
October 25, 2023 Sitting at the kitchen table one morning, I worked to remove the remnants of what had been a lovely manicure. Though I rubbed and scrubbed with the nail polish remover, the color just wouldn’t come off. My husband saw me struggling and said, “I think you need ‘dwell time’.”
“Dwell time?” I repeated. “What is that?”
He explained that, in printing, (his profession) it’s the time you allow a cleaning solution to sit on the print rollers, giving the cleanser time to soak in and do its work to remove ink, glaze and residue. I followed his advice, dabbing on more polish remover and then patiently giving it time to work. Voila! the color came right off.
About an hour later I was listening to a sermon and the minister used the word “dwell.” Immediately my ears perked up. He focused on the verse about dwelling in the house of the Lord (Psalm 23:6). An internet search revealed various forms of “dwell” appears about twenty-four times throughout the Bible. Derived from the Hebrew word “yashab” (yaw-shab), it means to “sit down, settle, remain, abide.”
It's often, no, scratch that, it’s ALWAYS difficult to wait. We aren’t built that way. We are people of action, we want results. And we want them now! Whether we are waiting for answers to probing questions, relief from pain or suffering or for the fulfillment of our deepest desires, like a child that has been confined too long, we squirm beneath the weight of the wait. Jesus promises to never leave us, but how quick we are to leave Him when things take longer than we want. Yet it’s at those times we need “yashab” – to settle down, quiet our anxious thoughts, and patiently abide in the presence of God, allowing Him time to work in and through our lives. --Judyann Grant
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