Be Still

Be Still

One of my favorite verses is Psalm 44:10,

“Be still and know that I am God.”

I use this verse often, to describe the refreshment and replenishment of my spirit when I am able to get out on a mountain or in God’s glorious creation here in Montana.  It is refreshing.  It is replenishing.  To be in His creation and to stop and just…be…still…to be near Him…to commune with Him and feel revived and ready to return home to face my daily battles, my daily grind.

In His devotional book, Prayer, Praise and Promise, a daily walk through the Psalms, Pastor Warren Wiersbe explains that the Hebrew word translated here as “be till” actually means “take your hands off.”

So, according to Wiersbe, what God is actually saying in this verse, is “Take your hands off, and let Me be God in your life.”

We live in a world we want to control – especially as mothers, and Christian mothers in today’s declining world.  We want to control everything.  But many times, our hands get in the way of God’s work.  “Sometimes only God’s hands can do the job.  Our hands get in the way because we are manipulating, plotting or scheming.” (Wiersbe)

Faith is living without scheming.

Wiersbe says, “If we try to control everything and play God I your lives, everything will fall apart.  But if we let Him truly be God in our lives, He will be exalted, He will be with us, and He will get the job done.”

But – we have to be willing to be still, and to take our hands off.

Whatever you or I are facing.

Whatever worries you or I may have.

Whatever has you or me plotting a way to survive.

STOP.

Give it to the Lord.

Wiersbe further states, “A time will come when He will say, ‘All right, I will use your hands.’  But until then, keep your hands off.  Know that He is God.  He does not expect us to do what only He can do.”

Yes.

Be still.

Hands off.

You’ve got this, Lord, because I do not.

I want to keep my hands off and be still and allow God to work in my life.

Here I am, in a cabin full of snoring middle school boys, watching the sunrise out the window, with streams of water gurgling outside, and I am being still. And I am reminded that Christ is the LIVING water.  I am revived, replenished, cleansed.

Again and again, I take my hands off our situation and let the Lord God have control.  Praise the Lord for His goodness, His mercy, His wisdom, His love.

His goodness endures forever.

God is good, all the time, and all the time, God is good.

Hush, my child…

Be still.