Still in God's Presence

Praise the Lord! How beautiful it is to be in the presence of the Lord.
How beautiful it is to hear God’s still small voice when you’re in the presence of the Lord.
How beautiful and lovely to listen to the Holy’s Spirit’s leading when humbling ourselves before him.
How wonderful it is to wait for our loving God in our time of stillness.

Those are my personal experiences when, as a Salvation Army officer and a working mother, I put all my busyness and weariness aside and choose to be still at the feet of Jesus.

‘Be still and know that I am God’ (Psalm 46:10). This is a very familiar verse. But do we practice it? What does it mean? How do we do it? At first, it seems a simple and straightforward message to repeat God’s advice to ‘be still and know that I am God’, but I have discovered that it is not that easy to implement in my life, and I have a feeling that many of you share that same experience.

Stop moving!

Firstly, it’s not easy to simply be still, is it? We live in a world that seems to be in perpetual motion. All of us have more to do than we could ever get done. It is not in vogue to ‘be still.’ Successful people aren’t viewed as people who are ‘still’; they are people who are active. In fact, we have this idea that if we’re not doing something, we’re not being productive.

Those of us who are mothers probably remember how often we would just about give anything if our children would just be still? As a mother to four boys, keeping them still is never easy. All that energy and constant movement! So, how many times have you taken your child’s shoulders, looked him or her in the eyes, and said, ‘Please, be still!’ You feel as if you cannot get anywhere with them until they simply stop.

Well, God, our heavenly father, is saying the same thing to us: ‘Stop! … And be still.’ Stop working, stop moving, stop talking—stop!’ The first hurdle we face in stilling ourselves in God’s presence is to get our bodies to be still, to literally stop moving. And for most of us that does not come easy.

I have learnt that I must plan this ‘still’ time in my day. It has to be designated and I must give it the highest priority. For me, this still time has to be early in my day, before my mind is cluttered and my concentration is divided.

Are you having some difficulty with learning to be still? I encourage you to take this verse seriously, and don’t let the world squeeze you into its mould of constant motion. If you don’t learn to be still, you’ll never really learn to know God.

It takes time

But there’s more to being still than just stopping the movement of our bodies. I can get up early and get my body into that ‘still’ place, and discover I’m not yet ‘still’. Now, the battle really begins for me. My mind starts going a mile a minute. It’s easy to lose my concentration on the purpose of this ‘still’ time. Even though my physical body is in the right place, I’m not still before God.

To achieve inner stillness, I need that inner focus which centres on God and God alone. Which brings me into that place where he is, for that time, my whole universe, and no extraneous or conflicting information is allowed to interfere.

How can I get to the place where I can be truly still before God, so that nothing interferes with my awareness of God’s presence and his reality? Frankly, I don’t think it’s easy for any of us, because a spiritual war rages when we sit down to be still before God. Our three enemies—the world, the flesh and the devil—are out to break up this quiet inner stillness.

I find it takes time to get still. I cannot be still at the drop of a hat. Sometimes it takes what seems like forever for me to be still on the inside. But until we are still, we really cannot make any further progress toward knowing that God is God.

So, this simple verse that tells us to ‘be still and know that I am God’ requires some strong discipline on our part. We have to make a commitment to it, and then ask God to give us the strength to be still. Both on the outside—by stopping the perpetual motion and setting aside time to be alone with God, and on the inside—by focusing our thoughts and mind on God alone.

Get to know God

Now, let’s look at the next challenge of these eight simple words: to know that God is God. Knowing something means we understand clearly and with certainty. Knowing implies understanding. Knowing requires training and education. In other words, knowing doesn’t just happen; it is the result of a process and, like stillness, knowing requires involvement on our part.

Knowing develops confidence and trust. Knowing dispels doubt and fear. No wonder the psalmist is calling us to ‘be still and know that God is God’!

To know God means we know that he alone is God and that we don’t look to other people or things to meet our needs. Tell me, when you have a need, where do you go first for help? Do you first go to your bank account and trust in your money? Do you run to a friend or counsellor to give you comfort and advice? Do you look to a job for security? Then, if all these fail, is that when you go to God?

When you know that God is God, you run first to him for all your needs. We know that God alone is our life source, even though he may use other people to help us. Knowing God means we are learning to turn first and finally to him for all strength, help, confidence and security. But you’ll never be able to do that if you don’t first learn to ‘be still’, for this is the pathway that allows us to truly know and appreciate that God is God.

Do you have a deeper appreciation today that God is God, than yesterday? Do you trust God more this year than last year? Can you see a growth pattern in your knowledge and trust of God? If your answer is not a definite yes, perhaps it’s because you haven’t yet made a commitment to be still—both bodily and mentally—so that you might come to know God better. That’s where it begins: with stillness.

God will meet our needs

And so we come to two small but very important words in this verse: I am. Moses asked God what he would tell the children of Israel if they asked him, ‘What is his name?’ God replied, ‘I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: “I AM has sent me to you”’ (Exodus 3:14).

What does that mean to us? Here’s how I think of it: Fill in the missing word: ‘I need _______.’ Whatever word you can put in that missing blank, Jesus can fill it in, because he is I AM. He is our total need-satisfier.

Consider just a few of the I AMs in the Bible: I AM your shield (Genesis 15:1); I AM the Lord who heals you (Exodus 15:26); I AM he who comforts you (Isaiah 51:12); I AM gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:29); I AM with you always (Matthew 28:20); I AM the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6); I AM the bread of life (John 6:35); I AM the light of the world (John 8:12); I AM the good shepherd (John 10:11,14).

Until we take time to be still and know God, we won’t experience his all-sufficiency, the power of I AM to meet all our needs.

Do you need healing of your body, your mind or your emotions? Jesus is the Lord that heals you. Are you lonely? Are you hurting badly today because of rejection or loss that you’ve suffered? I AM is there to comfort you and meet that need for you. I AM is with you always, able to take away that loneliness if you will learn to know that he is God.

Remember who is God

Let’s focus on the last of those eight words: ‘Be still, and know that I am God.’ Oh, how easy it is for us to forget who is God! This world would have us believe that each of us is a god. We are encouraged almost to worship ourselves, to make ourselves the most important person in the world.

Some in the business community might believe that our careers should be our god. Sometimes we allow another person to become a god in our lives. Often our dreams and desires become our gods. So we need a constant reminder of who God really is! We need to frequently check the thrones of our hearts and see what may have climbed up there to take first place.

‘Be still, and know that I am God’: those eight words carry a strong message. They hold the secret for us as Christians—the secret for a victorious and balanced life, the secret for keeping our priorities in line, the secret for a life of peace and contentment, the secret for a life that blesses others and that brings glory to God.

I urge you to plan your still time, and to pray for the inner stillness you need so that you can come to know God more. Remember the I AMs of scripture. Write them down in your heart to remind yourself of how totally sufficient God is for your every need!

And then, carefully keep a watch on the throne of your life to see who or what may be trying to become your god. This often happens subtly, so we must constantly be on our guard against it.

Captain Vakatoto Wawa is a corps officer (pastor) with her husband Captain Sevanaia Wawa at Taveuni Salvation Army in Fiji.

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by Vakatoto Wawa | (c) 'War Cry' magazine, 20 September 2014, pp12-13.
You can read 'War Cry' at your nearest Salvation Army church or centre, or subscribe through Salvationist Resources.