Power in Pause: Discovering God’s Heart Through Sacred Stillness
- Nathan Stearman
- Jan 22
- 7 min read
Updated: Jan 24
We live in a world that never stops. Our phones buzz with notifications, our calendars overflow with commitments, and even our downtime is filled with scrolling, streaming, and consuming. We’ve become experts at staying busy, but somewhere along the way, we’ve lost the art of pausing—of creating space to simply be.
What if the very thing we’re running from—stillness—is exactly what we need most?
The God Who Seeks Connection, Not Performance
Here’s something that might surprise you: God isn’t interested in your religious performance. He’s not keeping score of how many prayers you recite or how spiritual you look to others.
This was the radical message Jesus brought to a crowd gathered on a mountainside two thousand years ago—and it’s just as revolutionary today. In Matthew 6:16-18, Jesus taught about spiritual disciplines in a way that turned religious expectations upside down.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day had turned faith into a performance art. When they practiced spiritual fasting, they made sure everyone knew it—disheveled hair, downcast faces, the whole production. When they prayed, they chose the busiest street corners. When they gave to charity, they sounded trumpets to announce it. Jesus called them out directly: hypocrites putting on a false appearance of virtue.
But Jesus introduced a completely different picture of God—one that flips our assumptions upside down.
God is relational. Jesus taught people to address God as “Father”—a radical concept that brought divinity into intimate, approachable terms. Not a distant deity demanding appeasement, but a parent desiring connection. As it says in James 4:8, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”
God is a healer. Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted, to bind up our wounds, to set the captive free (Isaiah 61:1). This isn’t about fixing your image; it’s about genuine transformation from the inside out.
God desires authenticity over display. The contrast couldn’t be clearer. While religious leaders sought glory from people, Jesus invited his followers into secret, sacred spaces where real change happens—just you and God, no audience required.
God is both supernatural and intimate. He’s powerful enough to break any habit that controls you, yet personal enough to walk with you through the long, ordinary days of transformation.
Think About This: In your relationship with God, are you performing or connecting? What would change if you truly believed God wanted your heart more than your perfection? What’s one area of your life where you’ve been trying to impress God instead of inviting Him into the mess?
What Spiritual Fasting Really Means
So what does fasting have to do with all this?
In biblical times, fasting typically meant abstaining from food, often paired with prayer and fasting as a spiritual discipline. It was practiced during crises, moments of seeking God’s intervention, or times of serious realignment. When the ancient city of Nineveh faced destruction, the entire population entered a fast as a sign they were serious about changing their ways (Jonah 3:5-10). When Nehemiah heard that Jerusalem lay in ruins, he wept and fasted and prayed because he was earnestly seeking God’s guidance (Nehemiah 1:4).
But here’s what fasting wasn’t supposed to be: a performance to earn God’s favor or impress other people.
Jesus made this crystal clear in his teaching on prayer and fasting in Matthew 6:17-18: “But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret.” In other words, get ready for your day exactly as you normally would. Go to work. Walk through town. Let no one know you’re fasting. Because the point isn’t external credit—it’s internal connection.
Modern Applications of Spiritual Fasting:
Today, fasting doesn’t have to be limited to food. People fast from social media, creating space away from the constant noise and comparison. A friend of mine recently did a 30-day Instagram fast and told me, “I didn’t realize how much mental space it was taking up until it was gone. Suddenly I had room to actually hear God again.”
Others fast from news consumption, sports, desserts, or any habit that’s gained too much control. Some use phone apps with physical locks—requiring an actual device to unlock social media access—creating deliberate friction between impulse and action. The result can be hours reclaimed each week from mindless scrolling.
The principle remains the same: pausing from your regular routine to create space for encountering God.
Think About This: What fills the margins of your life right now? When you have a spare moment, where does your attention automatically go? What might God be inviting you to fast from—not as punishment, but as an invitation to freedom?
The Practical Power of Pause: Breaking Bad Habits Through Spiritual Disciplines
So what actually happens when we pause? What does spiritual transformation look like in real time?
We regain self-control. Consider a simple practice like going a month without desserts or snacks. The value isn’t just physical—it’s about reestablishing self-control. Sometimes we develop habits and they just creep up on us, gaining greater control over us than we realize. Saying no to something—even something as simple as dark chocolate after lunch—puts control back where it belongs. As 1 Corinthians 6:12 reminds us, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything.”
We break patterns that enslave us. Whether it’s anger, bitterness, physical habits, or any practice that’s outside of harmony with the ways of God, fasting creates the conditions for freedom. God doesn’t want us to be slaves to anything. It’s a privilege and an honor to have freedom, to not be enslaved to any habit that can destroy us.
We create space for God to speak. This is where transformation begins. When you fast from food while praying throughout the day, something shifts. It’s as if veils are released from your eyes. You can hear God more clearly. You’re paused enough to reduce the noise that normally drowns out his voice. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.”
We gain clarity. Spiritual truths become clearer. You can be more introspective about what’s happened to you, about cycles you’ve been trying to escape but can’t quite understand. Fasting brings a clarity that’s hard to find anywhere else in life.
We make hours for what matters. When you create barriers between impulse and action—whether through technology tools or simple discipline—space opens up. Time previously consumed by mindless habits becomes available for intentional living.
These aren’t abstract spiritual concepts. They’re practical, tangible shifts that happen when we pause.
Think About This: What habit has gained more control over your life than you’d like to admit? What would it look like to fast from that for just one week?
Realignment: When God Reveals and Heals
Here’s something crucial to understand: spiritual transformation isn’t magic.
We often approach God like he’s a magician with a wand. We pray for help with our anger, expecting that—poof!—we’ll never lose our temper again. But that’s not how it works.
Real transformation happens in the pause. When we create space through spiritual disciplines like prayer and fasting, God comes close—not with a magic wand, but as a companion, guide, and comforter. In that space, he helps us see things we miss in the rush of daily life.
Maybe you realize you’re not getting enough sleep, and that’s why you’re so reactive. Maybe you notice you’ve been binging news, creating an emotional climate of anxiety. Maybe God reveals patterns passed down through generations—epigenetic factors, wounds and cycles you didn’t even know were influencing you.
Who better to reveal these things than the creator God who knows your whole story?
Fasting is a healthy practice for realignment, helping things find their proper perspective, their proper place in your life.
Thank About This: What patterns in your life feel stuck on repeat? Is there a cycle—anger, anxiety, withdrawal, comparison—that you can’t seem to break on your own? What if God wants to meet you in the pause and show you something you haven’t been able to see?
Fasting is a healthy practice for realignment, helping things find their proper perspective, their proper place in your life.
And here’s the beautiful part: when God heals you from the inside out, you become capable of building healthier relationships, of being a healing presence to others. The impact multiplies exponentially.
That’s the power in the pause.
Take a Chance: Your Invitation to Spiritual Transformation
Pick something to fast from—not to earn God’s approval, but to create space for Him. Make it something that has control over you, something that crowds out margin in your life.
Then, in the space you create, show up for God. Pray. Read Scripture. Sit in silence. Journal. Walk without your phone. Just be present.
TRY THIS: Your 7-Day Spiritual Fasting Challenge
Choose one practice from this list and commit to it for seven days:
Social Media Fast – Delete apps from your phone for one week
News Fast – Avoid all news consumption and notice the mental space it creates
Sugar/Dessert Fast – Practice saying no to something you habitually say yes to
Morning Phone Fast – Don’t check your phone for the first hour after waking
Streaming Fast – Replace TV/Netflix time with prayer, reading, or silence
Complaint Fast – Catch yourself before complaining and turn it into prayer instead
Daily Practice:
Morning: Spend 10 minutes in silence or prayer
Throughout the day: Notice when you want to reach for what you’re fasting from
Evening: Journal one thing God revealed to you in the space you created
Don’t expect magic. Expect a journey. Expect God to show up in ordinary ways—a thought that won’t leave you alone, a conversation that lands differently, a sudden clarity about a pattern you’ve been blind to.
Remember: God is not distant and demanding. He is relational and present. He’s not interested in your performance. He wants your heart. And He has the power to heal what’s broken, free what’s bound, and transform what feels unchangeable.
You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
The power isn’t in your effort. The power is in the pause—the space you create for a God who meets you there and does what only He can do: transform you from the inside out.
Ready to go deeper? This blog post is inspired by an episode from the Loveshaped Life podcast, where we explore what it means to experience God’s transformative love in everyday life. Watch the full conversation about the power of pause and spiritual fasting.
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Would you like to explore more about creating space for God in your life? Visit loveshaped.life for resources, coaching, and a community committed to experiencing the transformative power of God’s love.
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