One of my favorite scriptures over the past few years; one that I stand on frequently, is: "Be still and know that I am God;" Psalm 46:10a
This scripture; to me, is strengthening and empowering, yet calming and peaceful.
The word "still" in the Hebrew dictionary RAPHAH (raw-faw) means: to slacken, to stay, to quiet, abate, cease, consume. To mend, cure, to cause to heal, repair or to make whole.
The word "know" in the Hebrew dictionary YADA (yaw-dah) means: observe, recognize, acknowledge, discern, perceive, be sure or certain of, have an understanding of; and my favorite - familiar friend.
Quite literally; this scripture is telling us to rest, quiet your mind, and stay calm. Recognize that your familiar friend is near and He WILL rescue you! You can be sure of His willingness and ability to ransom you from your troubles and make you whole!
No matter what you are going through, or what you have been through - BE STILL AND KNOW THAT HE IS GOD. My husband frequently points out that "nothing happens to us without it first going across His desk." He knows what happened, He knows what we went through or are going through. Our job is to pray, have faith and BE STILL, calm down and quit trying to fix it for Him. Our job is to KNOW that He is God (our friend), trust him and let Him work it out.
More often than not, we are the ones that create those pits that we frequently find ourselves in. We dig a hole, we cry out to God to get us out. And when He doesn't do it within our time-frame, we begin "helping" Him. When we do that, we just make the hole deeper.
Have you ever had an independent child that decided to cook dinner herself? You come into the kitchen and find every single dish and pan that you own, covered in who-knows-what? Food is everywhere, water is running, the stove is boiling, the refrigerator door is standing wide open - and your child is covered in a sticky mess, crying and begging you to fix it. As any good parent would do, you begin cleaning up the child, the stove, the floor, the fridge, the sink. Once you get some semblance back of what used to be your kitchen, you can start over with preparing dinner. Within minutes; said child is indignant that "she wanted to make dinner," and is pulling everything out again and adding ingredients and making the same mess. You can't keep up with her, she is making the mess faster than you fix it or clean it....
Do you recognize this child?
So does God.
My advice (and it is sometimes hard for me to follow) is: be still, clean out your thoughts, let all the negative go. Stop putting your 2-cents in. Remember? You already dug a pit you couldn't get out of on your own. You cried out for His help. Now put your faith where your mouth is and TRUST Him. Wait, pray, believe, let go and listen. Listen for that still, small voice. "The quieter you become, the more you can hear" (author unknown). Wait until He TELLS you to move. Then...MOVE.
