DAY 33

BE STILL & KNOW

JOHN MACDONALD, LEAD PASTOR, THE WOODS CHURCH

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. Psalm 46:10

Psalm 46 was written by the Sons of Korah. These are the guys that King David established to offer up day and night prayer to the Lord in the tabernacle which housed the Ark of the Covenant that he set up right next to his house. They sang, prayed and practiced “Be still and know that I am God.” I think King David and the Sons of Korah were on to something. I think they stumbled upon a secret that caused them to look at life and walk through life differently than those in the culture around them.

How many times have you gone to bed thinking about all the things you didn’t accomplish today that have to be added to tomorrow's list of things that have to be accomplished. How many times have our heads hit the pillow overwhelmed by the thoughts of deadlines, bills, tasks and future responsibilities. No wonder anxiety has become an epidemic. As technology has advanced over the years it has allowed us to do increasingly more much faster. We are accomplishing things multiple times faster than we ever could even a decade or two ago and we are still burdened with time. I’m sure you have heard the saying and probably used it a time or two yourself, “there just aren’t enough hours in the day.” If we feel like this often, may I suggest that we have a time problem.

According to a 2016 study cited by Tyler Stanton in his book Praying like Monks, Living like Fools, the average iPhone user touches their phone 2617 times a day, staring at their phone for two and a half hours total in a day. A 2019 study came out and they found that in three short years that time had more than doubled to over five hours a day. What’s happened with all the time that technology has saved us? Well, instead of slowing down and harnessing the extra time for leisure, prayer, family and so on, as a culture we decided to speed up even more and now a majority of people suffer from what mental health professionals call “hurry sickness” which is a behavioral pattern characterized by continual rushing and anxiety.

Psalm 46 and the desire to “Be still and know” is becoming non-existent. Christian philosopher Dallas Willard wrote a very popular book on this problem plaguing society. When he was asked, "What do I need to do to be spiritually healthy?” His response was, “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”

In our culture today, hurry is the great enemy of our spiritual lives! In fact I believe the devil loves to keep us busy! If we are overloaded with busyness, we won’t spend time with Jesus, we won’t take time to pray, we definitely won’t make reading the bible a daily habit, we will never capture God’s heart, we will never see life from God’s perspective or become sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit which we desperately need! But we must stop blaming our hurried lives on culture and take responsibility for the hurry we allow to control us. Jesus only had three and a half years to change the world. If anyone needed to be in a hurry, it was Jesus. But what do we see Jesus modeling for us over and over again? Slipping away from the crowds, from His disciples, and going off into wilderness places to be alone with the Father and pray!

Jesus’ source of calm, of peace, of power, of miracles, of leadership, of transformative teaching all came from his time in intimacy with His Father and The Holy Spirit. Jesus didn’t have the internet, tiktok or instagram to get His message out. He taught what the Father told Him to teach and thousands came to hear Him. His words brought conviction, healing, transformation and life. Jesus practiced being still and knowing His Father's voice, and it sourced everything else He did.

If Jesus, the Son of God, had to practice being still and knowing His Father, how much more important is it for us to practice this. My times in the morning of being still before the Lord and listening and praying have become a practice for me that I can’t live without. The direction and leading from the Lord that I receive in my times of being still before Him, not only brings me fulfillment and great joy, but it’s what allows me to lead my family, my staff, and the people of The Woods Church to the places God is leading us. My time in His presence each morning not only gives me sensitivity to His voice, but helps me become exceedingly aware of the tactics of our enemy that try and derail us. Without my time each morning with God I become a pawn, but as I spend time with Him, I realize I am a son with power and purpose.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6–7

Right now I want you to set this book down and simply spend time being still and knowing that He is God! There is so much He wants to speak to you!

PRAYER: Father, in a world that never stops moving, You invite us to slow down. You call us to silence the noise, to lay down the burden of busyness, and simply be with You. Today, we choose to respondto that invitation. We choose to be still. Lord, teach us to see the value of Your presence over productivity. Remind us that our identity is not in what we accomplish, but in whose we are. Help us to surrender the hurry, the worry, the weight of all we think we have to accomplish—and center our hearts fully on You. Jesus, just as You withdrew often to spend time with the Father, may we learn to do the same. Speak to us in the stillness. Let Your voice be louder than our anxieties, Your peace deeper than our confusion. As we learn to be still and know that You are God, fill us with the peace that transcends understanding and guard our hearts and minds in You. Amen.