“Be still and know that I am God…” Psalm 46:10a
One beautiful translation of that verse puts it this way, rather: “Cease your striving and know that I am God.” How often we continue pressing harder and harder, still feeling inadequate, though, and so trying even more to “be enough.” Yet, all the while, what God knows we most need is to just be still, to cease our striving and come sit in His presence awhile.
In 1 Kings 19, the prophet Elijah came to a similar season in his life. Exhausted, hounded, worn by giving everything he could, finally he withdrew to a high place, tucking himself into the refuge of a cave, desperately just wanting to be near God: to hear Him and to be heard. He felt pummeled in his own striving and just needed to be with His God.
At first, Elijah tried pleading his cause, defending his motives, arguing his case… and God drew near in like manner: there was a howling of wind that encompassed the mountain, but God’s voice was not in it. Then there came the violent tearing of an earthquake, but God’s voice was not in it. Then there descended flames, but God’s voice was not to be found there either.
Finally, the tumult in Elijah’s spirit began to subside, and he quietly came to the mouth of the cave, standing there silently, a cloak wrapped around his face, waiting wordlessly for His God to come to him. It was then that he finally heard God draw near… not in the wind or the earthquake or the fire, but in a still, small whisper of tender voice.
They communed there, heart to heart awhile, before Elijah went back to his work, renewed and strengthened for the task at hand.
There are times we all need that space of refuge, to pull deeper into the presence of our loving God awhile—to know Him as our hiding place. As we learn to be still and quiet in His presence, giving Him our full trust, He will meet us there and renew our spirits.
In our present day, the way in which we celebrate this Christmas season of joy, can become full and busy, bustling and hurried, chaotic and overwhelmingly full of stimuli on every side. No matter how good some things may be, sometimes the good can crowd out our heart’s space for what is the best. How important—now as ever—to find time to be still. If we will wait with Him awhile, we will hear His voice and more fully know His beautiful heart. That same still, small voice that reached to Elijah was later echoed in an infant’s small cry reaching mercifully to us. We waited in stillness for this Jesus, and in His humble birth, we find our refuge has come.
“In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength… Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore He exalts Himself to show mercy to you… blessed are all those who wait for Him.” Isaiah 30:15b, 18
*******
“It Came upon the Midnight Clear” (excerpt)
Edmund H. Sears (1849)
It came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth
To touch their harps of gold:
“Peace on the earth, goodwill to men,”
From Heav’n’s all-gracious King.
The world in solemn stillness lay,
To hear the angels sing.
Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long,
Beneath the angel strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love song which they bring:
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing!
All ye, beneath life’s crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow,
Look now! For glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing:
O rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing!
*******
-Amy Rutherford, 2023-
