Be Still.

Most mornings I have this little routine while I’m making breakfast of asking the Lord what we should work on today. It might sound a little weird, but it works for me, so just go with it. This quiet, contemplative, prayer time before I begin my day is so very important to me. In this space I will often think of others or specific things will come to my mind to pray and intercede for; it’s a beautiful process. Then, after I’ve made my breakfast, I’ll usually have a direction and a focus for my day as I sit down at my computer.  I don’t begin every day this way, but as often as I can, I follow this system.

“Be Still.”

This was what echoed in my heart today. So, in the midst of making my toast, I froze in my kitchen and listened.

“I will fight for you, you need only to be still.”

I’m a busy bee, I’m always working on multiple projects, so things like “stillness” and “rest” are foreign concepts to me. Normally a command like this is met with groaning or moaning or complaining from me, but this time I just said “yes”. And in that moment I was overcome with peace. Even now, as I’m writing this, my heart is full and my mind is at ease, I am content and confident right now.

Being still doesn’t necessarily mean inactivity. 

I believe there are times when we just need to let things go and stop for a moment and watch the Lord work. And when we take our hands off of whatever we’ve been hanging onto and give them to him, it turns out far better than we expected. This is by no means easy, but it always ends up working for our good.

But I think there are times when we can still be working, but work from a place of stillness of heart. There’s a freedom that comes when you’re not trusting in your own strength but relying fully on God, entrusting your plans and dreams to him, confident that he is able to do abundantly more than we can even imagine. I believe that’s a form of stillness.

We don’t need to wait for a sabbatical to be still and rest before the Lord. I think we can go through each day with this posture, submitting our minds and hearts to him. Stillness and silence is a form of surrender and trust. So let’s submit, let’s trust, let’s be still and know that our God is for us and is fighting on our behalf.