rMag

Becoming Bereans Be Still

Jenna Watts

Be still, and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10a).

Our world today is all hustle-bustle. It seems like everything we do has to be done quicker and faster (though often less efficiently) than we have ever done it before. How many of us were irritated or impatient when this webpage didn’t load right away? Everybody has so much to do in a relatively short amount of time. We run, run, run because hey – “we can sleep when we’re dead.” Now, this philosophy isn’t completely wrong – but at the same time it’s not all right either.

Our lives here on earth are short – someday we will die. There is no escaping that. We do have many things which we need to do in order to make our lives here count. But perhaps we have it wrong: our thinking doesn’t line up with Biblical standards. Yet Psalm 46:10 clearly states the words, “Be still.” No matter what translation you read, it says that or something along the same lines. Not one translation that I checked said “while you are rushing know that I am God.” The reason for this is simple: it is impossible to know God while we are rushing. The New American Standard Version even says, “Cease striving.” According to Webster’s 1828 Dictionary ‘to strive’ can be defined as: to make efforts; to use exertions; to endeavor with earnestness; to labor hard. Isn’t this what we are doing day in and day out in all of our rushing?

So what happens when we make rushing and striving our lifestyle? The end result is that we let important things slide. Often we put what matters most off and let things that don’t matter as much take precedence. We take on another really important project, and then we have less time to cultivate relationships with the people in our lives or our Creator. We no longer have the time for them because we have our own things to tend to. When we let our own desires take priority, we end up pushing God over to the side. Whether we realize it or not, this act signifies that we don’t believe that He is as important as everything else that we have going on.

Ouch! Of course we don’t say that . . . we may still say that He is our number one priority, but in truth we have lost our focus. He is no longer the center of our life because everything else we have going on has taken His place. To put it bluntly, this is a form of idolatry.

Idols aren’t just concrete objects, they can also be things such as our schedules and our way of life. They can be our sports, shopping, friends, or anything else that that takes our focus away from God. In Exodus, it states that God is a jealous God and that we are not to create idols for ourselves. It is very important that we understand this and continually evaluate everything that we do. The Lord must be first in our lives. If anything else becomes more important than Him, we need to repent and realign our priorities. Our lives are too short. We must make time for the important things by prioritizing everything we do and setting apart time for knowing our God. It might require giving up something that we don’t want to give up temporarily or even permanently.

When I’m deciding whether or not to take on another project or obligation, I try to ask myself the following questions: Is this new project really worth giving up my time for? Will it really matter in ten years? Does what I can do have eternal value? What things are going to be neglected if I take this on? If we answer these questions honestly, it helps keep things in perspective.

Now that we better understand how to prioritize, we must ask: how can we focus on the Lord? How can we fully realize His power and be in awe of Him when we are surrounded by this race our culture is in? As I said – we can’t.

I often find times in my life when I need to take a break from my current lifestyle. I will go for a walk and admire the beautiful nature that our Lord has created, or I will study His word and rediscover His truth and mercy. It is then that I see His awesome power in nature. It is during times such as these when the Lord reveals Himself to me. I love and treasure those moments, but even with the remembrance of the wonderful time that I have spent in being still and knowing God, it can be difficult for me to make that time.

So what is it that makes it so hard to “be still”? Simply put, it is our own selfish ambition. Our sinful nature causes us to do only what we think is best for ourselves. If it doesn’t fall in line with what our plans are, then we try to ignore it. If we think it is required of us, we will try to do the very minimum just to get it done. It is impossible to know our Lord if we are crowding Him out and replacing Him with all of our other activities.

How do we make spending time knowing God a part of our everyday lives? This is difficult. It takes the giving up of ourselves and our time. It will require sacrifice on our parts. We might have to put some goals aside for a while, or maybe even for good, to have the time. In order to know our Lord, we have to be willing to give up our own desires, but isn’t the tradeoff worth it? Isn’t it rewarding to put our own desires aside to be with and worship our Creator? Yes it is!

In Psalm 131:2 the author says, “Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul.” During his life the psalmist fought a giant, conducted wars, ruled over a nation and much more. If he was able to do all that and still find time to calm and quiet his soul, then we should certainly be capable of doing it as well. A good way to do this is found in the various examples that Jesus set throughout the New Testament. Mark 1:35 says, “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.” One way to be calmed throughout the day and to be still is to begin our morning in prayer and the studying of Scriptures. If we just learn to make time to be still and to seek God in the morning we will find Him as is promised in Jeremiah 29:12,13: “Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” We cannot search for God with all of our heart if we are distracted by everything else that we are doing.

Take a look at that verse in Psalms once again. It says “Be still . . .” That is a direct command to be still, not just a suggestion. When God commands something it is crucial that we follow that command – if it is important to our Lord, than it should be important for us. Remember to be still; remember to prioritize what is really important. We must get away from the busyness of the world in order to be able to know our God. So be still for a while, and know that our God is the Lord of all.