“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10
Jesus is extending an invitation. Seems simple, but I will tell you, when you are in the times of trouble as Psalm 46 talks about, the last thing you want to do is be still so you can know God better. You want to fix things, work things out to regain all that was lost. You want your peace, your security back.
If you are hearing this direction from Jesus, then you may wonder how to answer this invitation because at this time of trouble when everything in you wants to battle. You see the deception and are compelled to bring truth. You don’t want to seek refuge, you want to engage and be in the front line.
The direction came at a time when you would be strategizing; trying to plan out the next move and keep ahead of the game.
“Be still” came at a time when you were anything but ready and willing to be still and do nothing. It came when you wanted to see God move but felt you had to be the one to help God get things going.
Many times during our stand we want to help God. We want to be the Holy Spirit, the voice of conviction, the bucket of ice water that wakes them up, the chief orchestrator that plans it all out, the one that finds that perfect person to speak truth into their lives. But the last thing we want to do is “be still,” step aside, and allow God to do it; letting Him get all the credit while we have no hand in any of it.
We really aren’t seeking credit, we seek NOW! We are seeking to go back to normal where we felt secure and had hopes, dreams, plans for the future. We seek our pain to be done.
I am here to tell you, what we seek is NOT what God is doing. We are seeking after security in our marriage, security in being in a relationship with our spouse that will create a healthy family HERE ON EARTH. God is after an eternity. He is doing work to ensure our SECURITY IN HEAVEN.
I was about 6 years into my storm when God dropped that bomb on me. I was only pursuing this life, but He was after so much more. He wanted to make sure my spouse and I fit through that narrow gate and made it. I had never given eternity much thought because I truly believed that I was secure in my salvation once I said the sinners prayer. But that is where I was stalled, stuck in lukewarm. I was not working, pursuing, growing and maturing in my salvation.
” Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.” Philippians 2:12
Once He helped me understand this was an eternal directive and asked me to “Be Still and Know He was God.” He was asking me to let Him show me things I had not considered.
The Psalmist writes “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures”. Sometimes we are forced by some circumstance or another to lie down and it becomes a blessed experience in our lives; one where we are quiet and have the chance to hear His still small voice.
“Be still and KNOW that He is God” teaches us something greater in our times of trouble.
We learn that God is our Champion and that He is truly wiser than we give Him credit for. But I’ve learned that when I give Him this opportunity when I am still and step aside and give Him the floor so I can be taught, He is God, He doesn’t fail me. He won’t reveal and teach me that He is God, if I am trying to share the stage with Him. I must be still, sit down and become part of the audience and that means giving up control and waiting on Him.
God loves to bless you. Provide, protect, or move mountains. He loves to show you Himself in greater ways. And being still provides Him a far greater opportunity to do all that as well as removes any doubt that we had anything to do with it, which gives Him ALL the glory.
It’s when we are still, in the times we are pressed to do something, that we can know Him the greatest.
I feel the invitation from Jesus right now. He wants to reveal Himself in a greater way. To crash through stereotypes, mindsets that limit Him, blockades that assassinate His character and laws that completely remove grace compassion, mercy, and love. He wants to free you from condemnation, religious spirits, passivity and lies that diminish His power and might that can freely flow through your veins. He wants to take the scales off eyes, doing some corrective surgery to eyesight and disintegrate demonic strongholds that have blinded, chained and prevented you from SEEING Him, knowing Him, freely worshipping and enjoying Him fully.
He wants you to be able to identify with HIM, so you can finally identify with yourself.
He wants to be your first love. He wants you to look upon Him with joy, wonder, amazement and be pulled into a deep place where you are totally wrecked by the mere thought of JESUS knows my name.
He wants you to be still, so you can KNOW HIM. Know Him like never before. Fall in greater love with Him and be swept away by the beauty of our wonderful Savior. This can’t happen if you are very distracted by trying to get your spouse back home.
This is a beautiful invitation that Jesus is sending out, will you answer? Will you make this year a year that Jesus becomes more than just a means to get you back what you lost. Will you make the effort to really get to know Him?
Standing with you,
Sheila Hollinger