By Justin Pratt, Clear Springs Baptist Church Senior Pastor
Being still is harder than it sounds. Try sitting quietly while your phone buzzes, or resting when you have a problem you cannot solve. Try sleeping when your mind has decided to rehearse every possible outcome of tomorrow, and try doing nothing when everything inside you is screaming, “Fix it!” We are not very good at being still. We like movement because movement feels like progress. We make the phone call, send the text, search for answers, develop another plan, replay the conversation, calculate the possibilities and prepare for every imaginable outcome. Then we come to Psalm 46.
The earth is moving. Mountains are being carried into the sea. Waters are roaring. Nations are raging. Kingdoms are being shaken. Everything that appears stable suddenly seems unstable. And right in the middle of all that chaos, God says in Psalm 46:10: “Be still, and know that I am God.” That almost sounds too simple, until you have to try it. Being still does not mean doing nothing. It doesn’t mean you stop caring or pretend your world isn’t broken or your circumstances aren’t serious.
The Hebrew word translated “be still” carries the idea of letting go, dropping down, relaxing, or allowing something to subside. In modern language, God is essentially saying, “Relax. Release your grip. Stop fighting to control everything.” Or, as my 9- and 12-year-old boys might say, “Take a chill pill.” It is a breath and looking to God. What makes this even more powerful is how that same Hebrew word appears elsewhere in Scripture. Deuteronomy 4:31 says that God “will not forsake thee.” The idea is that God will not let go of His people.
Then listen to Deuteronomy 31:6: “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” That expression, “He will not fail thee,” comes from the same Hebrew root used when God says, “Be still.” Joshua heard the same promise in Joshua 1:5: “I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” — Joshua 1:5
Do you see the beauty in that? God tells me to loosen my grip because He promises never to loosen His. I can let go because God will not. Being still means I stop trying to control what only God can control. I stop trying to carry what only God can shoulder. I stop demanding to understand what only God’s infinite mind can comprehend.
When you board an airplane, you do not knock on the cockpit door every ten minutes to ask the pilot if he still knows where he is going. When your doctor gives you trusted medical advice, you recognize that he understands things you may not. When a pharmacist fills a prescription, you trust expertise beyond your own. Faith requires something similar. There comes a moment when I must take my hands off the controls and trust the One who sees and understands what I cannot see. Standing still is not weakness; it is surrender. It is allowing my frantic attempts to fix everything to subside and saying, “God, this is bigger than me, but it is not bigger than You.” Maybe today you are facing something you cannot change, explain, repair, or predict. You do not have to know every detail of tomorrow when you know the God who is already there today. So, loosen your grip, quiet your heart and be still, and know that He is God. If we ever get it, there is a tremendous blessing in simply being still.
