Devotion: A time to be still

We live in a world that loves nonstop activity. Our calendars are completely filled up. We find ourselves running from one thing to another. We fall into bed and repeat it all the next day. But that’s not how God intended us to live life. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

To stop and be still is difficult in our culture of restlessness and unending options. Even if we do stop for a second, our minds are racing a million miles a second and we only sit still for a few minutes before we’re off to the next thing.

The fallout is that we don’t have time for God in our lives. Time with God requires us to stop and sit down and just enjoy time with God.

Cultivating a relationship with God requires stillness. We have to get rid of distractions. And we must also have silence. Turn off the TV, radio and the phone. It doesn’t do us much good to create solitude in our lives if we don’t add silence to the equation.

Why must we do this? So that we can hear Him. Prayer is a two-way conversation but often we treat it as a one-way conversation. We’re always talking to God and He’s trying to talk to us. We just don’t listen. There’s so much noise that his voice just gets drowned out. Psalm 37:7 says, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.”

Chuck Swindoll says, “I am more convinced than ever that there is no way you and I can move toward a deeper, intimate relationship with our God without protracted times of stillness, which includes one of the rarest of all experiences: absolute silence.”

My challenge to you is to find time each day to be still and sit in silence, even if it’s only 10 to 15 minutes. You may have to schedule it on your calendar. I guarantee it will be the most profitable part of your day as you meet one on one with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.