God is our refuge
and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even
though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst
of the sea, though the waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake
with its swelling… Come, behold the works of the LORD, Who made desolations in
the earth… Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the
nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge (Psalm
46:1-3, 8, 10-11 NKJB)
In our
contemplation of these verses, we may have thought about being still
before God and we may have realized something significant happens in our faith
when we are still. Often as we enter into stillness before God, we find ourselves
acknowledging and worshiping the God who is both omnipotent and
sovereign. We might sincerely believe we
are being quiet before God but are we? We live in a culture that hardly stops
to rest for anything. It neglects God’s presence in the stillness and often
fails to acknowledge any god, much less worshiping the creator of the universe
who would give us refuge. It is not hard to grasp the command of God to simply stop
and be still but we just don’t do it. In
the reality of the world around us, it is quite obvious that in order to be
still, we must let go of a lot things that we cling to. We must let go of some of the emotions we
feel. We must let go of some of the questions.
We must let go of some of the trials and frustrations in our lives in order to
be still before God. To be quiet requires that we stop rebelliously lamenting
our positions and feelings before God so that we can truly become still. It is essential if we want to know God, we
must be still before God. In the
stillness of stopping we can thus begin to see and know God.
Stillness is the
absence of motion and quiet is the absence of noise, yet many Christians clamor
in noisy living before God; seldom stopping in any of their activities and yet
expecting God’s calming and soothing balm.
They expect to find refuge as the destination when they often failed to
stop and read the signs or follow the map that would direct them to that
place. We want to arrive at the
destination of deep faith without ever stopping to seek God’s guidance and
correction. We are so busy gorging ourselves
on the foolish, the busy, the pursuing, the trivial and the transitory that we
seldom stop to seek true nourishment from the source of living water along the
quiet stream and the bread of life growing in the secluded pasture. We are as restless before God as Solomon with
our quest for material things even while we acknowledge as he did that these things
will never satisfy our souls. We can be as
rebellious as any Biblical character, male or female in our reactions to God’s
principles and desires if we are never still before Him. We can be very religious and yet miss the God
we claim to worship. We can try to be
religious in our actions as we cling to and proclaim an illusion of holiness,
but if we are not still before God enough to know Him, we will often miss the
mark.
The Western
Culture with its fast pace, low regard for contemplation and reflection lends
itself to a pattern of disregard for any
stopping in the frantic self-promoting lifestyle that it holds up to be its
ideal. To those of the Christian faith
there is little differentiation from the culture in many aspects of this
established and accepted so-called value system. We take very little time to reflect on
important aspects of our lives focusing instead upon the materialistic goals
and the evaluation of the attaining of those desires on which we lavished so much
devotion. Many Christians take very
little time to stop and be still before God.
Thus they seldom come into presence of God through any kind of priority
reflection, prayer or study time. If
there is any acknowledgment of God, it is basically in name alone. Thus the worship of God in our daily lives
becomes almost non-existent and the worship on the one day we set aside during
the week tends to be somewhat artificial because it is not what we normally do. Yet with this despicable quality of time
devoted to the God we claim to love; we expect to find a refuge when our
frailty and humanity are made evident to us by sickness or difficult problems
or situations that we might encounter along the way.
We become what we worship. If we never really stop, in our daily
living to be still and to worship God, who is it that we truly worship? What would we think of a pianist who never
took time to practice, or of a scientist never stopped to read or never took time to learn through experimentation? When we are still before God, our reflection
will cause growth and restoration because in the stillness, the presence of Jesus
Christ guides us through His Spirit, the sense of grace can touch us and the
power of the resurrection can change us.
We can become a new creation. Will you stop? Will you be still?
Is God, the
refuge in your life? Is God the strength
that you have to guard against the angry seas around you? Is God’s presence a
place you know from your time of being still or simply a place you go when you
are in trouble? Will you know from your times of stillness, there is nothing
to fear even if the earth all around you would be destroyed and the mountains
were thrown into the sea? Stop and be still, for in the stillness we
know the God who is present, alive and remaining when all else falls away. "Be
still and know that I am God."
Suggested Reading ... Psalm 46
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