He makes me lie down in green pastures. He restores my soul. Psalm 23

It is the end of Week # 2 for my Reset Prayer Time. There have been more challenges than I was expecting, especially distractions which appear seemingly from now where like a nasty hatch of mosquitoes. It always amazes me how easily I get off track. My best time is in the morning. It’s when I write in my journal before my brain fully kicks into “over thinking” the day. As the sun rises over the valley I often am already in prayer mode. I want to pray! It shouldn’t be that hard to simply go to “my secret place”, shut the door, open my Bible and spend the minimum 20 minutes in prayer.

However, as soon as I close that door it is as if a flood of mental and emotional flotsam and jetsam washes into the room and I get so involved trying to clean it all up that prayer becomes perfunctory. Sometimes God and I have to hash it out and invariably in His loving kindness, He reminds me that I am a sheep, pretty dimwitted, prone to wander and get stuck in the briar bush without His guidance.

He reminds me that the Psalms are wonderful prayers for abiding in the secret place with Him. After all, David’s poems and prayers come straight from Holy Spirit so in that sense the psalms are already God’s thoughts breathed toward us. What terrific conversation starters with the Father are available in the Book of Psalms. As a sheep, I know the Lord is my Shepherd because I recognize His voice.

In the often messy secret place, surrounded by thorns, thistles and brambles, isn’t that what your heart yearns to hear for 20 minutes? The Beloved Shepherd’s voice leads you toward still waters. His gentle chiding makes you lie down in verdant pastures of peace and safety. His loving Word anoints your head with oil and then sets up a banquet table with your name emblazoned on it.

I haven’t been consistent to pray during this week’s Reset but this sheep chooses to follow Jesus as He leads me to the pasture of His secret place for the next seven days. Twenty minutes there with Jesus encouraging me to be still, to know Him and love Him will fly by like the blink of an eye. And then, who knows? Maybe another 20 minutes … and then another!