Psalm 46:8-11 New American Standard Bible
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord,
[a]Who has inflicted horrific events on the earth.
9 He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth;
He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two;
He burns the chariots with fire.
10 “[b]Stop striving and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the [c]nations, I will be exalted on the earth.”
11 The Lord of armies is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah
Word of God for the Children of God
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
The world moves and spins furiously fast.
I certainly sense it.
Work piles higher and higher, requests come quicker and quicker, and the weight of my own expectations weighs heavier and heavier.
As I process more, take on more, and churn out more.
All while striving to keep my head above the deep water.
I know I need to slow down.
I need to stop.
And I definitely need stillness—desperately.
A stilling of my spirit.
A quieting of the swift swirls in my head and heart.
And a slow, inflated inhale followed by a steady, expanding exhale.
Releasing every last spec of stress and tension within.
You feel the intense speed of your surroundings at times, too, don’t you?
The list never ends.
It’s staring at you today, and it will be there tomorrow.
You yearn for stillness to sweep sweet breaths of life into all of the overstuffed, overburdened overtaxed spaces, of your soul.
And to stay.
You want to be still and know that God is God.
You want your confidence to grow so that you can handle this, because God has this under His full control.
Because you do know with maximum assurance and confidence God indeed has it all. All that you’re doing, all that you’re planning, and all that he has in store.
Our God is God, and that means all the things we are losing stillness over—all the busyness, hustle and bustle wearing us down to nothing but weariness—are unnecessary.
Because God will keep the wheels moving when we take our foot off the gas, if the vehicle is headed where he wants it to go.
Nothing will prevent his ultimate destination from being reached and his purposes from prevailing.
Because he is the one driving our lives, he will get us where he wants us to be.
If your soul is starved for stillness today, the Lord would love nothing more than your nestling up with him.
Sitting still beside him in the safety and security of his refuge.
Hearing his whispers of love, receiving his outstretched arms of comfort and care, and then lingering in his peaceful presence.
He wants you to be still.
He wants you to know that he is God and that he will be exalted regardless.
He is honored by your obedience and all your good work, but he also knows you need Shabbat rest.
God loves you, absolutely adores you, and wants you to do just that. To be still, know, and trust that his greater plans and purposes will still prevail.
My soul waits in silence for God alone; From Him comes my salvation. For my only hope is from Him. [Psalm 62:1 &2]
We live in noisy times.
Streets echo with the roar of traffic.
Construction projects boom and bang in downtowns, neighborhoods, suburbs.
We fill our ears and elevators with playlists from iPods, our homes and cars with surround sound. Sports events blast out marches, cheers, and taunts.
Many farm and factory workers in earlier generations lost much hearing from the din of clanking machinery.
People damage their ears at rock concerts and with earphones as they shop.
Even at worship services some sound-control people seem to lock the volume on freight train level.
The damage caused by noise is not a new discovery.
It reaches far deeper than our ears.
Centuries ago English poet John Milton portrayed hell as a place of unending noise, of unending howling and roaring and screeching and yelling.
If we bathe ourselves in noise, we might never soak in the silence of God.
We may never exalt or lift up the name of God even above ourselves, to say nothing of exalting God among the nations.
Take a survey of your daily activities.
How many are filled with consistent, continuous, [obnoxious] sound?
Are you letting noise drown out or make you forget things you should hear?
Do you forget about your physical, mental, spiritual well-being?
Do you forget your family?
Your job?
God?
How can you turn down the volume in your life and find some silence for God?
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Praying ….
Psalm 23
A Psalm of David.
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul:
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 