Perhaps God's toughest Commandment...

Psalm 46:10 - "Be still and know that I am God..."

Be still.

One of the hardest commandments to follow is to do nothing?!

Yet, on some level, it makes all the sense in the world.

In time of trouble, chaos, crisis - especially of our own doing - the one thing we tend not to do and to be is "still."

Heck, at any given time I have a hard time sitting still, something is shaking or moving.

We are reactionary.  Something happens, we respond.  Something happens again, we respond again - or we change our response, but we still respond.

We take things personal.

See things in a skewed way, through hurt or angry eyes.

We become paranoid.

Distrusting.

We feel and act like a cat in a corner or we feel like we're trying to catch a million marbles at once.

We make rash decisions.

Talk to the wrong people.

Outrageous things begin to look attractive to us. Like running away to join the circus.  (or for those of you who work in the circus) Running away to join the corporate world.

In a time of crisis, when we are at our wits end, when we are barely hanging on by a thread...what does God want us to do?

Be still.

Take a deep breath.

Be still.

Be still and KNOW that God is there.

Does that mean he'll solve our problem?

No.

It means that if we are still and trust God we will get through the crisis and be where we should be on the other side.  And our faith and trust in God will grow.

It means God knows the outcome of our crisis.  In fact he knows TWO outcomes.  1) if we are still and trust him.  2) if we try to make it, fix it, get through it on our own.

If we follow path #2 and we aren't still we'll miss God's voice.  His voice of encouragement, his voice of comfort, his voice of peace, and (what we are looking for) his voice of guidance and direction.

When we miss and don't hear his voice we begin to feel that God is not present with us in our time of need.  He is, he is always with us -especially when we don't "feel" him.  We can't feel him if we aren't being still.

We get too distracted in what is going on - which the devil is more than willing to help us out with.  Distraction is one of his best weapons, tools, he uses to drive a wedge between us and God - crisis brings on the best distractions sometimes.

Hence: be still.

Don't get distracted.

Don't give the devil anything he can use against you, because he will.  Or as Paul put it: don't give the devil a foothold.

Okay I'm still, you say, now what?

Listen...wait...continue to be still.

Which, if you notice (by how hard it is to do) being still IS doing something.

It's being open and connected to God.

In my line of work I was trained in how to handled certain situation with consumers who become physically aggressive toward people or others.

One of the first rules: do nothing.

Why?

Because while someone MAY look like they are about to hit you they might not.  They might just swear at you and storm off.  Yet, if I were to react right away - I might have made the situation worse.

(obviously, this does NOT apply to all situations.)

Being still is for the crisis when the answers aren't so clear.

We ask for direction.  Sometimes we get it, as a "yes" or a "no" or a feeling to do something.

Sometimes we get the answer that feels like an unanswered prayer: be still.

Be still, it's almost over.

Be still, the light in the tunnel is ahead.

Be still, the sun will shine upon you tomorrow.

Be still, I am with you always.

Be still, you will be okay.

Be still and know that I am God.