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As a partner in The Cornerstone Group, Steve, an expert in organizational analysis and strategic planning, mentors and speaks at business seminars.

Prior to his work with Cornerstone, he spent a number of years as a high school teacher and football coach. Later he earned a doctorate in ministry and launched Opening the Bible Ministries. Steve is an avid fisherman.

A professor at a religious college once told me that he liked to speed-read the Psalms. In his opinion, there wasn't much substance in those 150 chapters, and themes just kept repeating themselves. I remember thinking that of any book in the Bible where the need-for-speed impulse ought to be avoided, Psalms was it.

Why? Because essentially each is a prayer between a needy individual and his great God. David, and other authors in that collection of poetic intercession and praise, used them as time-stoppers and as speed bumps.

They're supposed to slow us down, to act as brakes—not as accelerators—on our daily rhythm. Whatever block of time we have to give to devotions in our schedule and wherever they take place—from a quiet corner in the house, to your office, to Starbucks—they ought to redirect our focus for some span of time. The Psalms [and, ideally, these devotionals too] should serve as thought-provoking, bite-sized morsels of truth that give us pause. They need to be read after taking a deep breath.

Adapted from Influencing Like Jesus (B&H Publishing, 2008) by permission.

Copyright © 2008 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Thank You, Lord, for psalms that show how a man after Your own heart approached You. Help me learn from them.

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