Psalm 46:10 says, Be still, and
know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in
the earth!
The Hebrew term for God as
referred in this verse is Elohim. Referring to God in this sense declares him
as Creator, Judge, Mighty One, the only God.
It sets God apart from all the false gods we produce in our minds and
with our hands. There is one and only
one God and His name is Elohim.
Guys, gals, I wake up too early
in the morning. It’s not that I long to
roll out of bed before the rooster wakes up, the thing is, it is my only time in
my day that I can isolate myself to do any type of personal devotions and
physical workout.
In my world, when the sun goes
up, my mind gets rolling like a freight train and I can’t stop it. I move, I think, I do, and I don’t stop until
I crash at night. This is why I can’t do
any good reading at night because the moment I slow down, I crash. It is very hard (unless literally all of my
to-do lists are blank, which is rare) for me to take my hands off of life
during the day to be still.
There is a gem in all my busyness
that I discovered, back in college, and I am just now rediscovering it and its
benefit to me and it involves taking walks.
I love to take walks. In college, while in Mississippi, I would
walk to explore. I would bring nothing
with me on my walks, just my imagination and a sense of adventure. I would walk abandoned train tracks, climb
out of date water towers, or just go get lost in the woods. I loved to do this because, while I was in
college, I was doing full time school while working 4 jobs, so my walks were my
chance to “be still”. Today, my walks
are much different; usually I have some sort of music playing, or something in
my hands, or I am practicing a sermon on my walks.
But something happened on a walk
a couple of weeks ago that was life changing.
I started on my walk and I forgot to bring something along, I literally
had nothing in my hands, in my ears, and nothing in my mind. So I thought, “This could be nice” and I
walked, no I strolled casually around the block with absolutely nothing except
myself.
How refreshing to be still
mentally, emotionally, and, for me, in a lot of ways, physically, as strolling
around the block is one step above sleep for me.
Why do I have to be still and
know that God is Elohim? Because, once my day gets going, I start to
grab a hold of duties, thoughts, task lists, and begin to conquer them. If they don’t get done then my life feels as
if it spirals out of control and I start the next day even more stressed (and
try to wake up even earlier in order to get it all done…BTW I know it’s not
healthy).
So I want to share with you a
little exercise that I have learned to do. I want you to try it out right now.
Don’t count, but take
approximately 30 seconds, clear your mind, set everything down, shut off your
computer screen, and close your eyes.
During this time I want you to take 7 deep slow breaths in…then out…The
only thing allowed to penetrate the awkward silence of being still is this
thought, “God, you and you alone are God.”
Are you ready? Deep slow breaths,
clear your mind and everything around you, close your eyes, and only allow the
thought that God is God alone slip through the barricade you are erecting in
order to enable yourself to be still….Go ahead, I’ll wait…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
Great Job! Now, one more step in this exercise. I want you to take a survey of your life (I
know, it doesn’t make sense). Are your
finances any worse than they were 30 seconds ago? Is the roof still hanging above your
head? Are you still breathing? Did the food in your kitchen disappear? My point: you let go of full control, you
took your hands completely off of your life for a moment and determined to know
that God is God and everything still held together just fine. This exercise proves that you and I can learn
to take moments out of our day to be still and know that God is God. You are not God, therefore you are not in
control of your chaotic fast paced life, and no other thing is God, only Elohim is God and in Him and through him
all things are created and are held together.
Now for your next challenge…45
seconds of being still. You can do it!
