BE STILL AND KNOW

I was reading Psalms 46:10 and I started thinking about "be still and know that I am God". Have you ever thought about being "still"? Be still. Sometimes I cannot bring my body to a stopping point that it is absolutely still. It seems to have a mind of its own...the more I try to be still, the more agitated my limbs become. My feet rub together; I, all of a sudden, have itchy spots that have to be scratched; my nose will tickle and I start sneezing; A leg will cramp and any number of things happen to keep me from being physically still.
Be still. Then I try to get my mind still so I can focus on God. At this time everything that has happened lately pops into my mind. Every worry that has cropped up becomes the focal point of my mind. All the plans that have been made for the day, or week, or month suddenly become the focus of this mind.
Be still. Then I try to get my soul to be still and open up to my Lord and Savior. That is the easiest part. Opening up to Him and letting Him into my soul, where He dwells anyway as the Holy Spirit, becomes the quickest part of being still.
Be still. Once in a while all three parts coordinate and I really do become still. My whole being is attuned to my God. That is when real communication with Him begins and I am so moved there are often tears...some of joy and others of awe. And I know that He is God. How I wish I could reach that place every time I come to Him!
But there are times when I cannot still all the parts of my body and even though I know that God hears my prayers, I can't hear Him. I can't still all the fears, all the worries, all the interference of this world and I can't hear Him. At these times I take the sure knowledge that God has heard me and loves me even when I can't hear Him speak to my heart. He know that I have tried but just couldn't get there. I often wonder if those are the times that Satan has caused my disorder so I couldn't hear God's voice. If so, then I need to be stronger in my faith so I can block out Satan with the help of the Holy Spirit, when my soul is in disorder.
Christmas is the time when we often become closer to the ones we love, the very ones that we don't focus on during the rest of the year in trying to make a living or dealing with raising children (or both), or becoming so involved with our bad selves that we wander around in this life forgetting that there are those who are waiting for our attention, our love, our concern and caring. What if we carried the love of this season to our everyday lives throughout the year! What a different place this world would be! People would feel loved, there would be less depression, fewer painful hearts, suicides would disappear, school shootings would become a part of the past, the reason for gangs would be less important. If we touch just one person and change their lives by telling them about Jesus and helping them come to a real personal knowledge and relationship with Him and that person does the same.....just think what a difference it would make in this world!
I am not so naive that I think that Satan will not begin to bombard us even harder to try to separate us from God, but if we have the armor of God on then the devil's chances are slim to none to being able to take our assurance of belonging to God away from us.
Most of my life I believed I was a Christian. I would have told you I was. But I was only a head Christian...I knew who Jesus was and knew He is the Son of God, but only with my head. Then I became a heart Christian and, praise God, I know Him with my heart...I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that He is in complete control of my life (for which I thank Him daily!), that I can come to Him at any time, day or night, and I know that He hears me and listens to my heart. Knowing about Jesus became knowing Jesus personally. On that day and every day since I am so thankful to know Him and have Him with me every second of every day, I only have talk with Him, to be still and know that He is there.
Whew! This was so heavy on my heart that I had to get up and write about this right away. Now when I get where I can't get still, I can come and read this and remind myself what the verse means, leading to the quiet place where I can be still, hear Him speak to my heart, and know that He is GOD!
May He bless every eye that reads this and may He become a close friend of yours, one you speak with often, during times when you are happy, sad, hurting or praising Him, thankful that He is your God too.
PS: This is the first time that I have written here that I didn't misspell any words in spell check! WOW!