Sometimes as kids you get that “look” and a “shhhh, be still” from your mom! Stop squirming just be still! How difficult that seems for a child but as we grow, we learn the self-discipline of stillness or maybe we learn by the discipline of our parents.
The Essential Element
Stillness is a very valuable attribute in life especially the Christian life. We easily get overly-consumed with activity and noise so much so that when it is quiet and still we get uncomfortable. Even television programs today are programmed with more commercials for the restless soul that can’t focus for more than 10 minutes.
The power of stillness is a valuable weapon against the enemy for through it, several things are produced. Isaiah 30:7 “Their strength is to sit still” and Isaiah 30:15 says “For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest (stillness) you shall be saved; in quietness and trust shall be your strength”. So, stillness gives us strength, stillness allows us to be “quiet” so the strength of God within us can arise!
Psalm 46:10 and Zechariah 2:13 both tell us “Be still before the Lord” and hear what He says, hear what He is doing. It takes trust to be still before God whether in prayer or in service, stillness says to God “I don’t have to always be busy to be loved by You”. Job 37:14 reminds us that we are to be still and remember and Psalm 131:1-3 tells us “Those who can be still place their hope in the Lord”.
Stillness Over Busy
We are an active busy people and certainly, we are called to service in the Lord. But it is very easy to use activity and service as a hiding place from God. If we are never still then we may not hear what He wants to say directly to our own hearts. Rather than allow Him into those intimate places, we just stay busy doing “for Him” rather than being “in Him”. Numbers 9:8 “Be still so that I may hear”. If we don’t choose to be still then He will eventually choose for us. He would rather draw us into it but if we are unwilling to stop running in circles in His name, He will force us into stillness.
[Tweet “it is very easy to use activity and service as a hiding place from God – Renee Hymel”]
Inner stillness is an absolute necessity to truly knowing God for if we are never quiet, when does He have access to our hearts to speak who He is? So today, it might be time to tell those “activity directors” inside to be quiet, you are going to take some time to be still and let the Lord Himself speak!
Renee Hymel
As I have grown in my walk with the Lord, especially these last 3 years, I have discovered a love for “aloneness” with Him that no church service can duplicate. Though I love my church, serving and teaching, nothing compares to a walk alone “in the garden.” It is in this place that I have grown, it is there, I have been healed, and it is there that in my daily conversations with the Lord, He fills me daily to accomplish the task He sets before me. I have a heart to build, strengthen and encourage women especially in the area of prayer for their children. Through our ministry the Worldwide Mom’s Day of Prayer we are doing just that.
