I don't know about you, but I have trouble being still. There's just too much to do! I don't have time to sit... or do I? So often, I come up with excuses why I don't take time to sit in the quiet and spend time with God. "I have to get ready for class", or "I have too much homework due tomorrow", or "I haven't spent any time with my friends today, so I'll do it later", or "I finally have a few minutes free, and I want to check Facebook, Twitter, or my email". Anyone else notice a pattern here? Each excuse starts with the pronoun "I". On the surface, these are all good things. Time with friends and furthering education aren't bad things at all. However, don't you think God, the Creator of the universe, the Sustainer of life, deserves more attention? After all, if He didn't give us breath, we wouldn't be able to spend time with our friends or get an education! So why don't we give God the time He deserves? I know one reason for me is because I'm selfish and lazy (well, I guess that's two reasons). But I've realized more recently that those are absolutely ridiculous reasons! Again, God's the reason I am able to do everything I do, so I should be spending time with Him!
The Christian faith isn't just a one-way street. It's a personal relationship with the One True Living God! You wouldn't ignore your best friend, would you? "Oh, I just realized I have too much to do today, so I won't be able to grab dinner, or get coffee, or just spend time talking. Sorry!" No way! If my friend wants to hang out, I will put down what I'm doing and go hang out! Yet God gets pushed to the back burner. Every. Single. Day. If you don't talk to your friend, you begin to miss him or her and you do anything you can to get in touch with the person. But I don't do that with God. I feel like something's missing, so I get involved in more projects. I see that I'm not doing my best, so I sit around, depressed and angry that I can't get anything done. I see my Bible peeking out from under the stacks of paper and homework assignments, so I shove it back under the pile and place more book on top. I know that if I set aside time to spend with God, I'll find myself resting in Him rather than in my own ability, yet I continue to avoid Him.
For quite some time now, God's been putting this on my heart. He's convicted me, showing me that I spend way too much time avoiding Him, when my days would be much less stressful if I would actually spend time with Him. I have periods of time where I'll actually block out time in the morning to start my day off right, hearing what God has to say to me that day. Those days will be great; I'm able to concentrate and complete work in a reasonable amount of time. But then, midterms or finals creep up out of nowhere, or several big assignments are suddenly due in just a few days, and I bail. I stay up super late trying to finish projects or cram information in my brain; I lock myself in a study room at the library, or at my desk trying to avoid any contact from the outside world that might distract me from the tasks at hand. I've come to realize that when I go to God in those times, He always shows me things in His Word that describe His peace which surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4:7), His peace that never ends. It is in the quiet that I hear God speaking the loudest.
Psalm 46:10a says, "Be still, and know that I am God." There's two parts to this verse. First, God commands us to "be still". Yes, commands is the word I wanted to include. God doesn't say, "I suggest that you be still". NO! It's an "understood 'you'", which points to a command. It's right there in the verse! Be. Still. I know, I know, it's hard to do. With this culture how it is, we just run around like chickens with our heads cut off all the time. But God commands us to be still! It may be hard, but it is SOOO worth it! I've found that when I just sit in the quiet when I do my devotions, God speaks the loudest and clearest here. It's so cool! When I stop focusing on what distracts me and put my focus where it should always be, I learn so much more of what God is trying to teach me!
The second part of the verse is so important as well. It says, "know that I am God." Oh, what a good reminder! How many times I go through the day knowing that He is God, but still I don't know that He is God. It's so easy to say, "oh yeah of course. He's God, I know that". But do you truly know it, do you believe it in your heart? I don't all the time. I catch myself so often saying "yeah He's got it under control, because He's God" yet I don't fully believe it. I wouldn't admit it out loud of course, but in the back of my mind, it's there. Oh how wrong I am, how utterly deceived! And you know, it's in the quiet that I can really know that He is God. Imagine that, God tells us to be still, and that's when we find Him to be Him, when we see God for being God! It's like we are small children, not wanting to believe Mom and Dad when they say to do something so we can get the result we want and later finding out if we had just listened to their wisdom we would have found what we were looking for. How stupid I am to think that anything could replace God, that God might not really be who He says He is! Just eight simple words in the verse, yet they are so powerful and true! I pray that God will continue to remind me of the importance of being still in His presence daily.
Thanks for sticking with me all the way to the end! I hope to write again soon! Until next time!
The Christian faith isn't just a one-way street. It's a personal relationship with the One True Living God! You wouldn't ignore your best friend, would you? "Oh, I just realized I have too much to do today, so I won't be able to grab dinner, or get coffee, or just spend time talking. Sorry!" No way! If my friend wants to hang out, I will put down what I'm doing and go hang out! Yet God gets pushed to the back burner. Every. Single. Day. If you don't talk to your friend, you begin to miss him or her and you do anything you can to get in touch with the person. But I don't do that with God. I feel like something's missing, so I get involved in more projects. I see that I'm not doing my best, so I sit around, depressed and angry that I can't get anything done. I see my Bible peeking out from under the stacks of paper and homework assignments, so I shove it back under the pile and place more book on top. I know that if I set aside time to spend with God, I'll find myself resting in Him rather than in my own ability, yet I continue to avoid Him.
For quite some time now, God's been putting this on my heart. He's convicted me, showing me that I spend way too much time avoiding Him, when my days would be much less stressful if I would actually spend time with Him. I have periods of time where I'll actually block out time in the morning to start my day off right, hearing what God has to say to me that day. Those days will be great; I'm able to concentrate and complete work in a reasonable amount of time. But then, midterms or finals creep up out of nowhere, or several big assignments are suddenly due in just a few days, and I bail. I stay up super late trying to finish projects or cram information in my brain; I lock myself in a study room at the library, or at my desk trying to avoid any contact from the outside world that might distract me from the tasks at hand. I've come to realize that when I go to God in those times, He always shows me things in His Word that describe His peace which surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4:7), His peace that never ends. It is in the quiet that I hear God speaking the loudest.
Psalm 46:10a says, "Be still, and know that I am God." There's two parts to this verse. First, God commands us to "be still". Yes, commands is the word I wanted to include. God doesn't say, "I suggest that you be still". NO! It's an "understood 'you'", which points to a command. It's right there in the verse! Be. Still. I know, I know, it's hard to do. With this culture how it is, we just run around like chickens with our heads cut off all the time. But God commands us to be still! It may be hard, but it is SOOO worth it! I've found that when I just sit in the quiet when I do my devotions, God speaks the loudest and clearest here. It's so cool! When I stop focusing on what distracts me and put my focus where it should always be, I learn so much more of what God is trying to teach me!
The second part of the verse is so important as well. It says, "know that I am God." Oh, what a good reminder! How many times I go through the day knowing that He is God, but still I don't know that He is God. It's so easy to say, "oh yeah of course. He's God, I know that". But do you truly know it, do you believe it in your heart? I don't all the time. I catch myself so often saying "yeah He's got it under control, because He's God" yet I don't fully believe it. I wouldn't admit it out loud of course, but in the back of my mind, it's there. Oh how wrong I am, how utterly deceived! And you know, it's in the quiet that I can really know that He is God. Imagine that, God tells us to be still, and that's when we find Him to be Him, when we see God for being God! It's like we are small children, not wanting to believe Mom and Dad when they say to do something so we can get the result we want and later finding out if we had just listened to their wisdom we would have found what we were looking for. How stupid I am to think that anything could replace God, that God might not really be who He says He is! Just eight simple words in the verse, yet they are so powerful and true! I pray that God will continue to remind me of the importance of being still in His presence daily.
Thanks for sticking with me all the way to the end! I hope to write again soon! Until next time!
Amazing insight Grace! Love this post!!
ReplyDelete