Be Still

There are certain life-giving words that find residence within us. It might be a verse highlighted in your Bible, an affirmation printed on a post-it note, or a phrase that regularly reawakens in your memory. However they come, these are the places we return to for comfort, strength, and realignment. They are the parts of God’s truth that we’ve hidden deep within our hearts like a seed which blooms into a perennial flower over and over at just the right time. There are ten simple words that regularly do this in me:

“Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10

The phrase “be still” means to “relax, refrain, let go, and be quiet.” Relax from working. Refrain from striving. Let go of worrying about all you’re trying to hold together. Be quiet, and make space for the Creator of your soul to say what he desires to say. 

Whenever I will only be still, I remember over and over again that he is God. 

He is Good.

He is in Control. 

He is Overflowing in Kindness. 

He is on the Scene. 

He is Strong Enough. 

He is Willing.

He is Able. 

He has me.

This week, I got to see this truth played out in masterful fashion. Several nights ago at dinner, my wife and kids and I took a few minutes to read and pray through a devotional study we are doing with our church. It wasn’t rocket science. And it didn’t take lots of effort: just a few minutes of stopping the noise and intentionally seeing each other during an activity we were all doing already. The devotion concluded with a simple exercise to ask God what he wanted to say to us, taking a few minutes to listen and write down what we sensed. 

I queued up a worship song on my phone and we made a little space. Several minutes later, I was astounded by the diversity of responses. One of my kids saw a series of images in his imagination. Another heard a simple phrase. My daughter got a poem of God expressing his delight in her. My wife had a vivid vision of a movie-esque scene play out before her. And one of my sons received encouragement regarding a question he’d been asking. As we all shared, we could easily confirm that it was the Lord speaking to each one, and we were able to help one another discern specific direction of what God was inviting us to do with what we heard. It was just a few minutes, but powerful. During the exercise, I received rapid-fire short phrases, one after another that I hurried to write down:

Be still.

Breathe in and out.

These are the unhurried rhythms of how I abide with you and in you.

I am already pleased.

I see how you’re walking, trusting, loving, waiting, working, serving, and living, and I’m pleased. 

Be still.

Don’t hurry. 

The lists of all that could be done are never ending. 

You don’t have to chase them. 

I will give you what you need, right when you need it. 

I am Good.

It is Finished.

Trust Me and Delight.  

Trust Me and Remember. 

Breathe in and Out.

You're already where you need to be. 

This is the good life.

Savor it.

Drink it in

Be, Still.

That was on a Thursday evening. Saturday morning, I awoke to a text from a dear friend who told me God had brought me to their mind in the wee hours of that morning so powerfully and vividly, it moved them to tears. What followed was a message of such similar tone and heart to what I had received, it shot me out of bed and running to my journal. This is the message they urgently felt the Father desiring to tell me:

I love the way you love. 

I love the way follow. 

I love the way you lead.  

I love the way you walk.  

I love the way you live.  

I love the way you learn. 

I love the way you teach. 

I love the way you are not perfect. 

I love the way you are strong even when you are weak. 

I love the way you worship. 

I love your example of how to be a disciple and a son.

I love you and pray for you.  

I was drawn back to one phrase I’d heard specifically a little over a day earlier: 

“I see how you’re walking, trusting, loving, waiting, working, serving, and living, and I’m pleased.”

My friend’s text was an expanded and amplified poem of delight from my Father to me, confirming the very thing I’d heard in the quiet place. What’s more, God wanted me to know it so deeply, he woke a friend up many miles away who knew nothing of my situation, but was just willing to hear and obey. 

I don’t share any of this as a brag, but as what the Father waits to do as we choose to “be still.” Here are four encouragements of how we can posture our hearts for stillness before God.

1.    Be Available 

My family heard amazing direction from God because we intentionally quieted the noise. My friend heard life-changing encouragement that he knew was for me, because he has a regular habit of sitting in stillness before God. 

If we will be still, in time, we will learn the language in which God speaks specifically to us. He knows how to speak the exact language of your heart. After all, he made it and it is a native language shared in all of creation only by the two of you! Where is God calling you to make space?

2.    Be Vulnerable 

The devotional my family led asked us to write down our prayers. That kind of journaling is not a regular habit for me and it stretches me. The message I heard was tender and expressed a lot of emotion. It’s not always easy to write that stuff down in the real world where other people could read it. Likewise, my friend had to choose crazy levels of vulnerability to step out in faith and share what he felt God was saying to him about me. I’m so glad he did. What would it look like to be vulnerable today?

3.    Be in Community

None of our story happened in isolation. Our family sat together and God moved. My friend chose to walk in relationship with me and God moved. Even now, in sharing these words, I am bringing the word of my testimony in relationship to you, precious reader, trusting God to move. God speaks to us individually in the quiet place, but the miracle often comes when we choose the risk of entrusting the tender words God spoke to us with trusted brothers and sisters we walk alongside in proximity and humility. Who can you walk alongside to hear God together?

4.    Be Patient

I would be painting the wrong picture if I let you assume that every time I get still for a moment, words from God pour out on the page. They don’t. As I have cultivated regular times of stillness before God over years, there are a number of times I am quiet and just receive the peace of his presence. 

It is vital we don’t turn stillness into some twisted form of works to prove how effectively we can hear from God. Our only job is to be still. God’s job is to speak. As you choose stillness over time, you will grow immensely in your ability to recognize the way his Spirit speaks to you. 

God knows how to give a word in due season. He also knows how to comfort, strengthen, and realign, as his Spirit lovingly draws near to teach us all things and to remind us everything we’ve forgotten. 

We need only be still.