Relinquish the need for control

 

Psalm 46:10 KJV - Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Be still. What picture comes to mind when you read those two words? Be still.

When God said those two words, he meant something surprising. And maybe you haven’t looked at it quite this way before. Let me try and explain.

If you are like me and the anxiety is loud, your mind won’t switch off and unwanted thoughts are swirling around inside your head today, while the phrase ‘calm down’ feels downright impossible, then listen closely. This phrase spoke to me today and I pray that it will be an encouragement to you as well.

In this verse in Psalm 46, God says, “Be still”.

The Hebrew word for ‘still’ is the word raphah. It doesn’t mean to sit quietly with your emotions. It doesn’t mean to sit in silence.

It means LET GO.

Release your grip. Let it fall. Stop striving. Stop trying to control what you were never meant to carry.

Sometimes we try and carry things our Heavenly Father never meant for us to carry.

Realising what this little word ‘still’ means reframes the whole verse. It carries the idea of putting a stop to the fretting, the impatience, the restlessness and resigning yourself to the will of God. Letting go.

It’s not a quietening of the noise but a quietening of the heart.

This stillness is a choice. It is making the choice to quieten the voices in our heads, flick the switch on our anxiety and sit in God’s presence reflecting on the fact that he is God and he is good.

We are told not only to be still but also to know. We are to acknowledge that he is God, unchangeable, omnipotent, omniscient, all-wise, faithful, merciful, kind. We are to remember where our help comes from. We are to know God.

God is not asking us to pretend that the storm raging inside of us is not real. He is inviting us to loosen our grip in the midst of it. Let go. A surrendered control.

Peace comes when our trust replaces our control and we place our burdens in his hands.

“Peace flows strongest through open hands, not clenched fists”

I think sometimes I’m guilty of being a control freak. I often have this obsessive need to take command of a situation, because I fear that if I don’t, it will all fall apart. Sadly, this controlling spirit only leads to frustration, anxiety, fear and overwhelm. If I would only remember that God has not called me to take action in every situation. Not only will he use other people to accomplish his purposes, he also knows that if I would just get out of his way, he could work unhindered and use me in a different capacity in a place where I belong.

There is another place in the Word of God where we see this little phrase ‘be still’. It is worth mentioning because it brings out another aspect you may not have thought about.

Mark 4:39 KJV - And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

The difference in meaning in this verse is that in the Greek, these words mean to be silent or to be dumb. So, in essence, to hush or to shut up!

The Lord told the wind and the waves to shut up! And I think sometimes, that’s what we need to do. Just shut up! Be still and listen.

I know that when I am overwhelmed because I am carrying what is not mine to carry, I find it hard to listen. It’s hard to tune out the noise in my head and let the Lord whisper into my heart.

Can I remind you that God speaks in the stillness, the devil screams in our busyness.

When we loosen our grip on the things we are trying to control, when we relax, abandon, let go, we begin to experience the peace that comes from open hands. Hands of surrender. Hands of submission to his will.

It is then that we can hear God’s voice. In the stillness.

Quiet your mind and your heart, fill them with God’s truth, speak his promises and words of comfort over your soul.

Lay your burdens down. Practice God-confidence over self-confidence.

Be still. Let go.

 

 

 

More than “A Verse of the Day”

 

There is a growing trend amongst believers. And it is this.

Post a verse a day. Send it out to friends and family. Post it to Instagram. Put it up on What’s App. Send it out via text.

And yes, it usually has good intentions. The Word of God spread far and wide, in the hopes that the verse will speak to someone who needs it and be an encouragement to them.

I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing.

But what I am saying, is that we need MORE than a verse a day.

The older I get, the more I long to be in the Word of God in a deeper, richer way. The more I long to study it. Meditate on it. Learn from it. Understand it.

If I want to understand my Bible, I am going to need more than a verse a day.

And if you want to gain a better understanding of your Bible, you are going to need more than ‘the verse of the day’ to sustain you.

Yes, a single verse can encourage you. Yes, a single verse can speak to you. It can help bring comfort, healing, blessing. But to understand scripture, it requires more than a verse a day. It requires context. It requires study.

God’s Word was not written in snippets. It was not written in one-line verses. It was written in books, in letters, in stories – all meant to be read together.

Context is key.

When we isolate verses, we run the risk of missing the authors intent. We run the risk of misapplying God’s promises. We risk misinterpretation.

One of my favourite authors says to ask yourself these questions when you read a passage.

What did this text mean for them and for then?

What does it mean for us and for always?

What does it mean for me and for now?

Oftentimes, we make Scripture about us instead of God. The Bible is a book about God.

Yes, there are many stories in its pages that can be applied to us and for today, but its goal is to draw us toward Christ, bringing repentance and making us more like him.

We are to imitate Christ. We can’t do that if we don’t know him. And we can’t know him unless we learn about him. And we can’t learn about him if we are not in the Word of God, studying it, meditating on it, memorizing it, applying it, obeying it and letting God reveal himself to us through it. 

When we read a verse, we have to remember that context is key. ALWAYS. Context. Context. Context.

Understanding Scripture means asking better questions.

Who wrote this and to whom was it written?

Why was it written?

What happened before and after this passage?

Where does it fit in history?

And most importantly, instead of asking, “What’s in it for me?”, we should be asking, “What does this teach me about God?”

There are so many questions to ask ourselves that we could do an entire series on it.

When we neglect to ask ourselves the right questions and we verse hop, reading just a verse a day, without context, we can often be left feeling very confused.

Why? Because we are only seeing pieces. We’re not seeing the whole picture.

Sadly, I think that in some churches, long-time members and infrequent attendees are not being taught how to study the Bible.

We are being told to READ our Bibles, but we are not being told how to STUDY them.

We are being told how important it is to read the Word of God. We are being told to read a portion each and every day. And that is good. But I fear that some Christians treat it like the old saying, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”.

The Bible is not a lucky charm.

Maybe you read more than the verse of the day. But just because you read a lot of your Bible and know a lot about the Bible doesn’t mean you are walking close to the Lord. Head knowledge doesn’t necessarily mean heart awareness and change.   

Many people read the Bible like a fiction novel. They read for pleasure. For entertainment. Or just to say they’ve read it. To brag. They want a good plot a good climactic narrative and an epic conclusion. Then the book is done, and they’re left with the memory of a great story and maybe a handful of interesting quotes, but no real comprehension and understanding and it doesn’t change their life.

Other people read their Bibles by jumping around. A verse a day. A passage in Galatians then a verse in Exodus then a Psalm and so it goes. They’re reading their Bibles like they’ve been told to do. But they are often reading without understanding and with no context. They are being exposed to the Word of God, but they are not letting it speak to them through the guidance of the Holy Spirit by ‘rightly dividing the Word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15)

What we believe about God shapes how we live. It determines how we endure hardship. It influences how we respond to the circumstances in our life.

Did you know that you don’t need a theological degree to understand Scripture? Yes, there will always be passages that are hard to understand, but you are responsible for what you do with the book you hold in your hands.

God has given us passages that help to interpret other passages. We have been blessed with Godly men and women who help to expound and explain the Word to us through various resources.  

When we become content with only consuming the verse of the day that pops up on our Bible app, or is sent to us by a friend, then we are missing out on so much!

The Bible doesn’t hurry us. The Bible invites us to linger. To soak it all in. To meditate on it.

As we read and study the Word of God slowly, faithfully, consistently, not just a verse at a time but a whole passage, a whole chapter, a whole book, God’s truth speaks into our lives and shapes who we are and who we become.

When we read our Bibles like we should, and obey it like we should, it grounds our faith. It increases our discernment. It produces fruit that lasts. It enables us to live lives worthy of our calling. (Ephesians 4:1)

The goal of Bible reading and study is not to check off a list. It’s about growing in our personal relationship with Christ.

Like Gipsy Smith, the old evangelist said, “It’s not about how many times you’ve been through the Bible, it’s about how many times the Bible has been through you”

Your spiritual growth is directly proportionate to the amount of time and effort you put into study of the Bible. Not growing spiritually can be traced to a failure to be in the Word. You don’t grow if you refuse to feed yourself.

What would happen if you blindfolded yourself and reached into the fridge and took out 3 things to make a meal from? Tomato sauce. An apple. A jar of olives. Like a Master Chef competition.

Sometimes that is how we approach the Word of God. We close our eyes and open to a page. We open our Bible app, read our verse of the day and carry on. We pick and choose, picking a verse here and a verse there and maybe even a short passage and then we think that we will be able to make a spiritual meal out of it and grow.

 

In order to truly grow spiritually, we need to read and study the hard passages, the difficult to understand. The uncomfortable stories. The ones that leave us scratching our heads.

We need the balance of the whole Word of God. The whole counsel of God. (Acts 20:27)

 

Don’t let your spiritual growth be stunted because of your spiritual diet.

By all means, read your verse a day, but don’t let it stop there.

Get curious about why that verse is where it is. Get curious about the context in which it was written. Try and understand what God wants to show you through it by looking at the surrounding verses.

Don’t just let it stand alone. It has neighbours. Invite them in and let them shed some light on it.

Aim for more than ‘a verse of the day’ and you’ll be amazed at the precious treasures you’ll find.

Colossians 3:16 KJV - Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.