Be still and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)

Being still is not in my two-year-old grandson’s list of abilities. I think he might spontaneously combust if he were made to be still. After a weekend of keeping him, though my heart may be overflowing with happiness, I’m both physically and mentally exhausted.

The command to be still is God-given, but I wonder if sometimes I’m a little too much like my grandson. I’d like to blame it all on Proverbs 31—She sets about her work vigorously (v.17), but that would be an easy excuse when the truth is more along the lines of “I can’t let go of the belief there is a certain expectation I must meet to be a good—or real—Christian.”

Afterall, when was the last time any of us sat through the announcements at church and heard the words “we’ve got everything covered, no need for more volunteers to work the nursery, teach Sunday school, visit the shut-ins…” and the list goes on. 

We live in a broken world where the need will always be greater than we can handle, but does that mean we aren’t also allowed—encouraged even—to be still?

The guilt that consumes me—and I’m thinking maybe others can relate—when I say no to helping with another activity or joining another Bible study makes it hard to believe I have also been commanded to be still.

Proverbs 19:15 says “Laziness casts one into a deep sleep and an idle person will suffer hunger.” Well, I don’t like being hungry, so what’s a “good Christian” to do?

This isn’t a message of works-based theology. I know my salvation is not works based. My love for Jesus compels me to serve Him and love His people. 

Tempted by ‘doing’

I also know that Satan hates Jesus and wants to break our fellowship with Him. He knows it’s easier to convince us to do too much than it is to convince us to do too little. Guilt is a powerful motivator.

The enemy comes in to kill, steal, and destroy the best part of loving Jesus—our time in fellowship.

If Satan can keep us overly busy, he knows we may eventually succumb to exhaustion and maybe give up. But what he loves most is that our busyness will keep us from deepening our relationship with Jesus. That broken relationship is one of his favorite things.

He’s subtly distorted our interpretation of certain scriptures, so we convince ourselves that, though our names are secure in the Lamb’s Book of Life, if we don’t perform well or do enough our names will be also be listed on some sort of Failures of the Faith list (as opposed to what is referred to as the Hebrews Hall of Faith given in Hebrews 11).

Perhaps no other time of year highlights our plans for overachieving busyness—no matter how well-intentioned—than the new year with our new goals and resolutions.

How many of us ever make a resolution to do less…to be still? Being still is not the same as being lazy. It is the key ingredient to a having a more impactful spiritual life and experiencing an ever-deepening relationship with Jesus.

Tune out temptation

This world screams at us to do more and be more 24/7 three hundred and sixty-five days a year. It takes some intentional effort to tune out the demonic guilt trips (isn’t that what they are?) and stay focused on God’s will for us.

One day my grandson will settle down. He’ll be still because he has a need that can only be met in stillness, whether it is learning to read, practicing law, flying an airplane, or figuring out how to poke the little pointy straw through the tiny hole covered in Kevlar (anyone else almost lost their witness trying to stick a straw in a juice pouch?).

And we too, as Christians, must remember how to be still. In the stillness there is knowing and in the knowing there is hope. 

Meet Lori…