“God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.Come and see what the Lord has done,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.He makes wars cease
to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.”
Most of the time when I read the Bible, I tend to find myself in the New Testament, but I have been trying to break myself of being stuck in one part of Scripture. Psalms has always been another place that I enjoy being because of the honest nature of them. Nothing about it is glamorous as we go through both good times and bad in David’s journey. Psalm 46 has always stuck out to me and even more specifically the part where David talks about God telling us to “Be still and know that I am God” in verse 10. The whole psalm is really talking about this idea of God being our refuge. God is the place we go to when we experience troubles and tough times.
Of course, this is kind of one of those Christian statements that is absolutely true, but really hard to apply practically. When I start to get into times of trouble or struggle, the last thing I want to do is be still. My tendency looks more like doing a lot of things, anything really, to try to get me out of a period of trouble. I start looking at the things I did leading up to my time of trouble. Was there something I did wrong? How do I correct that? Do I need to ask for forgiveness for something? God answers, “Be still.” But why be still? I need to do something!
When we become so caught up in trials, we end up losing sight of the important things. We lose sight of God being one who takes care of us when we are too caught up in our struggle. We lose sight of God’s glory when we are too caught up in our hard time. This is not to say that we are not allowed to feel the weight of the hard things in our life. It is more to say that the feeling we get in those times should lead us to one place and that is to God. We take the burdens we are feeling and we pray, asking God to take them because He is the only capable of bearing the weight. And then…we be still. Being still is an active step in trusting God. Being still is moving forward because we know that God is our refuge and God is our strength. So be encouraged by this God is with you and God is your fortress.
a practical step
Take some practicing being still. This looks different for different people but really get to a calm place and read through this passage again. Repeat to yourself and claim it aloud like you really believe it because it is Truth. Then ask God to assure you that what you read was true.
– Daniel Baily
