Still Instead of Spiraling

Why is being still so challenging, especially when life feels overwhelming?

In today’s episode, host Lauren Alessi invites us to explore the struggle between spiraling thoughts and spiritual stillness, drawing wisdom from Psalm 46:10: "Be still and know that I am God." Together, we’ll unpack why so many of us find it difficult to pause, trust, and let go of our worries, especially during storms. We'll look honestly at our urge to control, overthink, and fix every problem, and discover what it means to surrender our thoughts and find peace in God’s presence.

Let’s come together as a community, seeking to practice stillness instead of spiraling. Join us in prayer and devotion as we learn to trust God with what we cannot control, and take another step toward a calmer, faith-filled day.

BECOME A FOUNDING "MY MORNING DEVOTIONAL" MEMBER

If you enjoy your 5 minute daily dose of heaven, we would appreciate your support, and we have a fun way for you to partner with the MMD community!

We've launched our "Buy Me a Coffee" membership where you can buy us a latte, OR become a founding member and get monthly bonus video episodes!

 To donate, go to mymorningdevo.co/join! 

Transcript

Speaker: 0:00

You're listening to the My Morning Devotional Podcast, episode 1489. Today's episode is called Still Instead of Spiraling. Hey there, we're the Alessis, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to-do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a 5-minute daily daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional podcast. Hello everyone, my name is Lauren Alessi and I am your host for this week. I really like today's title, just saying. I so relate to it— the spiraling part, not the be still part. But anyways, um, I hope you have liked this week. I hope you can relate to it, um, because I can. This is just purely This is just all my problems at this point. No, I'm kidding. So today we're talking about still instead of spiraling. And again, I feel like you all know where we're going with this, but let's just jump straight into the word of God. And in Psalm 46:10, which is our verse of the day, it says this Be still and know that I am God. This is so hard for me. I'm sorry. Let's just be real. Or let's just be real. I don't know why I said real like that, but let's just be honest. This is very hard to be still. I don't know if you're like me. And it's not like some people are like, oh, it's like ADHD or ADD. No, I have such a hard time being still. If I'm home, I want to cook something. I want to clean something. I want to do the laundry. I want to clean my closet. I want to clean my car. I don't know. I want to do something. And that's just in the physicality part. Like that has nothing to do with like spirituality, right? Like I just have a hard time being still. And I think women have some level of that just naturally. I think men have some of that naturally too. Men are like, yeah, I'm going to take a nap. But then also men get up and then they're like, I got to do something. I have to fix this and then I have to fix that. So something in us just has a really hard time being still. And when you even think about the fact that I can't watch a show anymore without watching the show and then also wanting to be on my phone. It's crazy. I have such a hard time just like being still, period. And then you add on top of that times where you need to trust God and when you can't see God in it at all, and we need to be still and know that he is God. I want to come off as like, guys, we need to do this and we just need to trust God and we just need— but I'm going to be honest, This is really hard for me to be completely still and trust that God is going to come through. And especially when you're in the middle of a storm, especially when you're in the middle of a tough time, you have to just sit in the stillness and know that God will provide because that's who he is. And here's the thing, because we're Christians, we do it because that's what God asks of us., and maybe you can relate. I overthink a lot. I overanalyze a lot, but something I have realized is that that overthinking is like my way to control the situation. I overthink because there's nothing I could do about it anyway, so I just overthink because that's something I can do. It's a way to not just be still, but man, if we can find a way to completely relax, submit our thoughts to God, not overthink, not overanalyze, and find a stillness in our thoughts. And I think this is where I would get mixed up. I didn't fully understand what 'be still and know that I am God.' I didn't fully understand what 'be still' meant. And 'be still' means don't let your thoughts run wild. Don't overthink something so hard that now you've got to do something because you thought on it forever. —so I've overthought. I need to do this and I need to do that, and I'm not doing this enough and I'm not doing that. Okay, so now I need to do this. Just be still and trust God. Be still in your thoughts. Don't let your thoughts run wild and let God open the next door to make your decision, to make your next move. I think it's a beautiful quality that us humans actually can't sit still. I think that's actually great. I think it shows that we're productive people. And actually, Proverbs talks about when you're too lazy and you, you're too still. So there's a good balance there. But there's also a beautiful trust and a beautiful just faith in God when in our thoughts and in our minds we're just still and we trust God. And that's where I need to rely on the Lord. That's where I need to get better. I don't know about you. That's what I need to work on. The stillness in the overthinking, the stillness in the overanalyzing and saying, you know what, I can't fix this anyway, so why even think about it? Why beat it to death in my mind? I can't do anything about it. So you know what, Lord, I'm not gonna give it another thought. I give that thought to you and I'm just gonna be still and wait for you to open the next door because you are God., and you are God alone, nobody else. So stillness says, when you're still in your thoughts, it says, you know what? I don't have all the answers right now, and that's okay. I have no control over this right now, and that's okay. And maybe that's more things I need to practice. We need to practice. We need to get better at. The best advice I had, a coach last year, 'cause I really, really struggled with this. And the best advice she told me was not even with like kindness. She just told me so practically. She was like, well, Lauren, is there anything you can control? And I was like, no. And she's like, then why are you like complaining about it? And I was like, that's such a good point. And she's like, but there are things you can control, so do those things. And it changed my life. And so here I am telling you, but also reminding me the same things. God has given us things that we can control, that we can overthink on, and that we can make better. Let's be productive in those things. But if there's things we can't control, and that's where we need to practice stillness and trusting God and saying, Lord, I don't have control over this anyways, I give it to you, that's where we practice stillness. So let's practice being still instead of spiraling out of control. Let's pray. Dear Lord, I just bring today to you. I bring this whole week to you, Lord. I— because, Lord, I just know people like me are going to be blessed from it, Lord. I know even processing this out loud, Lord, I'm blessed from it. Things that I tend to harp on, things that I tend to overthink and overanalyze, Lord, just help me every day to give to you. Help me to practice stillness, Lord. Help me to practice giving and trusting things over to you and taking every thought captive over to you. And Lord, I pray for every person who can relate to this episode. Lord, I pray that we come into agreement, Lord, and you help us practice stillness instead of spiraling. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So there you have it, your 5-minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We pray these devotional devotionals empower you to take on your day. If you found value in this devotional, share it with a friend, leave a comment or review for us on the app you're using right now. Until tomorrow, we pray that your latte is strong, but your love for Jesus is stronger.