The Art of Soaking

Tonight I sat in the lounge room alongside three good friends of mine at our mentors’ house. We were just chatting, sitting there by a fire with candles around and good music, when one of our mentors began talking about ‘soaking’.

The concept is simple. You sit, for as long as you like, and listen to worship music. Get yourself comfortable, close your eyes, and put on a worship song. Don’t journal. Don’t pray. Don’t do anything. Just sit there, and see what happens as you listen to the words. I journal about what happens afterward, either when a song is over or when the image God gives me kind of winds up. Sometimes soaking lasts only a few minutes; one song. Other times it can last ten minutes. An hour. But it’s just sitting and waiting, and by simply putting yourself in a position of wanting to receive from God, you will.

I had never heard the song before that my mentor put on, so I couldn’t sing along. I didn’t have a pen and notebook to write in. I didn’t even pray. He just put the song on and I closed my eyes. And Jesus showed up.

Through the two songs we listened to, I don’t recall any of the words. I didn’t hear them. Within the first minute of hearing the first song, Jesus gave me an image that evolved during the two songs. I didn’t hear what was being sung, I was just focused on Jesus and in the presence of God. In what He was purposefully revealing to me in the season of my life.

It was such a powerful thing.

I find it so easy to busy myself. If I have spare time, I think of ways to fill it in and to be productive. I have quiet time with God where I read the Bible and journal and pray and recall my dreams, but that was okay because it was ‘quiet time’. It had a purpose, a point, and felt ‘productive’, because I was checking something off my list.

But I’m now learning that it’s okay to lie down in the grass, put on some worship music, and just rest for hours. And it’s one of the most productive things I could be doing in my life, because it’s me tuning into God. It’s me tuning into Him and what He’s saying. He always has things to tell us, and this is me waiting on Him and just living in His presence and peace. It’s me spending time with Him and not feeling guilty about not ‘doing’ something.

We’re meant to rest. Jesus went off all the time by Himself to spend time with the Father. If we busy ourselves, we don’t leave ourselves available for Him. And so I am learning, but it’s one of the best lessons I’ve experienced.

God is so good.

Find some time in the next few days to soak, campers, and wait in expectancy at what He will reveal to you.

Sarah xx