Stillness: Disciplines of a Godly Woman Series
Stillness. Let’s say it again—STILLNESS.
My favorite verse with this word is in Psalms 46:10. It says, “Be still and know that I am God.”
Welcome to discipline #3 in my blog series Disciplines of a Godly Woman.
Stillness. Just saying the word makes you feel calm and peaceful. It makes you think of calm still waters or of no stress. It also makes you think of non-movement or a gentle, gentle breeze.
But, is this what the word really means in this verse? The word is much deeper than we know.
The word is actually one of my favorites and this discipline is one of most dear to my heart. Stillness is something we all need but we find hard to achieve. We are a society of not being still. How do I know this? Because of the definition of still in the verse above. Most people do not walk in the meaning of the word.
Still is a verb in this verse. The word is a verb which means action, doing something, which means movement. Hmmm, the opposite of still, don’t you think? It’s a very unusual word at its core.
The word is the Hebrew word raphah. It means to sink down, relax, to let go, let drop, loose your grip, slackening your grip! Wow. So in actuality this word means you are to do something. You are to actually let go of your situations and circumstances, loosen you grip on them, relax, let your guard down, let go of control of circumstances. But it also means let go of the outcomes too!
But what does that look like in every day life? Because I can talk about it and tell you but you and I have to live this verse out. It has to become Rhema to you.
Well, think about your life. Being still is not passive like I first described. No, not at all. Being still is where you know God personally. It means you come to Him with all your stuff and you set it at His feet. You let go of your grip on your marriage, your kids, your career, your finances, etc. You relax your grip of life issues. Let go mentally of putting your mind on things and the outcomes of those situations.
God is saying in this verse if you want to really know how I am God, let go of all you know and know Me.
Let every failure go, every pressure of life, all the falling apart, shortcomings, let them go. Be still. When you do this you will watch God handle it all. Let go and get a full understanding of who God is for you.
What does this being still teach us?
- That God is sovereign. He holds all of life and when we try to hold on to it we fail. We try to hold on to outcomes of things but God is saying let go, give it to me, be still. I got this. Stop running. Stop trying to fix your own problems. Know Me in the situations. Being still looks like something. It looks like stopping.
- It teaches you surrender. Just lay in the floor, on your back, palms up and be still in your soul, mind, emotions, mental awareness by let go of everything. Take the time to not just physically not move but literally take things off your life by relaxing your grip of them. Stop striving over things
- It teaches you to mentally let go. Stillness is you having a problem and living in that problem by letting it go, taking your hand off it and doing nothing mentally with that problem or the outcome and watching God be all you need in that. Let go of the worry, the striving, the stress.
- It teaches you that God can be known. You can’t strive and know Him at the same time. You learn to come to a grateful place of rest and peace knowing Him alone. This knowing Him will alleviate all your questions about Him and who He is for you.
Okay, this sounds all nice and good. But in reality we do the opposite of this word all the time. How do we change? How do I change? How can you learn to be more still if you are not prone to this? By choosing to add this discipline to your life.
Stillness is letting go of the outcomes of circumstances. You must choose that one circumstance at a time. Stop striving to control the outcomes of things. I dont know about you but that gives me so much relief.
It makes my mind rest and just literally hand things over to God just as they are. That is a huge statement for some of you. You are facing huge problems that have huge outcomes if God doesn’t touch them. I get that.
Being still is more about getting to know Him personally.
As you surrender yourself and all your problems to Him you get to know the God that can handle all of that. That will increase trust in you for Him as you walk in this discipline.
I think part of the reason we don’t really know God is we have our grip on our situations and can never see what He can really do it and be who He really is for us. It’s a two-fold process. To know Him as your God you MUST let go of your life.
This really is the only way to get to know the God of all things. Letting go is part of knowing Him. Knowing Him is letting go. Make a point to add this discipline to your life and learn to be still.
Selah.
Photo by Sven Read on Unsplash