Be Still and know…

Psalms 46:10-11 (NIV)
10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
11 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

Be still.  One of the hardest, if not the hardest, thing to do in life.  We are wired to do things on our own.  The experiences we have in life, things our parents taught us, lessons we learned in school, advices given by friends, lessons we learned through mistakes we have made…all these are all used to teach us to deal with the different situations that life brings us.

This is why when we have problems, trials, or even just simple situations that need our attention, we naturally try to solve them.  We don’t keep still.  We strive, we struggle, we panic – because that’s what we have been trained to do.  We just cannot be still.

But Scripture, Psalm 46 specifically, does not just tell us to keep still.  I will agree that it does ask the impossible from us.  How can we just keep still.  But Scripture tells us to BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD.

The reason for being still is to know that God is God.  That’s why a Christian keeps still.  In the heart of a Christian is a desire to know his God, to know how great, how faithful, how loving his God is.  And that’s why a Christian decides to keep still – he wants to know the God that he worships and obeys.

Many Christians don’t want to be still because they want to see the solution right away.  That tells me that their utmost desire is just to have a solution to their problem.  But the utmost desire of a Christian mustn’t just be solutions or answers to prayer, but to know who his God is, to see His power and faithfulness in the situation that he is in.

God Himself proclaimed “I will be exalted…”.  In every situation that God allows to come to our life it is always God’s purpose for His name to be exalted.  What He desires is that we be still so that we know and experience how He exalts His name in our situation.

Have you received a blessing?  Be still and know that He is God in that blessing.  Did you just receive bad news?   Be still and know that even in the midst of that bad news He is still God!  Are you in the midst of a trial, a hardship, a situation that you cannot seem to handle?  Be still.  Be still and know.  Make that a prayer in your heart – Lord, I want to know you in this situation.  I want to know who you are, what you can do, how you will exalt your name in this situation.

Ephesians 1:17 (NIV)
17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better.