Be Still to Know

"Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." (Psalm 46:10).

Our fathers had much to say about stillness, and by stillness they meant the absence of motion or the absence of noise or both.

They felt they must be still for at least a part of the day, or that day would be wasted. God can be known in the tumult of the world if His providence has for the time placed us there, but He is known best in the silence. So they held, and so the sacred Scriptures declare. Inward assurance comes out of the stillness. We must be still to know.

There has hardly been another time in the history of the world when stillness was needed more than it is today, and there has surely not been another time when there was so little of it or when it was so hard to find.

Lord, in today's world stillness is so rare but so needed. Quiet my world even for these few moments and speak to me in the stillness, I pray. Amen

___________________________________________

A Voice Out of the Silence

"And after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice." (1 Kings 19:11-12)

It is significant that the psalm in which the words "Be still" occur is filled with noise and commotion. The earth shakes, the waters roar and are troubled, the mountains threaten to tumble into the midst of the sea, the nations rage, the kingdoms are moved and the sound of war is heard throughout the land. Then a voice is heard out of the silence saying, "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10).

So today we must listen till our inner ears hear the words of God. When the Voice is heard, it will not be as the excited shouting of the nervous world; rather it will be a reassuring call of One of whom it was said, "He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street" (Isaiah 42:2).

It cannot be heard in the street, but it may be heard plainly enough in the heart. And that is all that matters at last.

Quiet the storms around me and still my heart, Lord, that I may hear the call of Your still small voice. Amen

~A. W. Tozer~