Periodically, I need to be still before God. It helps me to reconnect with Him on a deeper level than can be sustained when my days are full and I have deadlines to meet.

    I have always been a low energy person who desires to live a high-energy lifestyle. I have envied those who can keep going, and going, and going, like the Energizer Bunny. No diet, vitamins or exercise program has ever helped for more than a short period of time. Sooner or later, I “wind down” to where I can barely hold my head above my soup bowl and wait for my battery to be recharged. As the “winding down” process would progress, I would inevitably fall into a stage of depression. I never wanted to be “down”. I wanted to be accomplishing feats and going places.

    Within the last year or two I have discovered that if I can “rest” during these down times, there is an up side to them. I need to rest my exhausted body and mind, whether I want to or not. I have no choice in this matter. But I can also choose to “rest” with God. I can stand on His promises, even as I lean on a chair for support. And I can wait on God’s Roadside Service to arrive with a battery charger to zap me back into the land of the living-and-not-just-existing.

I can chose to “rest” with God.

    Early this morning I sat on the front porch steps with a cup of hot coffee while I waited for the newspaper carrier. Instead of giving in to the desire to fall back into bed or onto the couch, I later stood by the back screen door and watched the family of chipmunks that lives underneath my house. I have been watching them for the past few days. There are four youngsters and they have obviously been well trained. If their mother is not around, they sit inside the rim of the main “door” to their home and bask in the sunshine. When their mother climbs out of the hole and stands guard in the tree above them or on the ground near them, they hesitantly venture forth. If she suddenly leaps and races across the yard, two shadows leap and race after her and two wait for their return.

    It is her patient waiting that reminded me of God’s advice to me early this morning. Be still and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10) She will sit on her haunches or stand on her hind legs for long periods without moving, but she is not sleeping. She is alert to every noise and movement in the vicinity of her babies. And as I watched her, I was reminded that the best times I spend with God are the quiet ones. He speaks in the stillness and I hear His voice clearly, as I did this morning while waiting for the newspaper. When I am rushed and frantic to remember and accomplish everything I should be doing, I often overlook His companionship and His words of wisdom and guidance.

    This is a good time for spiritual contemplation and renewal. In due time, God will renew my physical strength and stamina and I will de-flea the cats after trimming their sharp claws, cut the thistle vines creeping across Mother’s front porch, and write my friend’s unique story. Until then, I need to rest on the advice God gave me today as I sat on the porch steps: Be still and know that I am God.

    Maybe that’s the message the Father is trying to get you to hear, too!

 

Print this Article Send it to a Friend Heartlight encourages you to share this material with others in church bulletins, personal emails and other non-commercial uses. Please see our Usage Guidelines for more information.	The Art of Being Still
	ALL of Heartlight        --- ARTICLES   A Taste of Home   Caring Touch   Diary of God   Hope from the Hill Country   Just for Men   Just for Women   Leading in Hope   Love, Sex & Marriage   Making Life Work   Prayer for the Nation   Single...Not Alone   Special Features   Timely Truths   Together in His Grace   Two Minute Meditations        --- DEVOTIONALS   Charles Spurgeon   Daily Wisdom   My Utmost for His Highest   Praying with Paul   Quotemeal   Today's Verse   What Jesus Did

Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Title: "Be Still"
Author: Janice Price
Publication Date: December 5, 2002