Being Still...Days 5, 6, 7

After struggling last week to really be still, I was discouraged.  Not b/c I'd failed for a few days, but b/c I felt an overwhelming struggle with what God was really asking of me.  I mean, clearly, I am just not wired for "Stillness".  I am a "Doer" and God made me that way, so maybe I just misinterpreted His message?

Friday and Saturday,  I read the 46th Psalm, prayed, and didn't have any "Ah-ha" moments...After a few days of failure, and the lack of "really feeling it", I was even more discouraged.  That is when I really began to question "Being Still".

Sunday, at church was the end of a 6 week sermon series about the labels we are given as children of God.  The series culminated with a baptism service.  I was baptized at 7 years old, so I didn't feel I needed to be baptized again, however, being part of the service, worshiping, and rejoicing with those who were making that choice, to either come to God for the first time, or come back to God, was exactly what my soul I needed.

Now, you may think that people being called to baptism is the opposite of "Being Still", but the more I thought about it, the more the Spirit spoke to me.  Being Still isn't about NOT doing anything at all, it is about abandoning my human desires, so that I can hear God's Holy Spirit speaking to my life.  So He can tell me what to do.

Like those brothers and sisters who were baptized this weekend, I need God, not just IN my life, but to BE my life.  That can only come if I am still and KNOW God; then He can do His work in me.  For now, His work for me is trying.  It requires patience (which has NEVER been my strong suit), it requires deep, intimate conversations with Him, but mostly, it requires me to get out of my own way.

It's no accident that God's work is going against everything my human desires tell me about being busy.   So often I get caught up in myself, and though I never say I am my own God, I most certainly live like I am.  In this instance, God is asking me to sit quietly in His presence.  He is asking me to KNOW Him and when I really am Still in His presence, He will fill me.

When I can die to myself, and truly "Be Still", I have so much more contentment and joy than any earthly busy-ness will give.

So, if you're struggling this Monday, remember, God doesn't call us to "Easy", He doesn't call us to be  anything on our own.   He calls us to "Be Still and Know that I am God".  B/c if I can do that, His presence, grace, joy, and contentment will restore me.

Here's the 46th Psalm. I've been praying it every day (and working on memorizing it too!)

Psalm 46

For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to alamoth.[b] A song.

1 God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging.[c]

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
    God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
    he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

7 The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

8 Come and see what the Lord has done,
    the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease
    to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
    he burns the shields[d] with fire.
10 He says, “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.