Shhhhh, Be Still and Know…
Ken Rice
Have you ever tried to quiet a loud room by yelling, or calm a screaming person by matching their intensity? How did that work out for you? Thank the Lord that God doesn’t use that method to get our attention! That would be jarring to say the least.
No, God uses the still small voice method. The whisper where you have to quiet your mind and lean in close to hear what he has to say. To hear his whisper forces us into a different posture. One of intimacy.
We live in a world filled with noise. I’ve learned recently that this chronic noise is one of my greatest walls to spiritual growth and intimacy with God. I fill my life with noise. Noise from the demands and desires of life, the demands of relationships, and the demands of work. All this noise can be immersive, completely surrounding us. We must learn how to turn down the volume of this world while leaning into God’s still small voice.
I’m going to assume that I’m not alone in this reality. That your life is just as noisy or maybe even more so than mine.
In the noise it becomes easy to forget about God. It becomes easy to overlook the fact that He is right there with us. Never leaving us or forsaking us. Staying closer to us than a brother. I don’t know about you but it takes vary little to distract me. Squirrel (forgive the movie reference)!
The solution for me was intentional stillness and intentional prayer. There is a practice that has helped me to hear the still small voice of God better than anything I have ever tried. This is not to discount reading the scriptures, preaching, or corporate worship in the slightest. Those all have very important and active places in my life. But this one simple practice has stopped the noise in my world more than any of the others.
You have heard Jim reference the Prayer of Examine. I’d like to challenge you to give it a try for one week. Build it into your daily routine. It takes 8-10 minutes. I can speak from experience that those 8-10 minutes have become some of the most powerful moments of my day. Sensing the presence of God, hearing his voice, and gaining clarity on my yesterday and today. I’m including a link to a a video that will teach you the steps of this simple prayer. Check it out! I challenge you!
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Psalm 46:10-11
The psalmists starts off Psalm 46 by referring to God as our refuge, and finishes it with Him as our fortress, and our ever-present help in time of need. I pray that this becomes your reality as it is becoming more and more mine.