Yan Hadley spoke last night on the ‘strength of stillness in a stressed society’, looking at Psalm 46. God urges us to ‘be still and know that I am God’ (rather as He told Moses before the parting of the Red Sea to ‘stand still and see the salvation of God.‘ ) So often, we focus on the problems we face rather than fixing our attention on God and watching Him work.
God is our refuge and help in the storms of life. When we look away and try to solve problems in our own strength, we will reap further problems (see Gal 6:7), but as we wait on God, He will reveal Himself to us and give us fresh direction and help. A. W. Tozer once said, ‘We can have as much of God as we want’; like Mary, we have to choose the better thing, for our decisions determine destiny.
Choosing stillness requires:
- honesty. We can’t have any masks on with God; He desires us to worship Him in spirit and in truth.
- sacrifice. We have to make time for God, deliberately decluttering our lives and re-arranging our schedules to give time and space for God to move.
- a determination to shut out distractions (both external and internal, ignoring the negative voices which often plague us and taking captive every thought which sets itself up against God.) We need that ‘secret place’ of prayer with God (Matt 6:6)
- a determination and whole-heartedness in our pursuit of God. We have to seek God with all our hearts (Jer 29:13).
- setting our focus on God (see Is 26:3, 2 Chron 20:12)
As we are still before God, we find He renews our strength (Is 40:1, Matt 11:28) and reveals His majesty and plans to us. He restores us in the inward places (Ps 23:3) and enables us to rejoice in Him.