Be Still

"Be still and know that I am God"  ~ Psalm 46:10

God has been speaking this verse, this idea, to me in many ways these last few weeks.  Today it came through a devotional I read daily ~ "Streams in the Desert" by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman.  Compiled and written by her nearly a century ago, a book of collected poems, hymns, sermons...wonderful devotional.  But I digress.  The point today is to learn to be still enough to hear God speak.

Today's devotion was from A.B. Simpson, meditating on Job 4:16 "there was silence, then I heard a voice"  Pastor Simpson talked about his experience of learning to ignore everything that clamored for his attention, inside and out, and to finally hear the Lord.

He said he read a booklet called "True Peace" and into my head came the image of Jesus calming the wind and stilling the waves of the sea in the midst of a frightening storm, bringing peace to the sea and to His terrified disciples.  Jesus said Be Still, and there was Peace.

Can we have peace without stillness?  I don't believe Jesus will always calm our storms, but He can give us amazing peace right there, while everything rages around us.  Sometimes, when I am in the middle of a stressful situation, I see myself standing there while everything flies around me, the wind even catching my hair, but never harming me.  I am perfectly still as everything swirls chaotically and yet nothing touches me.  I am in the center of the storm, where it is calm and there is blue sky above.

I wish I could say that I always live in that peace, but I believe God has given me that image to comfort me in difficult times.  He is the God of all comfort after all.  (2 Cor. 1:3)

And I know that when I am not there, it is because I am rushing about, worrying, trying to fix what I, or others, have broken.  And often I find I have just made things worse because I have tried to do things in my own way rather than seeking God's guidance and direction. 

But when I am still enough to listen, God speaks, and then there is peace.