In
Psalm 46:10 God says, “Be still and know that I am God,” but we live in a world
in which stillness is simply not tolerated. If we
have even a moment of unoccupied time out comes the smart phone or in go the earbuds. I am as guilty of this as anybody.
However, if we take Psalm
46:10 literally, we might conclude that the only way to know God is to be still. If we feel the need to constantly entertain (distract)
ourselves, we will not be able to know God at a deep level. The reason for this is that, while God can
and does often speak to us through other people and various forms of media, God
connects to us most deeply in our inner thought life when we take time to turn
our thoughts toward him.
Of course, Psalm 46:10 is also
true if we turn it around. We are able
to be still when we know that God is God, that God is in control, that God can
and will take care of us. We can be
still when we trust that God can run the universe without our help. Psalm 46:10 invites us to be still in order
to know God better and, because we know God, to be still.
As I have said, stillness,
silence, and solitude does not come easy for most of us. For this reason, in Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster recommends that we begin
by taking advantage of the “little solitudes” of daily life. Perhaps the next time we have to make a long
drive by ourselves, we might for some of the time, leave the radio off and
allow God to speak to us in our thoughts.
To get started just take five minutes to be quiet and still and think
about Psalm 46:10. Soon enough you may
find that you can pass longer periods of time alone with God.
