Truth in Knowing & Grace in Stillness
“Be still & Know that I am God” ~ many quote this and it is a promise that I have clung to recently. The promise that I can just be still and know He is God~ that at times there is nothing else I “need” to do. #truth
But have you studied the whole of this scripture? Have we read before and afterward?
Have seen the words that will usher in this stillness with joy and #grace & without guilt or pride.
I urge you to go read what joy comes before this stillness and find the strength given in this chapter, a strength not our own.
“God will help her when the morning dawns.~ God is our refuge and strength…~ …we will not fear…~ there is a River whose streams make glad the city of God. Come behold….” These are all in some of the verses before the well-quoted verse of “Be still and Know”
In the verses just above the famous verse is the promise that “God will help her when the morning dawns” ~Verse 5~ This is referring to when attacks were often launched in the early morning. How do we take charge of our mornings so that we may find our hearts are not swept away by our “feelings” but they are strong and steadfast. I fail at this so often. I am not a morning person and the attacks can come quickly and if we do not seek to mold our hearts to be steadily seeking God, we will lose the perspective that this chapter reminds us and that He is with us and we can find refuge in Him. Knowing He is God is acknowledging He is who He says He is and is able to do what He said He would do.
C.S. Lewis states in his book Screwtape Letters that one of satan’s schemes if unable to stop the prayers of His people but to get them to just have the “feeling” of of their request from God and not really take actions to gain true strength, courage, or peace. And this distraction lets them never take actions that build strength in God, in other words, so that God’s people do not obey His commands but have the self-righteous feeling that they are because they feel stronger. If we never sit back and see God work by obeying His commands, that He has given in His Word, we can never really understand how our Father works and how different it is than what this world reveals.
It is by His hands that we can boldly love one another.
~It may not be all warm and fuzzy all the time but it is beautiful.
It is by His command that we choose to do things the way He has ordained so that we may KNOW His greatness.
~It will not make sense but it will bring Him glory.
It is by His hands that we find every solution to any problem in the scriptures.
~It may be hard and make you seem to be the fool but you are wiser for trusting with your actions. In that trusting, you will see that Jesus has gone before us and revealed himself to us as we walk the road He walked already not the other way around.
If in our prayers we say we will be still and know God has this then we must reveal this strength by our stillness and steadfastness. Always in the times of “Being Still” is to stop striving, not stop everything. But to stop striving to do things our own ways. To “be still” in this verse is “to stop war-like activities” and this does not mean to stop obeying His commands for His people. It is a time of resting in His hand to provide what your words and hands can not because you are not God. There are times that God calls us to fight and there are times He calls us to stand still but we still stand steadfast not letting go of our convictions and in this reveals the Lord’s strength in us.
Always in the times of “Being Still” is to stop striving, not stop everything. But to stop striving to do things our own ways. To “be still” in this verse is “to stop war-like activities” and this does not mean to stop obeying His commands for His people. It is a time of resting in His hand to provide what your words and hands can not because we are not God. There are times that God calls us to fight and there are times He calls us to stand still but we still stand steadfast not letting go of our convictions and in this, reveals the Lord’s strength in us.
So, let’s choose to know He is God by the way we obey His commands and sometimes that means simply being still. To cease Striving and let God reveal He is with us and He will be exalted in the earth. Let us not just say we desire certain things but let us walk so closely with our God that we hear His voice so we know when to engage and when to stop striving. Let us not just have the feeling of courage, strength, and peace but let us be people that soar as if on wings like eagles because it is God we see and hear guiding us.
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore I will not fear…” Psalm 46:1 and 2a
