When God says BE STILL ✋

Today is the last day of the year, and everyone is busy preparing for New Year’s Eve. In a few hours, it will be 2020, a new decade, and many of us will be launching our New Year’s resolutions. But honestly, after a few weeks, we often give up…Why? Keeping these resolutions requires us to consistently take action every day to achieve the goals we’ve set. That’s why, throughout this week, I’d like to invite you to discover 7 healthy, holy habits (that I routinely do as well :-)) to start the year off right! 

Sometimes we rush, head down, into action to achieve our “goals,” complete our “projects.” What if, on New Year’s Eve, God were to challenge us through this verse? “Be still, and know that I am God!…” (Read Psalm 46:10, NLT). 

When God says BE STILL in His Word, it’s because He has an important revelation for us. It’s because He wants to draw our attention and focus to something in particular. In Hebrew, the word for “be still” in this verse means “relax, sink, let go, cease.” In this verse, He’s asking us to cease.

• Cease moving (to let Him act).
• Cease thinking (thoughts of anxiety, for example).
• Cease speaking (in order to hear God’s voice).
• Cease worrying (because God is a high tower).
• Cease planning and controlling everything (because God is the King who plans and commands).
• And the list could go on!

When God gives us the order to cease, to be still, He wants:

• To draw our attention to who He is,
• And to give us the opportunity to recognize that He is God.

For He is God Almighty, the One who is, the One who has neither beginning nor end. He is also the Creator of the universe. And in His almightiness, He could’ve created everything in a single day. And yet, He proceeded in steps, specific and thoughtful steps.

Before carrying out your plan for this new year, God is asking you to stop everything and wait for His instructions, His direction. He wants to show you, step by step, His plans of peace, His kind intentions. This is certainly the first step to starting the year well: listening to God’s voice in order to remain in His paths!

Yes, the time to be completely still, to cease before starting, has come!

I invite you to pray with me…“Father, thank You for helping me create this new habit as I start this new year and consider any new decision: being still, ceasing, and listening to Your voice so that my life will glorify You. In Jesus’ name, amen.”