I haven't mentioned the "word" yet, but I have alluded to it in previous blog posts. That is the "c" word. Come on, you know it. C-o-r-o-n-a-v-i-r-u-s! Its hard not to talk about. In our home, we've gotten so sick of talking about COVID-19 that we actually banned it! The worst part was, we started talking about not talking about it! So we just have to face it.
No matter which side of the political aisle or religious aisle you stand on, our current freedoms are coming to a halt. We are being forced to slow down. There might actually be something to this, after all. Think about all the plans we had before this hit us. Spring-break vacations, sports games, graduation parties, etc. We mustn't stop there. Jobs are affected; families are affected who've lost loved ones. Our budgets are being influenced. I don't know about you, but I didn't budget for all this toilet paper! Not only that, but our worship meetings are being affected. Pastors and lay-leaders have prayed and planned for events and felt as if they had God's mind on it and started making plans, setting dates, and promoting events. This took us all by surprise. Except for God.
What is God up to?
I wish I knew. But I get an inkling God wants us to slow down. We're having to whether we like it or not.
A.W. Tozer writes in his book compiled by Anita M. Bailey, God Tells the Man Who Cares,
Our fathers had much to say about stillness, and by stillness they meant the absence of motion or the absence of noise or both.
They felt that they must be still for at least a part of the day, or that day would be wasted. God can be known in the tumult of the world if His providence has for the time placed us there, but He is known best in the silence. So they held, and so the sacred Scriptures declare. Inward assurance comes out of the stillness. We must be still to know.
There has hardly been another time in the history of the world when stillness was needed more than it is today, and there has surely not been another time when there was so little of it or when it was so hard to find.
Stop and read that again. You have the time.
Did you catch that? The men and women of God who walked with God made it a point EVERY day to worship in solitude and quietude. They believed that if they were not "still" for part of the day that that day would be wasted. We are talking about people who moved nations by their prayers and by their preaching! We are talking about a very industrious people for the things of God. They accomplished much, not because of all that they were doing, but because they learned the art of waiting on God and genuinely getting His mind on things. God is speaking to us through the Psalmist, "Be still and know I am God."
Phillip Keller said, "We are a peculiar people who somehow feel that the final measure of a person's spirituality is to be gauged by their capacity to go, go, go … for God. On the contrary, our Father calls us to come apart and spend some time in solitude with him."
That's just what praise does. Praise lets God be God. We take the place of worshipers. God makes His home in our hearts as the Sovereign God He is. We do not know the end from the beginning. Nor do we have the hairs of our head numbered. We've not counted all the stars and called them by name, and we cannot uphold the worlds by the word of our power. We cannot raise the dead or turn water into wine. But God can. We cannot turn this nation back to God, but God can.
It is significant that the psalm in which the words "Be still" occur is filled with noise and commotion. The earth shakes, the waters roar and are troubled, the mountains threaten to tumble into the midst of the sea, the nations rage, the kingdoms are moved and the sound of war is heard throughout the land. Then a voice is heard out of the silence saying, "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10).
So today we must listen till our inner ears hear the words of God. When the Voice is heard, it will not be as the excited shouting of the nervous world; rather it will be the reassuring call of One of whom it was said, "He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street" (Isaiah 42:2).
It cannot be heard in the street, but it may be understood plainly enough in the heart. And that is all that matters at last.
Now's not the time for entertainment. That should be taken in small doses. What we need right now is to exercise stillness. Stillness before the presence of God. We need to let Him be God.
Mark Bishop wrote the lyrics to the song, Pray on the Little Days.
I'm just like you in so many ways.
I've had my share of tears, had my share of rainy days.
Yeah there are ups and downs, and the seasons turn.
But through it all the greatest lesson that I have learned,
Is to just let God be God on those little days.
And He'll be God there on the bigger days.
Why do we wait until things go wrong,
When we could have him by our side all along?
Let God be God in the best of times, and He'll be God
When you're going through the worst of times.
When you need God to move in mighty ways.
When you need God to be there on the bigger days, pray on the little days.
It's more than a book sitting on a table.
God can change your life, He's willing and He's able.
Oh, but we keep Him small and then we stay the same.
But we could change the world by calling on His name.
Let God be God on the little days.
And He'll be God on the bigger days.
Why do we wait until things go wrong,
When we could have him by our side all along?
Let God be God in the best of times, and He'll be God
Through the worst of times.
When you need God to move in mighty ways.
When you need God to be there on the bigger days, pray on the little days.
Praise Lets God Be God
I haven't mentioned the "word" yet, but I have alluded to it in previous blog posts. That is the "c" word. Come on, you know it. C-o-r-o-n-a-v-i-r-u-s! Its hard not to talk about. In our home, we've gotten so sick of talking about COVID-19 that we actually banned it! The worst part was, we started talking about not talking about it! So we just have to face it.
No matter which side of the political aisle or religious aisle you stand on, our current freedoms are coming to a halt. We are being forced to slow down. There might actually be something to this, after all. Think about all the plans we had before this hit us. Spring-break vacations, sports games, graduation parties, etc. We mustn't stop there. Jobs are affected; families are affected who've lost loved ones. Our budgets are being influenced. I don't know about you, but I didn't budget for all this toilet paper! Not only that, but our worship meetings are being affected. Pastors and lay-leaders have prayed and planned for events and felt as if they had God's mind on it and started making plans, setting dates, and promoting events. This took us all by surprise. Except for God.
What is God up to?
I wish I knew. But I get an inkling God wants us to slow down. We're having to whether we like it or not.
A.W. Tozer writes in his book compiled by Anita M. Bailey, God Tells the Man Who Cares,
Our fathers had much to say about stillness, and by stillness they meant the absence of motion or the absence of noise or both.
They felt that they must be still for at least a part of the day, or that day would be wasted. God can be known in the tumult of the world if His providence has for the time placed us there, but He is known best in the silence. So they held, and so the sacred Scriptures declare. Inward assurance comes out of the stillness. We must be still to know.
There has hardly been another time in the history of the world when stillness was needed more than it is today, and there has surely not been another time when there was so little of it or when it was so hard to find.
Stop and read that again. You have the time.
Did you catch that? The men and women of God who walked with God made it a point EVERY day to worship in solitude and quietude. They believed that if they were not "still" for part of the day that that day would be wasted. We are talking about people who moved nations by their prayers and by their preaching! We are talking about a very industrious people for the things of God. They accomplished much, not because of all that they were doing, but because they learned the art of waiting on God and genuinely getting His mind on things. God is speaking to us through the Psalmist, "Be still and know I am God."
Phillip Keller said, "We are a peculiar people who somehow feel that the final measure of a person's spirituality is to be gauged by their capacity to go, go, go … for God. On the contrary, our Father calls us to come apart and spend some time in solitude with him."
That's just what praise does. Praise lets God be God. We take the place of worshipers. God makes His home in our hearts as the Sovereign God He is. We do not know the end from the beginning. Nor do we have the hairs of our head numbered. We've not counted all the stars and called them by name, and we cannot uphold the worlds by the word of our power. We cannot raise the dead or turn water into wine. But God can. We cannot turn this nation back to God, but God can.
Tozer went on to say this about Psalm 46,
It is significant that the psalm in which the words "Be still" occur is filled with noise and commotion. The earth shakes, the waters roar and are troubled, the mountains threaten to tumble into the midst of the sea, the nations rage, the kingdoms are moved and the sound of war is heard throughout the land. Then a voice is heard out of the silence saying, "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10).
So today we must listen till our inner ears hear the words of God. When the Voice is heard, it will not be as the excited shouting of the nervous world; rather it will be the reassuring call of One of whom it was said, "He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street" (Isaiah 42:2).
It cannot be heard in the street, but it may be understood plainly enough in the heart. And that is all that matters at last.
Now's not the time for entertainment. That should be taken in small doses. What we need right now is to exercise stillness. Stillness before the presence of God. We need to let Him be God.
Mark Bishop wrote the lyrics to the song, Pray on the Little Days.
I'm just like you in so many ways.
I've had my share of tears, had my share of rainy days.
Yeah there are ups and downs, and the seasons turn.
But through it all the greatest lesson that I have learned,
Is to just let God be God on those little days.
And He'll be God there on the bigger days.
Why do we wait until things go wrong,
When we could have him by our side all along?
Let God be God in the best of times, and He'll be God
When you're going through the worst of times.
When you need God to move in mighty ways.
When you need God to be there on the bigger days, pray on the little days.
It's more than a book sitting on a table.
God can change your life, He's willing and He's able.
Oh, but we keep Him small and then we stay the same.
But we could change the world by calling on His name.
Let God be God on the little days.
And He'll be God on the bigger days.
Why do we wait until things go wrong,
When we could have him by our side all along?
Let God be God in the best of times, and He'll be God
Through the worst of times.
When you need God to move in mighty ways.
When you need God to be there on the bigger days, pray on the little days.