When You Want to Reject Stress to Embrace Stillness?
Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for Him to act. Psalm 37:7
Humility and patience are natural lead-ins to stillness…
Do you do stillness well?
It is defined as:
- The absence of sound.
- The absence of motion.
- The absence of disturbance.
I’m terrible at being still. Absolutely terrible.
I am always doing, listening, watching, thinking, talking . . . if I’m still I’m probably sleeping and I’m not sure I’m still even then.
Stillness does not come naturally for most of us.
We live in a noisy, information cluttered state of busyness with no idea how to push pause and find the calm we desperately want and truthfully . . . need.
Even if we get a few moments without noise and activity, stillness is hard to achieve.
Stillness is doing nothing, it is quieting your thoughts and simply being.
When is the last time you did that?
God wants us to be still in Him.
God says, “Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10
Our Father invites us to know Him in stillness.
I love the NRSV translation of 1 Kings 9:11-13, where Elijah and God meet on Mt. Horeb:
He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.
So for the next 31 days, I will be intentionally embracing stillness.
Why do I want to embrace stillness?
Because I want to know my Father better. I don’t want to be content to stay where I am. I want to know more about Him. And…
I want to know HIM. I want to do a better job of listening for His voice and following His will.
Knowing me, this won’t be easy. Even when I turn off my tunes and television. When I walk away from social media and leave my phone in the other room . . . my mind is always busy. Always.
With God’s help . . . I want to change that.
I want to be still. I want to “cease striving.”
The Hebrew word for “Cease striving” is “raphah” and it means – sink down, let drop, let go, be quiet, become helpless.
Oh, I don’t do that well. But it’s time. It’s time to let go of busyness, stress, and anxiety; by embracing stillness and sinking down into the presence of the Lord.
Jesus said to His disciples, “He said to them, “Come away by yourselves, and we will go to a lonely place to get some rest.” Mark 6:31
I want to come away by myself and rest with Jesus and this mid-summer month is the perfect time to begin.
My goals for the month:
1. Turn off the things that distract – and pursue stillness for at least 20 minutes each day.
2. Come into that time humbly surrendered and willing to patiently wait on God.
3. Learn God’s will for me and obey Him without hesitation.
Like the previous months, I anticipate challenges. I don’t expect this to be any different. Stillness and complete surrender do not come naturally for me. And when it comes to listening and obedience, I think my typical approach is to tell God what we’re going to do and ask Him to get onboard and bless it.
So, I am going into the month trusting His promise to give me peace.
“I will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is set on me.” Isaiah 26:3
Strength.
The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust Him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving. Psalm 28:7
And courage.
Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! Psalm 27:14
I’m hoping you will join me.
If your schedule won’t permit 20 minutes, start with 5 or 10.
Whatever the amount of time . . . let’s respond to Jesus’ invitation to – “Come away by yourselves, and we will go to a lonely place to get some rest.” with willing humbleness, patience, and surrender.
It’s time to be still and know!
We would love to pray for you.
You can leave your prayer requests here…
and even take a few minutes to pray over the list left by our friends.
Never Miss an Update
Leave your email address and I’ll send you a short email every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to alert you to each new devotion. Plus you’ll receive a copy of 30 Ways to Bless Your Marriage and Keep the Spark Burning
I always enjoy hearing from you! Please take a minute to say ‘hi” and share your thoughts in the comments below.
And if this article blessed or helped you today — would you share it with someone? Maybe a friend, family member, coworker, or through the links below…
Yes, Deb, this is a challenge for me, too. Even though I think I spend lots of quiet time with God, it’s always difficult to completely still my thoughts and just be open to Him. I will be trying along with you, my friend. Thanks for this inspiration and have a wonderful weekend!
I love this encouragement to be STILL, Deb. This is what I’m trying to learn for myself. It is so hot where I live (with no central AC in the MidEast) and I was feeling tired, but do you know it was STILL hard for me to grab a Christian book, read 10 minutes and then close my eyes for 10 minutes??? And I felt so much better after I forced myself to be still. Blessings to you. Thanks for hosting today.
Deb I love being still with Him each morning. Loving the summer because I substitute teach during the year. I’ll be joining you each day in Bible reading, my Bible studies and most of all prayer. Thanks for the link-up.
Oh, I am so with you, Deb!
I think we may be sisters separated at birth!
Thought the humility month was tough, but this one may “kill” me!
Sure am blessed by you. Love your images on this one too~
I love the Hebrew meaning for the words “cease striving.” How divine to sink into the presence of God by being still! I know my soul longs for that every day! Putting down my devices is probably the hardest. Thank you so much for sharing my post this week too! What.a blessing!
I love your goals for the month. I am working on stillness. I can sit still but my mind is hard to calm. That is why I try to meditate, but my daily prayer time also is helping. I may never be terrific at stillness but I know God wants faithfulness and perserverance more than perfection.
Stillness doesn’t come naturally to me either unless I have a book in my hands. But I don’t think that counts, right? 🙂 I’ve been practicing centering prayer for about 3 years, and it’s still more of a struggle than I thought it would be by now. But I count it a win if I can just sit still for 20 minutes without looking at the clock. God knows the intention of my heart and that I want to spend that time with him, even if my mind still wanders all over the place. May you have some refreshing time with him as you practice stillness too!
Hi Deb!!
Awww stillness, I LOVE IT! With Summer being here and still having teens in the house and a son home from college AND watching my grandkids more…I’m craving stillness. However, just like you encouraged us…even if it’s 5 or 10 min..I’m all in! I’ve just got to have that time with the Lord…or I would simply go crazy. LOL
Hope all is well with you my friend!
I love the 3 things you are working on for this month – I read #1 and thought – I can do that – I so need to do that – turn off the things that distract and spend 20 minutes in stillness and quietness seeking God – thanks for the encouragement and for hosting as always.
Deb, this post on embracing stillness is deeply meaningful. I understand your struggles with being still and quiet. Sometimes I can get the being still component, however, my mind IS NOT still. My challenge will be to quiet my mind–still it–so I can hear from the Lord. This will be a good journey for me.
Blessings!
Oh Deb, how much I can relate to you. I also struggle with stillness. The older I get, however, the more God is challenging me to embrace stillness (instead of filling my “still” time with unnecessary noise). Thank you for the reminder to embrace the stillness! I will be remembering your goals for myself this month!
Deb, your posts have been so spot on, what God is trying to speak to my heart the last few weeks. I was just remembering a couple of days ago a simpler time of my life when I was a teenager at an Easter conference on a campground with lots of acreage. I was remembering how I took off alone hiking as the snow fell silently around me, and God kept on repeating over and over in my mind and heart, “Be still and know that I am God.” It was such a wonderful time with God, and it is still a wonderful memory. Now to spend more time in stillness before Him in my present season.
The word “want” stood out to me in your title, and as I read I was reminded of Jesus question to one of the people he healed: Do you want to be made well? I think we have a real problem embracing the beauty of stillness — we fear inactivity and wrongly equate stillness with lack of productivity. Your words are so needed!
I love this, Deb. What a beautiful thing to take one small piece of truth and focus on it for a whole month. Not that learning to be still is a small task, because it is NOT! I struggle to be still, but I know that there is so much wisdom to be found in the still places of life. I look forward to joining you and growing together over the next month.
I have been struggling with this a lot lately. I have an 8 year old, a toddler, and a baby due in 1 month. I homeschool and I have just started a blog. I have so many things to do each day and that makes it so difficult to just be still. I have started putting “quiet time” on my to-do list each day in hopes that will help me to prioritize stillness. It is definitely a work in progress, but I am getting there. Thanks for this encouraging post:)
Hi Deb,
I am so looking forward to this series! I loved Val’s post, too! So thrilled it was your feature!!!
Blessings,
Lori