Be still and Know that I am God..
It is a comfort to read this passage. It is a comfort to be given a choice (or even an excuse) to “Be Still” whenever one faces the heaviness of despair, the pain of anxiety, and the illusion of helplessness.
I kept on asking what it meant to “Be Still”. It should be easy. The concept seems fairly simple. But once you are in a situation that would call for it, you seem to want to do everything BUT be still. A simple passage then becomes obscure. It becomes a very difficult option and yet I should have faith in its Truth. Being still feels unnatural; even a contradiction to who and how I am. At one point I tried to visualize it and attempted to understand. I laid on my bed and literally kept still. Not moving a muscle, not thinking of anything and no worries for a moment. Just the feeling of being still. I felt it.
To Be Still is not a command to be idle. Neither is it an excuse to choose something that displeases Him. The command to Be Still comes from the Hebrew term rapha (meaning to be weak, to let go, to release) which might be translated as, “cause yourself to let go”. But to what extent do we keep still? to surrender? When can we move? These questions become secondary and even meaningless since the passage continues on and says.. and Know that I am God. You see I don’t think I can Be Still nor have the luxury to surrender if I didn’t know WHY I can.
The process then should always begin in Knowing Him and what He is capable of – only then can one let go and surrender. It is not blind faith. It is knowing Him through the Scriptures and living in prayer. Through my imperfect walk of trying to know Him, I’ve come to Be Still. Being Still for me is confidence in Knowing that I lay within the palm of His hand and that is enough for me to surrender to His will.