For many of us the words from Psalm 46:10 can frequently echo in our thinking in the midst of our busyness, our priorities, and/or our struggles. Be still, and know that I am God! A knowledge of our God. Not just a head knowledge, but a knowledge that saturates our hearts and meets us wherever life has us, and has an unquestionable, life impacting, alive and personal knowledge that our God is real, and He does the real and personal, for me, and for those I care about. Be still, and know that I am God! But, how do I do that??? Thinking about it, contemplating the possibility – both happen, but the “being still”is still just a foggy idea. Like most other things that need adjustment, we must have a want-to, but we must also be intentional, and actively pursue it.
My friend does that. Her want-to is strong. Life has too many complexities, too many challenges, and she very much knows she is unable in her own strength and ability to even steady them enough to find the needed resolution. But she knows she is the daughter of the eternal, loving, enabling God, and HE CAN. Her choice is to be intentional, and in utter dependence on Him, actively pursue the stillness. She delights in taking a snack and her heart, and finding that quiet time with Jesus on a solitary park bench in a solitary cove of nature. And she finds the stillness, and her heart listens, and responds.
Jesus walked the dusty streets where the people He loved, lived, and sometimes met many of those same people on a hilltop, or even at the Jewish temple, or someone’s home. But Jesus also wanted time to be alone with His Father, in quietness and intimacy. And He intentionally would find those times, just as we are encouraged to do the same.
“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark,
Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” (Mark 1:35)
“Jesus went out to a mountain side to pray, and spent the night praying to God.
When morning came, he called his disciples to him.” (Luke 6:12-13)
“The news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him
and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” (Luke 5:15-16)
Our Pastor Joey frequently reminds us to find the stillness, and often gives some practical options for finding God’s answers in that quietness. I am blessed to have a quiet place within my home where I can be still, and grow in the knowledge of my God. But, I must still have a want-to, be intentional, and actively pursue that knowledge with a listening and responsive heart. And in your own busyness, priorities, or struggles, if stillness with God is only a foggy idea, or even a difficult one, all that God longs to give in the stillness, may evade us. Reach intentionally! Be still, and know that I am God! And know that He is real, and He will do the real and personal for you!
– Bev
