Why Should I Be Still and Know God?

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

Ok, for me, this is one of the hardest verses in the Bible! I hate to be still! I work full time, teach both the teens and women’s Bible studies at church and run a household. How do I have time to be still? Being still means the laundry piles up, dinner doesn’t get on the table, and dust grows two inches thick on every surface. Stopping for a few minutes might mean that something on my “100+ To Do List” fails to be accomplished. How can I be still?!

Amazing how just twenty-two words turned my world upside down. Amazing that my response to this text, a text that doesn’t even include the word “you,” became all about me. Upon further reflection of the handful of words used in this passage, we learn several important lessons.

1) This world is not about me. It’s not about my career, my goals, my dreams. It does not matter how much I accomplish in a day, a week, or a month. When I think that my pursuits really matter, I am chasing the wind. As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 2:11, “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.” I restate: this world is not about me; it’s about God. The Creator and Redeemer of the universe. The One who deserves to be exalted by all peoples of the earth. My focus needs to shift from my day-to-day tasks to my Sovereign Lord. What I need to do in this life is love the Lord with all my heart, soul and mind. (Matthew 22:37)

2) The gods we often serve are not the True and Living God! In a society that bucks the very reference to supernatural or spiritual things, we balk and say “I serve no gods”. But think about the things that we give our time to–entertainment, social media, etc.–have they become the recipients of our worship? Do we seek fulfillment in them rather than our Creator? Isaiah 44:6 reminds, “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.” We need to stop elevating things, actions, anything, everything above God!

3) If we want to know God more intimately, we need to be still. We are not going to find Him amidst the bustle and crowds where we often go. We aren’t going to find Him with the radio blasting and our windows down. Sometimes, we will only find what we are looking for when we slow down, come to a complete stop and surrender everything including our will to Him. It is amidst this stillness that we find the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

Why do we want to discover God? Simple. “We love him, because he first loved us” (I John 4:19). He loved us so very much that He came to earth to die for us. My original question shifts. Instead of asking, “How can I be still?!” I’m now thinking, “How can I NOT be still and know God?”

What about you? How do you take the time to slow down and get to know God?