Devotion: Be still and know

“Be still, and know that I am God!” ~ Psalms 46:10

The world has, in many ways, been anything but still, especially in the last year. Information has been coming at us from every angle. Our heads were left spinning trying to figure out fact from fiction, truth from falsehood and what we should do about it all.

It seems like the world was in a constant state of turmoil. Even when we tried to keep to ourselves, the chaos could creep into our lives. There did not seem like there was space to be still.

In other ways, the world was very still, more still than it has been in decades. Throughout the past year, many of us have limited our social engagements, our celebrations, our time with friends. We have not been going out as much—shopping, dining, traveling. We have not been to the big sports games that we enjoy. Our lives are quieter.

Yet, even in the quiet, we fill our days with schedules of Zoom meetings, phone calls, work and social media. We do not do stillness well at all.

Why does God tell us to be still? Perhaps, as a friend suggested to me, it is because only when we are still, our mind and our body, that we can truly feel the presence of God.

It is when we are still that we can know that God is God and that God is here with us.

In the next verse of Psalm 46, we are told that God is our refuge. When we are still, we can know God is there and we can seek comfort and peace in God’s arms. We can collapse in God’s loving arms and be still.

In these times when information overwhelms our senses, when chaos seems to be a part of daily life, we have permission to stop and be still. We are allowed to be overwhelmed, but we do not have to be overwhelmed on our own. Instead, we can be still and know that God is God and rest in the comforting and reassuring arms of God who knows and loves us.

“Be still and know that I am God!”

When you are overwhelmed, stressed or surrounded by chaos, stop, be still and rest in the arms of God.