My third born child is funny. He’s funny on purpose now, but when he was little, he hadn’t learned to harness his superpower yet and so he was just funny.

At the ripe old age of three, he learned Bible verses in his Sunday School class. They memorized the words of the verse, but not the location. They were just little. The verse words were enough! Reciting verses got him LOTS of attention. One day he was with my mom and recited his verse of the week. She said to him “Oh, sweetie, that was wonderful. Was it taken from the Bible?”

No word of a lie, he looked at her with a horrified expression and sputtered “No, Grandma… It’s still in there!”

(I can’t make this stuff up!)

My past few posts have been based on a message I delivered on Psalms 46 last month. I really wanted to only speak on Psalm 46:10, “Be Still and know that I am God…” but every time I sat down to prep my talk, that silly memory verse story came to my mind and I seriously kept hearing his three-year-old voice reminding me that this verse wasn’t taken from the Bible… “it’s still in there”.

So… I decided that I’d better be sure to understand more than just 8 words before I started to speak – and I did some serious study on the whole Psalm in context. In fact, I got myself totally twisted up and confused and sideways trying to make sense of all the commentaries. What I learned is that while this verse is often just used as a call to quiet reflection and communion with God, the really smart scholars will tell you, it’s about much more than that.

In my mind, I wanted to just talk about being still, but the verse in context calls for more! In fact, it’s actually a call not just to quiet, but to a laying down of weapons – on GotQuestions.org its explained like this:

“ this is a call for those involved in the war to stop fighting, to be still. The word still is a translation of the Hebrew word rapa, meaning “to slacken, let down, or cease.” In some instances, the word carries the idea of “to drop, be weak, or faint.” It connotes two people fighting until someone separates them and makes them drop their weapons. It is only after the fighting has stopped that the warriors can acknowledge their trust in God. Christians often interpret the command to “be still” as “to be quiet in God’s presence.” While quietness is certainly helpful, the phrase means to stop frantic activity, to let down, and to be still. For God’s people being “still” would involve looking to the Lord for their help; for God’s enemies, being “still” would mean ceasing to fight a battle they cannot win.”

Hmmm… a stopping of frantic activity

Hmmmm…. looking to the Lord for help

I’m not in a physical war and I’m not fighting a physical battle, but I will tell you that I often seem to be frantic and I see lots of other frantic people around me! And I’m not always quick to look to the Lord for help.

I also tend to want to fight – if not against people or God directly – I’m inclined to fight against my circumstances. I’m a problem solver – and I’m sure that some of you are the same. I love a good problem to solve – and it can be mine or someone else’s. I’m becoming more and more aware that I sometimes even step in and fight on behalf of others against circumstances that God intended for a purpose – and for their good.

Now, I’m not saying that we should never fight circumstances – for ourselves or others. I’m not suggesting that stillness needs to ALWAYS be our response – I don’t think scripture suggests it either. God sometimes calls us to action. If he’s called you to Nineveh, don’t go sit under a tree to be still! If he has told you to march around a city gate, march around the gate. Sometimes Jesus healed with a word, sometimes he told the person to go and DO something.

Do what God calls you to do – sometimes that’s an action. But, scripture also reminds us that sometimes we need only be still because God wants to fight for us. Its not just Psalm 46 calling us to be still. Psalm 37:7 says to be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Exodus 14:14 says the Lord will fight for you, you need only be still.

In my right, healthy, and well brain, I know that I’d rather have God fight for me… In the moment, when I see the battle or challenge or problem though, it can be HARD to trust and be still and wait patiently for Him.

I think it’s important that we pray for discernment to know when to fight and when to lay down our weapons be still. I’m curious, how often I fought my circumstances and missed the blessing of God being my comfort and my strength in the midst of the circumstance instead. How often when I felt too exhausted to go on, but kept going anyway, was God really calling me into rest (and I missed it!).

Can you relate? Leave a comment or join us of Facebook to discuss.

(The other blog posts from my Psalm 46 talk can be found here and here.)