Be Quiet and Listen

One of my favorite songs is Be Still My Soul by Ginny Owens. The scripture reference (which is a favorite of mine) is taken from Psalm 46:10 — a simple yet profound verse. I sometimes wonder which part of the verse is most desired by God — that I am still or that I know He is God? I think the answer to my own question would be that you can't have one without the other. Something to think about…

I also love Psalm 37:7, "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him." It's so difficult for me, in my flesh, to be still. So often God says, "Be still my child," as a gentle reminder to me that I can only hear what he is asking of me, I can only see the unimaginable power He possesses, when I decide to quit talking, thinking asking and simply ... listen.

For me sometimes God has to go to extremes to get my attention. He decided in the last two weeks or so to take the "be still" part of my life into his own hands. I have had the flu for almost three weeks now and all I could do for about two weeks was be still. Here I was thinking well OK if I have to stay in bed I’ll do some reading but I could not even do that, could do nothing and it was driving me nuts! There are so many things that I’m working on that I would like to see finished and so many things I could have been doing even though I was sick, none of which I could do.

God sometimes has to purposely remove us from what is “comfortable” and "normal" so He can show us how distracted and "busy" we are in this big noisy world we live in. He so desperately wants to show himself to us, to tell us he loves us, but so often we can't hear him speak words of love or see His fingerprints in our lives because we are so busy being busy.

As much as I hated being still now as I look back it was BEAUTIFUL …it was quiet, and peaceful. Outside my bedroom window, He brings an incredible sunrise every morning, and almost every morning He sent so many birds and butterflies within my sight it made me realize how much I don’t stop and really savor and enjoy.

The gentle wind blowing reminded me of His angels that are protecting us everyday. At some times of the day you can hear nothing, NOTHING. The blessing of this is that in the quietness I actually could hear God because there are no distractions.

Like me I know that so many of us need to be still ... we need to find a quiet place where God can show himself to you in a mighty way so you can, possibly for the first time in your life, "know that He is God." I know that I desperately needed Him to help me be in a place of solitude so I could hear what he was asking of me and to give me a bit of direction.

He wanted me to watch the sunrise every morning, to just be in His presence, not trying to do anything, He just wanted me and nothing else. He wanted me to see through His eyes and not my own, see the direction I needed to go. He wanted for me to prioritize things differently and allow Him to be the love of my life and the only guide in my journey, to let go of the reigns.

God is gently calling us to be still ... can we hear Him? What amazing truth is almighty God going to reveal to you when you surrender your heart to the quietness of his presence? We can only find out if we are still and listen.