Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God.”
To be honest, being still is not really in my vocabulary. So, Psalm 46:10 has always been a mystery to me. I’m more of a go, go, go and then crash kinda gal. As a volunteer staff member and wife of a pastor at [nlcf], life stays pretty busy.
I used to think “being still” meant doing nothing. If I were try “being still,” I would get extremely bored very quickly or I would just quietly veg in front of the tv watching Food Network and HGTV for hours. But lately I’ve felt God asking me to take some time to be still with Him, so I decided to spend some time figuring out what that really means. I did a word search in the dictionary and found the typical definitions….. but then some of the them surprised me. These were my favorites:
1. Quiet, Silence, Muted
2. Calm, free from turbulence
3. Without motion
4. A static photograph from a motion picture
5. To indicate the continuance of an action
6. Yet
Some of these definitions seemed contradictory to me, but I started to think about how they could apply to my life, and here’s what I came up with:
1. I need to be silent every once in a while and listen to Him speak. (This is not easy for me to do as I usually like to be the one talking.)
2. I need to take time to be free from the craziness of life and distractions and be calm before the Lord. (Also hard for me to do as I love to stay busy and can easily prioritize other things over spending time with God.)
3. I need to stop moving and rest. (Remind myself to take sabbaths and to stop and acknowledge when I see God doing something cool in my life.)
4. I am not meant to stop forever, just to pause. (It’s a snapshot – a moment taken from life’s movement to evaluate where I’ve been and where I’m going.)
5. I need to stop and pause on a continuous basis. (Not just stopping and crashing when I’m about to fall over from exhaustion, but doing it continually because I know it will help me and scheduling times to stop and rest.)
6. It also means “yet.” In the midst of the chaos of life, I will take the time to be still. (I have to choose to stop my to-do’s and spend time with God.)
I have learned how to better stop and reflect and discuss life (good and bad times) with others. I’m also journaling and talking with God about things as I learn and grow from my times of being still. So if you’re a go, go, go person who likes to stay busy and only stops to crash, consider taking a second to stop and be still and see if it helps you like it helped me to connect with God today.
-Sarah Swann