How to Actually Rest With God

Tauren Wells on the Better Thing

Maybe you’ve felt it too—that silent pressure that says real time with God has to look like a certain way. A conference. A long book. A structured plan with multiple steps and a dedicated hour you can never quite find. Tauren Wells felt it too. And then a ten-minute window changed everything

“What is generating joy in my life right now is these little ten-minute windows that I just get with God,” he says. “I guess I’m prone to think that in order to engage God, I have to do something over the top, or I’ve got to go to a conference. I’ve got to read some long book.” He pauses. “I had to learn there’s another way.”

Tell Me About Your Prayer Life

The turning point came in a counseling session. His counselor asked him to describe his prayer life —so Tauren did. The app. The gratitude practice. The people he was praying for. The Bible reading. All of it.

His counselor listened, then said, “Wow, that’s a very structured prayer time.” Then asked, “What would your prayer time look like if you were just with God?”

“I am with God,” Tauren said. ” I am with God. We’re working on stuff, we’re strategizing, we’re planning. I’m reading my Bible.”

His counselor nodded gently. “That’s all stuff you’re doing, though. What about just delighting in the Lord?”

Tauren’s answer was immediate and completely honest: “That sounds amazing. How do I do that?”

Close the Door

Tauren’s first instinct was to go big—rent the Airbnb again, carve out three or four hours, do delight the way he’d done everything else. His counselor just smiled. “You could do that. Or you could close the door of the room that you’re in, sit in the chair, shut your phone off, put your Bible away—because you can’t help but write something down—and just be with God.”

So that’s what Tauren started doing. Ten minutes outside on the ground, undistracted and present. Sitting alone in a booth at a favorite restaurant, just thinking about God like He’s a person sitting across the table.

“He’s a person,” Tauren says. “And the Holy Spirit is a person. And I think I’ve missed that — trying to work with God and strategize with God and get stuff done with God. I’ve missed the better thing. Martha. Martha — just to be with Him.”

The better thing is presence. And what Tauren found there surprised him. “That’s bringing me a lot of joy,” he says. “I have fun.”

If you’ve been waiting until you have the time, the plan, or the perfect setup to really be with God — you already have everything you need. Close the door. Sit down. He’s already there.

Spend five days with us in this psalm.

Psalm 139 is the most personal portrait of a God who knows you completely and is present in every moment of your life. Search Me, Know Me: A Rest-Filled Journey Through Psalm 139 is a 5-day devotional that takes you there slowly. Start here