Five Ways to Sit at His Feet

Do you ever put tasks ahead of spending time with Jesus?

A story in Luke 10 tells of two sisters and how they spent their time when Jesus came one day for a visit. Martha was busy scurrying to get to the end of her “to-do list,” but Mary chose a different path. She settled herself at Jesus’ feet, soaking in His words and His presence.

Perhaps today we can set aside our to-do lists until we’ve mimicked Mary. Let’s stop scurrying and be seated instead. There is always plenty of room at His feet.

Here are five ways to slow down and soak in the presence of Jesus:

1. Give your to-do list to the Lord.

Sometimes it is so hard to hear the Lord’s voice through all of the hustle of our day. We stress and obsess about our to-do list and all of our many appointments. The best way to focus in on our time with God {and to leave our to-do list behind} is actually to take our to-do list along with us!

Get alone and get quiet. Ask God to bring to your mind all that you must get done. Make a list of these things. Then, spend time praying through each item on the list.

As God brings more tasks to your mind, write them down. Don’t worry that it is unspiritual to stop halfway through a prayer and jot an item down. It helps you to clear your mind and then allows you to focus better on your time alone with God. He is concerned about all of the details of our life even if it is our plan to go grocery shopping or run to the dry cleaners.

2. Get intentional.

Treat your time alone with God as serious as any other appointment you have. When you have to go to the dentist, you brush your teeth and make sure you show up on time. Why do we assume our time alone with God will just happen spontaneously? Learn to treat it with intentionality. Enter in the time you will spend with God in your digital calendar or write it in your paper planner. You can even set an alarm on your phone. Have a designated time and stick to it.

3. Read and write.

Get a hold of a good devotional book or Bible study workbook. You can check out some of my favorites here. Use them to help you know where to read in the Bible. But don’t just read the Bible. Write your thoughts down too.

Keeping a journal will help you grow your relationship with God. You will process as you write out your thoughts. Also learn to both read and write prayers. Read prayers in the book of Psalms out loud to God. Then, write out your own specific prayers to Him as well. It will amaze you when you go back later and see the ways that God answered your prayers.

4. Make a recording and memorize.

Ever vowed to memorize scripture but then failed to follow through? One way to remedy this is to memorize verses by listening to them audibly over and over again in your own voice.  Use your phone’s voice memo app to record yourself reading out loud any verses or passages of scripture you would like to commit to memory. Then, pop in your headphones and listen to the verses each day as you walk, do housework, or cook dinner. It makes it so much easier to cement the words in your in your mind this way!

5. Discover the Bible’s non-negotiables.

Grab a Bible and a notebook. Pick a New Testament book such as James or Colossians. Read it through stopping each time you see a non-negotiable command that we as Christians are supposed to do. When you come across one, write it down. For example:  James 1:19-21 (CSB) says…

“My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness. Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”

So you would write in your notebook:

When dealing with others, I need to:

~ Be quick to listen

~ Be slow to speak

~ Be slow to get angry because being angry doesn’t accomplish the things of God.

I must also:

~ Get rid of that which is morally wrong and evil.

~ I need to spend time planting the word of God humbly in my heart. It will save me!

When we read the Bible, we learn. However, when we write out the commands in a way that is personal to us, we allow the word to take root deep within our hearts. This will help us the next time we are faced with a situation where we need to react in a godly manner but find it challenging. When we have trained our brain to recall the non-negotiables of a Christian’s behavior, it allows us to act, and react, in a much better way.

Free Printable

Here’s a printable reminder of this list for you.

Blessings to you as you sit at his feet.

Your life is loud. But if you will just press pause for a few minutes each day, you can discover what Jesus longs to give you: His peace.

Whether you’re a working professional, a wife, a mom, a sister, an aunt, a daughter-in-law, or any combination of these, your life is busy. And no matter what stage of life you may find yourself in, what your hurried and overcrowded heart needs most is rest. In Settle My Soul, my co-author Ruth Schwenk and I invite you to carve out a few moments in your day to deepen your relationship with the Lord through 100 encouraging devotions. 

Settle My Soul, devotional by Karen Ehman and Ruth Schwenk.

**affiliate links may be included at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products that bring value to my readers’ lives.

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1,254 Comments

  1. I love these ideas: simple but not always easy! I am going to take my to do list to God. If I don’t feel it’s important enough to talk with Him about, it probably shouldn’t be on the list.

  2. I’m distracted by everything…I never took interest in reading my bible until now…I love the word more now that I gave my heart back to Christ…T.V, social media, sleeping in, work, but mainly social media…I’m on FB and Twitter wayyyy to much…I mean I’m talking about Jesus but what good is it…if I’m not in the word daily growing…I make it my point now to at least get a scripture in but my biggest problem is finding something to study because I never studied the bible before…so I get distracted by just not knowing where to start. I need better understanding of what I’m reading so that I can get lost in the words of Christ in order to better my relationship with him.

    1. Try HelloMornings.org they have a good bible study, or faith gateway, Proverbs31 just started made to crave action plan but will be studying Living So That by Wendy Blight, if that looks interesting sign up now it’s hard to get into a smaller group there’s over 40,000 women. Or the you version Bible has tons of Bible plans you can download the Bible and the plans and activities are amazing! Good luck

      Blessings
      Kelly Smith

  3. Often I hit snooze or fall asleep mid prayer during my devoted time in the morning. It seems as if I wake up between midnight and 2:00 a.m. I have a more alert and productive time with The Lord, but my attempts to seek that time at 4:30 a.m. are lacking. I feel like The Lord is seeking a stronger commitment from me in this area, to commit to a scheduled routine rather than my impromptu awakenings and failed attempts at keeping a 4:30 a.m. routine. I appreciate the simplicity of your advise and look forward to more time at his feet that is honored and void of drool. LOL!

  4. I had just started a few weeks ago in giving my daily to do list to God. Instead of making a list, I have the things (appts) on my calendar, that must be done that day, and then an idea in my head of the things that I would like to get done, or need to be done in the next few days. It has been so freeing to give that all to God! Some days have been completely changed up from what I was wanting, or planning. But when, in the past, a day like that would have made me upset, frustrated, and left feeling unproductive, and stressed, now I see how God used me to help people, or used things (or people) to help me, and how the things HE wanted me to do, were serving Him, and more important than what I had planned, and at the end of the day, I feel relaxed and stress free, and even blessed. :-) Now I will work on the being intentional, and the writing. :-) thank you so much for your ministry. You have encouraged me SO many times!! blessings

  5. Gosh, this was so needed! I have great intentions and then allow everything to take precedence. One would think since I am retired and my kids are grown that I would have all the time in the world to spend time with Him and yet it always seems to get pushed aside. I am making some changes in my life and I am choosing to become intentional especially concerning my time with my Lord! Thanks to Proverbs 31 ministries for helping me in these changes and I am so glad they posted your message! Many Blessings!

  6. I want to spend time with my Abba Father, my papa God. I have trouble with this because of my earthly relationship with my father. But I know if I surrender to Him He will change me and it will deepen our relationship

  7. My hindrance is actually paradoxical… I realize that from which I have been saved to the extent that I am actually ashamed to meet with God. I know He has forgiven me, loves me beyond measure, and separates my sin as far as the east is from the west, but I think the disappointment always portrayed to me by my parents when I was young, along with telling me how unworthy I am of anyone’s love has had a block on my that Satan uses to his advantage. The one thing I have been concentrating on lately has been this; “Satan knows my name, but calls me by my sin… God knows my sin, and calls me by my name”. I have found much strength in this!

  8. Prioritizing. I am always taking care of people, either at work ( I am a nurse) or at home ( I have a husband who is disabled and an elderly mother . So it seems that there is very little time for me to do things for me and when I do find the time I usually fall asleep in the middle of my readings.

  9. Everyday hustle and bustle distracts from quiet time from The Lord. Family is a blessing but it is also a lot of work. Not to much time left for alone time. I have started walking on my lunch hour at work which gives me time to talk to The Lord. An added bonus is to see his beauty in my surroundings. Especially the birds singing.

  10. I don’t spend time in God’s word because I have trouble understanding what I am reading. I try to read verses and get frustrated.

  11. My season in life right now- 2 small children. No matter when I ‘schedule’ time, one of them needs something. So I fit it in when I can which is usually at bedtime.

  12. I am guilty of not carving out he time to build my relationship with my savior I’m so distracted and unorganized that I am in a constant whirlwind of things. I want to make intentional time for devotions and reading the bible. I have very little knowledge on how and where to start.. I am excited and hopeful that I found your page

  13. Like it or not I am a Martha with a running list that never gets done!!! I just need to be intentional to “sit” and “stay” with HIM!!! And I find that the older I get the harder it is to get anything done….seems it takes twice as long! Thank you for the reminder today! Good words!!

  14. Poor planning/not acting intentionally/and easily distracted with the cares of the day. While trying to read, study, pray – the cares of the day, my “to-do list” keeps popping in my head and then I find myself focusing more on those things that what I am mindlessly reading. Once realizing this is what I’m doing, I will pray and ask God for forgiveness and then it will be time to get ready for work – so off I go.
    I really enjoyed the devotion and this reminder to be more intentional and write my prayers down. Such will keep me more focused on what I am asking God for.
    Thank you and God bless!

  15. Poor planning/time management, lack of intention and most of all probably a lack of knowledge of how and what to do? This is one of the most helpful and practical guides I have ever found. I am so grateful to my friend for sending it to me! I would mention, your imbedded link to your essay Scurrying or Seated is faulty and took me to another very insightful essay about idle promises to pray for someone that I enjoyed very much! However I would love to find Scurrying or Seated and was unsuccessful in my attempt! I hope I can read it some day!

  16. Most of my distractions come as the day progresses. I f I do not start my day with God, I have good intentions but I never come back to it—I will end with time but not begin. I also find that I have to keep my mind firmly on the face of God. He is there–I have invited Him into that time with me. I want to listen and hear—sometimes I find that my prayer leads to a thought that leads to a grocery list that leads to something else—-My resolve has to be planted in Him.

  17. It amazes me, that despite how much we know we need God…he really does take a backseat in our day. There are days that is hard for me to swallow. So I am so thankful for this list to try and get back on track. Who doesn’t want to sit at His feet??????

  18. Thank you for your words of wisdom and encouragement. I have been praying about deepening my relationship with the Lord.

  19. I get easily distracted because @ times I do not start offering praise but catch myself listing my woes. My desire is to connect to God in praise for all he is, all he does, all he promises to do and honor him in worship thanking him for loving & saving me!

  20. The weekend or when kids have no school during the week or anyone is home during the day during the week. When I do study during those times it does not seem to sink in as well. I like getting everyone off to work and school, then get my coffee and breakfast, pray and start reading and studying.

  21. I have so many things that distract me from God. I have great intensions to do the right thing and I even get the books, tapes and Bible studies. My OCD wants to so bad but the make to is out of wack. I’ve always been a terrible reader. I loose my concentration so fast that I wind up re-reading the same page 3 or 4 times before I move on to the next page. I would greatly appreciate you praying for me in that area. I have some of the best information. Then I have an addiction to TV. I seem to need noise around me. I even have it on at night. I do make to do lists but I put so much on the list that I get to much on it and get over whelmed. I would love to win the gift package. I Praise The Lord that you took on this subject. I would love to be like Mary that laid at Jesus’ feet and just bask in His Love. I could go on and on with my story but just know that I have medical issues to deal with beside physical, Spiritual and Mental. Thank you for your devotion to share what God has taught you.

  22. In my season of life it’s hard to get in the routine, and stick with it. I have 3 under age five at home with me plus first year of homeschooling. A 7 month old who likes to surprise me with early morning rises sometimes. I try and set my alarm for early, and it goes good for a week, and then poof! I am dealing with some sort of kid issue usually. The distractions are endless, and if I don’t get it in the morning then it’s likely not in at all in my day, except for listening to worship music or quick bouts of prayer.

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