimes you’ll be totally jazzed and ready for the moment.
At other times, you might be dragging and struggling to be there.
God knows your heart. He knows where you’re coming from.
Just go to Him. He wants to connect with you!
Perks of taking a spiritual pause
Taking a spiritual pause for my husband and I has helped us:
- Intentionally set aside a sacred, consistent time to connect with our Creator, which is also peace giving!
- Leverage this as Scripture study time
- Use the time to memorize Scripture
- Reflect on the day
- Be still
- Grow toward God and each other
Two resources to help you start incorporating these tips in your life
1. Download the FREE Embrace Your Potential Playbook
It’ll help you zoom in on your God-given personality and give you practical tips to be more intentional, passionate, and purposeful as God’s beloved.
2. Buy the Intentional Life Planning Toolkit
The Intentional Life Planning Toolkit is the perfect resource to help you move from being overwhelmed by your distractions and demands to living life on purpose.
You’ll determine what an intentional life would look like for you and learn how to leverage your God-given personality, so you can thrive in your life, including your faith, priorities, schedule, responsibilities, meals, relationships, adventures, and more.
The Intentional Life Planning Toolkit may be just what you’re looking for!
P.S. Coffee Chats and Yoga Mats email subscribers get a discounted price!
Articles related to taking a spiritual pause
- 4 Simple Straightforward Tips to Succeed with Weekly Planning
- Use Monthly Planning to Prioritize What Matters Most
- How to DIY Your Own Sexy, Fun Marriage Retreat at Home
- Give Yourself Grace to Pivot
Wrapping up how to start taking a spiritual pause
As you can see, taking time for a spiritual pause is pretty straightforward. Here’s how to get started:
- Decide when to take a spiritual pause
- Decide where you’ll take a spiritual pause
- Decide how you’ll take a spiritual pause
- Enjoy your spiritual pause
The thing is – you just got to do it. The time is so worth it.
You can live intentionally with passion and purpose as God’s beloved. Live intentionally by pursuing time with the One who loves you most!
Honestly, it’s like a gift you give yourself. How awesome is that?!
So, it’s your turn.
Do you currently take your own spiritual pause? What’s that like for you? What stops you from taking the time? Let’s chat in the comments!
P.S. Want some crazy simple steps to start living intentionally? Grab the Embrace Your Potential Playbook. It’ll help you zoom in on your God-gifted personality and give you practical tips to be more intentional, passionate, and purposeful as God’s beloved so you can become the best version of yourself.
Cortney is a Christian life coach and recovering over-achiever who is passionate about helping Christian women embrace who God created them to be so they can confidently step into any season of life with passion, purpose, and peace. She’s also an ENFJ, MBTI® coach, M. Ed in College Student Development, Pilates and Yoga teacher, wife, mama, and entrepreneur. In her pre-kid life, she coordinated programs for, coached, funded, and provided leadership training for more than 60+ student organizations and 100s of university students for 7+ years. (Helping people highlight their inner awesomeness and reach their goals is her jam!)
More importantly, she’s God’s beloved.
I love the idea of pairing it with a daily activity…like doing dishes, laundry, or whatever and asking God to speak to you through the metaphor of the task you’re doing at the time. I was washing bottles one day and He gave me some specific words to pray for my little guy while doing so…such a gift to this mama-heart!
I agree – we need regular, consistent cues to check in with God. Recently, we’ve started memorizing a verse a week as a family and sandwich it with mealtimes. Every time we sit to eat, we recite it. What a great opportunity to connect with God when you wash bottles – talk about a constant check-in time!