Be Still
Finding peace in the midst of the storm
Be Still
When I was suffering from Meniere’s disease, I would have long talks with God while lying there disabled. For those of you who are not familiar with Meniere’s disease (which I have learned is the vast majority of people, lol!), it causes the world to spin violently around you. The best way I can describe it is you feel like you have been strapped to a round disk, lying flat on your back. Then the disk starts spinning around at about a hundred miles an hour while at the same time undulating up and down from side to side at about a 45 degree angle. It completely disables your ability to tell what is up or down, or any direction at all. You cannot move from one place to another – not even crawl, because you cannot sense any direction. It is accompanied by extreme motion sickness and comes on instantly without any warning. Fun stuff, right? Well, one day in my conversation with God, He said to me, you need to be still. I said okay God, you’re kidding, right? In case you haven’t noticed, I am still. I have no choice. I cannot move myself anywhere. But He said, I’m not talking about being still on the outside, I’m talking about being still on the inside. Wow! What a rebuke! I had to slow my mind down and start pondering what on earth He meant. Then I realized that my mind was traveling at warp speed all the time thinking about that long “to-do” list, and the best way to make it all happen – which of course has never happened. Lol! God showed me that my “to-do” list will always have things on it, but I must learn to ignore those things for the one thing that is most necessary. From that day forward, I began to learn how to “quiet my soul”. The soul doesn’t always want to calm down quickly, and it can take an investment of time to learn to be quiet before God, but oh, what dividends! As surely as faith dispels fear, God’s presence brings peace.
Only one thing is needed.
You may remember the story in the Bible of Martha and Mary when Martha went to Jesus to ask Him to tell her sister to help her with the household responsibilities. May I point out here that these were very real and pressing responsibilities? They had a household of people, and Martha and Mary were responsible for preparing food and taking care of the needs of their guests. Luke tells us in Luke 10:40: “But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that HAD to be made.” (Emphasis mine) We would think that Martha was just being the responsible one and doing what must be done. But Jesus’ famous response to Martha was: “You are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed – or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. (Luke 10:41b-42) The one thing that is needed is to spend time with Jesus.
Waiting is necessary.
The presence of God brings peace like nothing else. It doesn’t matter what the problems are, or how many things are on the “to-do” list, when we are in God’s presence all those things fade away. To experience peace, we must take time to spend with God, to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to His voice. In Psalm 46:10, God says “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” And in Psalm 40, David says “I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.” When David waited for the Lord, the Lord heard him. Of course none of us like to wait for anything. But waiting is necessary to the quieting of our souls.
Find a place to wait.
We must have a place where we can escape the everyday routine and spend time “sitting at the feet of Jesus”. Some people have a literal closet where they can go to pray. For me, I find that it is easiest for me to escape somewhere outside – taking a walk in the woods, or sitting at the side of a lake. We are told that Jesus “went out” to pray. “In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.” (Luke 6:12) The night before He was crucified, He went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray alone. (Matthew 26:36) Abraham Lincoln was said to have gone to his bedroom to pray after receiving news of a battle lost by the Union Army. George Washington knelt beside his horse at Valley Forge. I can’t imagine that he had much quiet or privacy, but still the act of kneeling allowed him to set himself apart to focus on God. And of course, there is Susannah Wesley. Even with 10 children to raise and homeschool (and sometimes I think I’m busy Lol!), she managed to find 2 hours every day to spend time with God. Where was her place of refuge? She would pull her apron up over her head, and when her children saw that apron over her head, they would know that she was not to be disturbed because she was praying and reading her Bible. It doesn’t matter where you spend time with God, but it does matter that you spend time with God. The illusive peace that we all seek does not come outside of “waiting” on the Lord. So find a place – be it your office, a parked car, a closet, a bedroom, or a homemade tent – where you can be still and wait on the Lord.
The Blessing Road is waiting. See you out there! 🙂
GUARD RAIL: Take time to be still and wait on the Lord.
“I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry”.
Psalm 40:1 (ESV)