Be Still

So I’ve recently been asked the question, “how can I know God?” I’ve often replied, “read the Bible and pray.” It’s a great answer in my opinion, but often this leads to people who anxiously read through the Bible and obnoxiously pray, but very little knowing of God. As a result, I began reading the Bible and stumbled upon this little nugget of information on how we can know God– “be still and know.” It is a counter-intuitive strategy to know anything; but this is seems to be the prescription to know God. Therefore today we will focus on what it means to “be still” and how to actively apply “being still” in our lives because even being still requires doing something.

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” – Psalm 46:10

What we know from this passage that the reason God wants us to be still so that we can know Him is because if we’re busy doing something else, we would not be able to focus on why God is God. The Psalmist writes, “be still and know that I am God, as you witness my [God] exaltation in the nations and on the earth” (My translation). If we’re doing anything else but being still to witness it, then we may very well miss God and knowing God through whatever it is that we were supposed to witness. See the Psalmist says in verse six of this chapter that the “nations rage and the kingdoms totter” as a distraction to what is really going on because at the end of the day, the results are undeniable– God is with us and He will be known. Let’s translate that into something tangibly applicable today: if we are our own figurative nations and we rage and totter– that is, play the hustle to get what we want from whoever and whatever. Or if that is too blatantly perverse for you and not theological enough, we have our attention and hearts set on something other than God, then we will miss out on knowing God. To “be still” is to have our attention and hearts set on God, to be at peace with not trying to toil for something that would make us gods, but comfortable enough to allow God to be God. Over the past few weeks, I have lead our small church in the singing of songs and for weeks and weeks, I have raged and tottered my free time into becoming a better worship leader (truth be told, I have no business playing instruments or singing into a microphone); but at the end of the day, I come to realize that no matter what I do as a “worship leader” God will utter and every heart will melt, beginning with my own. Every Sunday when I get up to lead worship before God, it does, I know God but I spend six days of the week completely missing the fact that I know God and He proudly knows my name– I’m too busy trying to toil make Him proud of me, forgetting that God is already proud and all He wants is for me to be still and know Him more. This does not mean we come to church for an hour on Sundays to sing a few songs and go back out to make our own way and our own will be exalted in our lifetimes as if that’s what it means to be still. We are “still” when we are satisfied with focusing on knowing God’s work and actions in our lives. We are still when our per-occupation is to see and experience God, as opposed to trying to make experiences and see things we normally wouldn’t. There is a peace of mind and heart that comes with being still. It is an understanding of true deliverance by a God who is really with us and wants us to know Him intimately. I want to encourage you to be still and know God.