Tension - May 10, 2026

In this meditation, Jen Shoutta invites you to slow down, breathe deeply, and reflect on the message shared at Southeast Christian Church on Sunday, May 10, 2026. This episode offers a quiet space to prayerfully process the sermon, allowing its truth to move from head knowledge into heart transformation.

Through Scripture, reflection prompts, and moments of stillness, you’ll be gently guided to listen for God’s voice, notice what is stirring in your spirit, and consider how the message speaks into your everyday life. Whether you’re revisiting the sermon or engaging with it for the first time, this meditation is designed to help you encounter Jesus personally and carry His truth with you throughout your week.

Click here to watch the sermon.

You can reach Jen at jen.shoutta@southeastcc.com 

Transcript

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Welcome to a time of worship and prayer to connect with our Creator, heart, soul, and mind. In Matthew 22, the Sadducees ask Jesus what the greatest commandment is. His answer is twofold. He replies, You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your mind. This is the great and first commandment. The second is like it. So friends, this time is the time set aside for us to worship and pray, not only with our minds, but with our hearts and our souls, so that we can be transformed from the inside out and love our neighbors as ourselves. My hope with these weekly meditations is to give us space to reflect on what we heard in the sermon on Sunday. How do we take what we heard and know in our heads to be true and let it transform our hearts into the likeness of Christ? So wherever you are, I just invite you to take a deep breath in through your nose and let it out through your mouth. In through the nose, and let it out through the mouth. One more time in through the nose. Inside out through the mouth. Inhale through the nose. Seal the lips and exhale through the nose. And then just continue breathing with your rhythm of breath, in through the nose and out through the nose. Genesis 2.7 says, Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And the man became a living creature. So as you're here, just breathing, I invite you to take a moment to give thanks to the one who gave you that breath and know that he is as close to you as your next breath. And now I invite you to get curious. What is your breath like? Is it fast or slow? Is it high up in your chest? Or can you begin to slow your breath down and let it come all the way down to the bottom of your belly, letting your ribs expand, let your belly expand. And as you breathe out, just imagine that you're emptying a balloon, releasing that stale air that no longer serves you, making room for fresh, life-giving oxygen with your next breath in. The more that I learn about the breath and the calming effects it has on our nervous system, the more I am amazed at God's design. Of course, He designed us to be calmed by breathing in His breath of life. Now I just invite you to begin to notice your body. If you're seated in a chair, I invite you to plant your feet firmly on the ground and sit up nice and tall. Or maybe you're walking as you're listening to this. If so, can you begin to notice your feet as they move along the ground? Wherever you are, can you begin to relax your shoulders, relax your jaw, and just continue to breathe deeply, the breath of life. To connect our minds to our hearts and our souls, we're going to practice breath prayer. The practice of breath prayer is just the intentional linking of our breath with a word or a short phrase. Our breathing is something that comes naturally. It's automatic, continuous, and involuntary. And when we let our inhales and our exhales represent an intentionally chosen prayer, we begin to live out Paul's instructions in 1 Thessalonians 5 17 to pray without ceasing. So in the quiet of your heart, on your next inhale whisper, I give you my fears, and on your next exhale in exchange for rest. Inhale, I give you my fears and exhale in exchange for rest. Take a moment to just breathe and pray it out with your rhythm of breath. Inhaling, I give you my fears, and exhaling in exchange for rest. Scott talked about the temple and how the temple wasn't just a building to the Jewish people. It was a symbol that God was with them. So when Jesus came into the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there and told the people that they were making the temple a den of robbers, what Jesus was actually doing was exposing the idols and insecurities of the people. The people had made the temple an idol. Scott went on to say that an idol is something we hold on to because of what it gives us. And behind every idol is an insecurity. And an exposed insecurity generates big emotions in us, usually because they are rooted in fear. Some of the idols and insecurities that Scott listed are the idol of wealth being rooted in the insecurity of loss. The idol of power being rooted in the insecurity of helplessness. The idol of achievement being rooted in the insecurity of failure. The idol of approval being rooted in the insecurity of loneliness. The idol of pleasure being rooted in the insecurity of emptiness. And the idol of control that is rooted in the insecurity of hardship. Scott went on to say that until we surrender the fear and the insecurity, we will never experience rest. So friends, what fear or insecurity are you clinging to that is wearing you out? What fear or insecurity do you need to lay down so that you can experience rest, the true rest that only Jesus can offer? As I say every week, there is no condemnation in Christ. So my invitation to you is to bring your fears and your insecurities to Jesus, to lay them down at his feet, and then invite him to exchange them for the true rest that only he can provide. The first time that I read it, just let the words wash over you and through you. Don't try to analyze them or apply them. Just soak in the word of God. Matthew 11, 28 to 20 in the message paraphrase says, Are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me, and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. As I read God's word over you again, this time I want you to listen for a word or a phrase that stands out to you. In the pause after, just let that word or phrase land and take up space. Let the Holy Spirit breathe on it and then begin to notice its impact on you. Matthew 11, 28 to 20, and the message paraphrase says, Are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion? Come to me, get away with me, and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn how to live freely and lightly. Like a puzzle piece, how does it fit in your life and in your heart? And in the pause after, reflect and ask yourself, how then will I live in the light of God's truth? Matthew 11, 28 to 30 in the message paraphrase says, Are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. Father God, thank you that you bring us true rest. Thank you that your yoke is easy and your burden is light. Lord, forgive us for the times when we respond from a place of fear or insecurity. Lord, when we do, we thank you that you are gentle with us. And the invitation from you is to lay our fears at your feet in exchange for your rest. Lord, I pray that your spirit continues to illuminate the idols and insecurities that we cling to that we aren't even aware of yet. Lord, may we be a people that live out unforced rhythms of grace. It's in your name I pray. Amen.