Most of us know Psalm 46:10 – “Be still and know that I am God” – but I have really grown to love how the NASB translates it:
“Cease striving and know that I am God …”
Though I love the command, I have a hard time doing it. How do we (in our culture filled with beeps and buzzes, a people who delight in distractions) slow down, cease striving, and be still long enough to do anything (especially to know our God)?
I have found that all relationships take time to develop and deepen. You can’t rush relationships, whether they be with a spouse, a friend, or our God. You can’t rush down to the drive-through and order an instant best friend … you have to put in the time.
So why do we think relationship with our God is any different?
God, in Psalm 46:10, tells us how to know Him (for note, the word “know” is yāḏaʿ which is the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek ginōskō – a knowledge that goes beyond mere facts and information because you have experienced it). He says that we must “be still” or “cease striving.”
When was the last time you ceased striving, slowed down, and was still before the Lord?
I love the quote by A.W. Tozer, “It is well that we accept the hard truth now: the man who would know God must give time to Him! He must count no time wasted, which is spent in the cultivation of His acquaintance.”*
If you and I desire to know, truly know, our God, we must slow down and give time to Him.
I am guilty of saying “I want a better, deeper, richer relationship with Jesus!” and then not building my life around that desire. I say I want it, but my actions aren’t in alignment.
May I encourage both of us to go beyond our declarations and actually put our words and our heart’s desire into practice—let’s get to know Jesus (in relationship, not just information). And let’s recognize now that it will likely mean having to practically change how we live and spend our time.
But oh! what an exciting opportunity we have to be invited by the God of the universe, the King of all kings, to enter into a relationship of knowing Him and being known by Him.
Praying for you as we slow down to KNOW our glorious and majestic God.
Footnotes
* Aiden Wilson Tozer, God’s Pursuit of Man [The Divine Conquest] (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 2007), 5.
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