Be still, and Know...

Life is not easy. There are so many difficult things we have to deal with; seemingly more as we get older. Death, disease, natural disasters, and the evils humans inflict on other humans in the name of politics and greed all become 'daily news' to us. In the midst of this, it is only natural to wonder about where and who God is. In an unpredictable world, we want predictability and understanding, so we can have the peace of feeling in control.

Our church congregation is watching a popular video series on Sunday nights, then breaking into small groups to discuss what we have seen. I won't mention the name of it, because we haven't seen it all yet, and I am trying to keep an open mind. But the point of the series seems to be for us to prepare ourselves to explain, defend, and prove the existence of God to those who do not believe. Personally, I do not think that is a task we are called to do. For those who need scientific, historic, or physical proof that there is a God, we can but fail miserably.

God asks us to "Be Still," and to, in our stillness, KNOW that He Is (Psalm 46:10.) We are asked to find Him in our hearts, and He is there, if we are willing to diligently seek Him. I am certainly not saying you won't find God in nature, science, and history. In fact, I cannot help but see God in all of those places. But that is because I already KNOW Him. I didn't find him, He found me. God is not a concrete being, but a spiritual being, so we must find Him by spiritual means. That may sound all mystical and even evasive to many, but that is what true faith is. It is a knowing, a believing, in the unknowable and the unprovable. To 'know God' is not an intellectual exercise, it is a spiritual surrender.

John 14:17 tells us, "You already Know. The Spirit is with you and the Spirit is in you." God didn't leave us to find Him all on our own. He placed the knowledge within us, by joining our spirits to His own Spirit. If we will listen, we will find what we seek: the peace that comes by giving up the need for control.

Listen. Be still. Those inner urgings; those moments of knowing you are not alone; that knowledge that there is more to life than the chaos we see on the daily news... these stirrings will lead you to know that God IS.