Be Still

Why does it matter to be still? I believe it is because that is how you get in touch with God’s heart and see things a little more from the perspective of God. He says it is simple to do this, just two little words, “Be still.”

Yet as little as those words are, we’ve been raised in such a noisy world that silence actually makes a lot of us uncomfortable. If there isn’t background sound, we turn some on fast! And yet God says He is best known in silent times. We have so few. And while Christian radio, TV, and music can encourage our growth in Christ, even they can jam what God wants to say to our heart if they are always on.

Telephones, cell phones, beepers, faxes, emails, text messaging, iPods, and CDs are all competing for us to listen to them. Then there’s the “quiet noise”—newspapers, magazines, novels, piles of mail, and email. The Bible tells us that Satan is crafty, and I am positive that he, being the enemy of our souls, knows that one way to keep us from hearing God’s voice is by drowning Him out with noise.

As Martha was stressfully running around serving Jesus, He told her that what her sister Mary was doing was the most important thing, quietly sitting at His feet just listening to Him. That’s what we have way too little of. We have plenty of Martha busyness, but not much Mary quietness, just listening to Jesus. As a result, our minds are stressed and our souls are parched.

I wonder if God is saying to you in the midst of the barrenness of a busy life, “Slow down. You’re missing Me in all of this because you’re not protecting our quiet times.”

You literally have to fight for those quiet times in a world of noise. Try driving without the music or DVD players on, just so you can listen to your Lord. Leave the TV off, skip the news, exercise without the music, go away, if necessary, just to be still and know He is God.

Begin by praising Him specifically for attributes and actions that you’ve been experiencing, and then listen to Him through extended time in His Word. Pour out your deepest feelings to Him in prayer and listen in your soul for His responses. Keep a notepad handy and write down whatever He seems to be saying during this time when His voice is the only one you’re listening to.

Satan doesn’t want you to hear the messages from God’s heart to your heart, so he just keeps trying to jam God’s communications, drowning out the truth with noise. You can’t afford to miss those messages from God’s heart to your heart. Carve out some silence. In the silence, you can hear heaven.

What keeps you from being able to be still?