“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength...” Isaiah 30:15
I’m face to face with the idea that I need to recover from emotional burnout. That includes rest. Not just “go to sleep at night for 8 hours” resting. But the “being still inside me because it’s really not up to me to get it all done” kind of rest.
“Be still and know that I am God…” Psalm 46:10
That’s where I run into a problem. I’m not comfortable being still. I don’t know what it looks like for me. I wrote down as many words/phrases that came to mind or I found in the thesaurus.
Don’t work, Don’t play, Rest, Quiet
Don’t think (my mind is the most active part of me sometimes!)
Dormant, Latent, Immobile, Inert, Quiescent
Stagnant, Static, Stationary
“…to “be still” comes from…the [Hebrew] verb rapha (meaning to be weak, to let go, to release), which might better be translated as, “cause yourselves to let go” or “let yourselves become weak”.”
In the Old Testament the Sabbath was a time of rest. In the early days of the church, the first day of the week became the Christians’ day of rest. Early in the history of our country, Sunday looked much like a Sabbath.
God knows we need a day to rest. Our flesh gets weary and if there is no assigned day of rest, the tendency is to work. Get things done. And when work is over, we work at our play. But it’s not only our flesh that needs rest and stillness. Being still includes every part of you: physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
The idea of utter stillness feels foreign, so I ran a little experiment to find out how long can I be utterly still. No twiddling thumbs, tapping the foot, twisting the chair, rocking, chewing gum, thinking about my to do list (ouch), singing, talking….nothing.
I set my timer for 1 minute. Go! My experiment went something like this:
1,2,3,4….Reigning in my thoughts now…“How am I going to do this?”(worry). “What should I think about?”(it’s something to check off on my list). I decided to think about God. I imagined His throne. Tried to think of descriptions of God – but only from the bible. I figured that if I thought about modern day, I would get distracted. Holy. You are Mighty. I praise you….57,58,59, 60.”
I don’t believe we’re supposed to embrace a practice like Yoga where (in the purest form of Yoga) we empty our minds. I do, however, believe we are supposed to center our hearts on God and not on the concerns of this life. And I’m pretty sure I need to train myself to do this.
To learn stillness in our spirit,
we need to train our flesh to be still.
I’ve decided to start training my mind to stay fully on Him with 1 minute of utter stillness at a time. I’ll increase it from there as I learn to be still. I came up with a few ideas to help me implement these moments of quiet:
Only think about God in relationship to His word. Don’t think about everything He has done for me (that leads my mind to think about me, my list and needs). Even if its one word over and over, I can join with the angels declaring “Holy, Holy, Holy.”
Lie down or sit down.No moving, including walking. This “moves” my mind toward other things.
Get outside if at all possible. Or look out the window or find a space void of clutter. When I’m surrounded by “man-made” stuff, I think “man –made” thoughts.
Focus my Bible reading on the Psalmsduring this season of training. David was, after all, a man who knew God and His refreshment. I think I could learn a thing or two from him.
So now it’s your turn.
What does being still look like? What does it mean?
What can you do to train yourself to be still before the Lord?
I have linked up with A Little R & R Link Up party.
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I have linked up with A Little R & R Link Up party.
Stop by to check out more great posts.
photo credit: www.freedigitalphotos.net // num_skyman
Beautiful post, Angela! You are right! We work without resting and then we work at our play too! This goes along with something I just read by Kathryn Shirey about LISTENING to God. She was suggested 3 minutes of listening (she didn't say still, I think one minute's about right for that! 🙂 ) I'm going to try it!
Betsy, May you be blessed as you practice listening to God!
This is a lovely post. Whenever I need to clear my mind, I draw/zentangle (not sure if zentangle is a verb yet lol). I also like to just sit outside or with my animals. Its nice to be away from the electronics! Thanks for sharing 😀
Love it outside, too. And away from the electronics – lets the mind be quiet 🙂 Going to have to look up zentangle!