Be Still

In my quiet time this morning, I realized how little I obey Psalm 46:10 - Be Still, Cease Striving, It literally means STOP!
Psalm 46:10 - "Be still and know that I am God." How do you get in touch with the heart of God, with the plans of God, with the perspective of God? Be still. To Stop and to Sit! Now the enemy of our souls knows that, so he simply tries to jam God's communications to us by covering them up with lots and lots of noise.

And it's easy to let it happen in our busy, busy lives. A telephone at home, a telephone at work, a cell phone with us everywhere. We've got them in our car, we've got phones in our pocket, we've got beepers to get us when phones can't, we've got faxes and e-mails and text messaging. And people's voices - our children, our mate, our friends, our coworkers - they are always transmitting to us. We've been raised with television, radio, videos, computers, home entertainment centers, Ipods, and CDs. We wake up to background sound, we get ready to it, we drive to it, we exercise with it, we relax with it, and we go to sleep with it. And then there's the "quiet noise" - newspapers, magazines, novels, and piles of mail. And I for one am guilty of always having something on.

We've been raised in such a noisy world that silence actually makes a lot of us uncomfortable. If there isn't background sound, we turn some on fast! And yet God says He is best known in silent times. We have so few. And while Christian radio and TV, Christian music, can encourage our growth in Christ, even they can jam what God wants to say to our heart if we keep them going constantly.

As Martha was stressfully running around serving Jesus, He told her that what her sister Mary was doing was the most important thing, quietly sitting at His feet just listening to Him. That's what we have way too little of. We have plenty of Martha busyness, but not much Mary quietness, just listening to Jesus. As a result, our minds are stressed and our souls are parched.

This is what I read in my devotion today -
"I wonder if God is saying to you in the midst of the barrenness of a busy life, "Slow down. You're missing Me in all of this because you're not protecting our quiet times." You literally have to fight for those quiet times in a world of noise. You drive without the radio on just so you can listen to your Lord. You leave the TV off, you skip the news, you exercise without the music, you go away if necessary just to be still and know He is God. Begin by praising Him specifically for attributes and actions that you've been experiencing, and then listen to Him through extended time in His Word. Pour out your deepest feelings to Him in prayer and listen in your soul for His responses. Keep a note pad handy and write down whatever He seems to be saying during this time when His voice is the only one you're listening to."

The hebrew text in Psalm 46:10 literally means "CEASE STRIVING, or STOP TRYING SO HARD, and know that I am God!
I challenge you today to stop whatever your doing and sit at the feet of Jesus and just let go of the stress, the schedule, the to-do list, the media, the future, whatever is keeping you from just being with Him - tune out so you can tune in to what He has to say, and I bet what He wants to say is something to the tune of "I love You Child and You are Mine! I will take care of you! I will guide you!
God is good
Josh