Weekend Words

 This year I will be using these books in my devotional times...

Our Daily Bread and Beside the Still Waters are standard each year, but then I vary a couple of others.  This year I will use Be Still and Know also.  And I have started the One Year Chronological Bible (NKJV) divided into 365 daily readings.

It's interesting to note that Be Still and Know was first published in 1978, but is still relevant (perhaps even more so) for us today, 42 years later.  Below is the reading for 1st January...

From Be Still and Know - Millie Stamm

Be still and know that I am God - Psalm 46:10

We are living in a technological age geared to speed.  Speed records are being set in travel enabling us to circle the globe in an unbelievably short time.  This accelerated tempo is experienced in every area of living today.  A twenty-four hour day is insufficient time to complete all we have scheduled on our calendars.  We are always in a hurry, rushing from one thing to another.  It is no wonder that tensions build up almost to the breaking point.  We keep stereo, radio, and television on because we cannot handle the stillness.  It is as if we are on a carousel revolving so rapidly we cannot get off.

As we are now crossing the threshold of a new year, it is an opportune time to re-evaluate our lives in the light of the future.  How are we going to use this year?  For our own interests or for God's glory?  Do we have our priorities in the right perspective?  What has top priority?  Are the things we are doing of most importance in the light of eternity?

Our scripture verse for today says, "Be still, and KNOW that I am God."  Ask yourself, "How well do I know God?  How real is He to me?  Is He only a casual acquaintance, or a dear, intimate friend?"  Perhaps our greatest need this year is to deepen our friendship with Him.  The more time we spend with a person, the better we get to know him.  We need a quiet time, a "Be Still" time, each day, alone with the Lord, to become better acquainted.

It is not easy to be perfectly still in God's presence.  The harder we try, the more difficult it becomes.  We remember something we have forgotten to do.  The phone rings.  The noise of the world about us becomes louder and louder.  Yet times of quiet are necessary for our spiritual well-being.  Dr. Gilbert Little, a Christian psychiatrist, was asked for a simple rule for mental health.  He answered, "Be still, and know that I am God."  Rest is not only important for our physical life, but for out spiritual life, too.

The world says, "Be active, be busy, be industrious."  But God says "BE STILL - be quiet, don't rush."  This is not just a cessation of activities, but a quietness of heart and spirit in which we are aware of His presence.  In the centre of our soul is a place where God dwells, and where, if we enter and close out every other sound, He will speak to us.  Someone has said, "It is not in the college or academy, but in the silence of the soul, that we learn the greater lessons of life - and quiet hearts are rare."  Many times we do all the talking instead of being quiet enough to listen to Him.

As we continue to wait before Him, the sounds about us fade away, and we are aware of being in the quietness of His Holy Presence.

In 1 Kings 19:11 and 12, we read that it was not in the wind, nor the earthquake, nor the fire that God spoke to Elijah, but in a still small voice.  It is in the stillness of the soul that God speaks to us.

An explorer went on a trek into the jungle with some nationals as guides.  The first two days the group hurried so fast that they were able to cover many miles.  On the third day the explorer planned to start at daybreak.  When it was time to leave, he discovered the guides were not ready.  He asked them what was wrong.  They replied, "We must wait."  "Wait?" he said  "Wait for what?"  They replied, "We have been going too fast.  Now we must wait for our souls to catch up with our bodies."  Have we been hurrying so fast that we, too, need to wait for our souls to catch up with our bodies?

May we take time this year to be still before Him that we may get to KNOW HIM in a more personal and real way.  Be still and reduce self-activity; be still and quit rushing about.

"BE STILL.  And know that I AM GOD."

this morning at the river