What's your biggest growth area as a preacher? I asked a fellow preacher that question and he said, "I read the text and immediately start thinking about how to preach it to other people. I need to slow down and ask, 'Lord, what are you saying to me about my life through this passage?'"

Let's call it the spiritual discipline of hitting the pause button. For most of us, our sermon process looks far too much like this: Scripture → Sermon Prep → Apply to our people → Preach. I propose that we all practice the discipline of hitting the pause button, or this: Scripture → PAUSE & PRAY … → Sermon Prep → PAUSE & PRAY … → Apply to our people → Preach. Hitting the pause button means sitting with God's "naked" Word—no props, no study aids, no thoughts about what everyone else needs to hear—so I can receive God's Word as a word for me. Go for a walk, sit in silence, look at the clouds—do anything that helps you focus, but let God speak to you before you speak to others on God's behalf.

This week we also feature the following resources (for after you've hit the pause button):

• Featured Illustration: The Man Who Snuck Into Auschwitz
• Featured Sermon: Pursuing Your "Higher Calling" by Tom Nelson
• Skills Article: Weaving on Back to the Big Idea
• Video: The Rollercoaster of Life

In Christ,

Matt Woodley
Managing Editor, PreachingToday.com
mwoodley@christianitytoday.com

P.S. Check out this week's skills article by Dr. Olu Peters—"Weaving on Back to the Big Idea." As a Nigerian-born Canadian professor, Dr. Peters has some fascinating insights about preaching.

Matt Woodley is the pastor of compassion ministries at Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton, Illinois.