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Dear Friends,
At verse 10 of Psalm 46 we find these familiar words - "Be still, and know that I am God".
Be still.
It sounds so simple to just 'be still' but in actual fact it can be something that is extremely difficult to do - as I myself have been discovering this last week during my enforced 'stillness' following my operation!
For, although at times I thought I was being still and resting and following all the do's and don'ts handed out to me by the surgeon, the hospital and my husband - at the end of the day my body let me know that I had perhaps not been quite as still as I should have been!
That is often the way for us isn't it?
We think we are being still - but it is not a genuine stillness.
Then, too, there is always the fact that as you try to still your mind it doesn't always want to co-operate with you by switching off from everything you know you could be doing if you felt just a little bit better or weren't spending this time
being still!
We do generally find it difficult to just 'Be still, to completely switch off from everything that is going on around us, to free ourselves from the distractions of our lives and take some time to be quiet and still with God and to reflect on God and his goodness to us.
Yet that is what we are encouraged to do by the psalmist as a way of getting to know God and building a sound relationship with him and also as a way of getting to know him better, more intimately.
For, often it is when we are still, in those moments of quietness, when we are spending quality time with God that God's voice breaks through into our lives and we get a glimpse of him and we do get to understand him more and know him much better than we did before.
I feel stillness is important in worship, it does allow us to listen for God's voice and it allows us to hear him speak to each of us - be that through prayers, through scripture, through the preaching of the word, through the words that we sing or the fellowship we share.
Stillness gives God the opportunity to speak to our hearts and our minds.
Over the coming weeks our pattern of worship is changing slightly and while this may at first seem strange and different to you; my hope is that it will soon become a very familiar and comfortable pattern for you.
For, by worshipping in this slightly different way my hope is that we will all have the opportunity to just be still during worship, to free our minds from all the distractions we often bring with us to worship and allow us to create a worshipful atmosphere where we can focus solely on God and worshipping him. One which may help us to listen for God and create an opportunity which will allow him to speak to each one of us, as we all get to know him more.
Blessings,
Caryl
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