Brian (Daddy) wrote this

We visited another church this past Sunday and one of the verses from the sermon was Psalm 46:10 in which God says for His people to “Be still” and know that He is God. That verse has stuck with me the past couple days. I read the entire Psalm again yesterday and today and reflected on that particular part of verse 10 to be still and know that He is God.

What I find is that it is hard to be still.  I’m a fast-paced kind of guy.  I don’t like to sit still or do nothing very often.  Even when I’m not doing anything, I try to find something to do.  It seems that is kind of the way of the world.  There is so much to keep us busy that we feel uncomfortable, and even more so, unproductive when we are not doing anything.  I feel that there is so much for me to do, that I am compelled to keep going and going as much as I physically can.

While it’s a good work ethic to work hard and keep busy and accomplish many things, it makes it really difficult to spend time with the Lord.  If I was to stop for a moment and say a quick prayer to the Lord, am I really focused on Him?  Probably not.  What I’m doing is trying to check something off my list (prayer) or maybe ask for something I need (assistance, health, guidance). But what I’m really missing is quality time with the Lord.

When I think of quality time, I think of a long conversation where I am sitting and listening to my wife talk about her day or the things on her mind.  If I just fly through the room and stop for the 30 seconds, I’m not getting quality time with her.  I might tell her something, and she might tell me something, but we really aren’t connecting at all.  The same goes for our relationship with God.  I can’t connect with him in a few minutes sandwiched in between a million things I’m doing.

What it means to be still is to stop and pause.  It might be pausing for a minute, maybe ten, maybe more.  After we have allowed our mind to put aside the checklist for the day, then we can focus on God.  We can come before Him with our full attention.  I tried it this morning in my truck.  When I would normally listen to music, I shut the radio off and just tried to stop my mind for about 15 seconds.  Then I just spent the next few minutes in prayer focusing on the Lord.  When I drove up to my office, I was able to turn off the truck and continue praying for a couple more minutes and have a quality time of prayer with God… something that I haven’t had enough of lately.

So putting it into practice, it really does work.  It’s so important to stop daily, and maybe even multiple times daily and give God time.  But what I found, is that I need to stop completely.  That doesn’t mean go immediately to prayer.  It means to stop my mind first, and maybe even listen to hear what God what might be speaking to my heart. After that, I found that I was then ready to truly have some time in prayer. And in return, my day felt different today.  I was more productive and focused better.  It all started with obedience to Psalm 46:10.  I just had to be still for a minute.