This week I am memorizing Psalm 46:1-2a, “God is my refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. What then shall I fear?” As I have been reading through that verse this week, I have also been reading the rest of the chapter and making it my prayer this week.
Verse 10 of this chapter has often been a favorite of many people. I have read it and been convicted many times myself. However, you know sometimes when God wants to really drive a point home with you, He emphasizes an “old favorite” and teaches you something in a new way? Well, that is what God has done this week for me.
Check out verse 10 in a few different versions:
Psalm 46:10 (NIV) “Be still and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
Psalm 46:10 (Message) “Stop the traffic! Take a long, loving look at me, your High God, above politics, above everything!”
Psalm 46:10 (Amplified Bible) “Let be and be still, and know (recognize and understand) that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth!”
Psalm 46:10 (Contemporary English Version) “Calm down and learn I am God! All nations on earth will honor me!”
Psalm 46:10 (Holman Christian Standard) “Stop – and know that I am God, exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth.”
And my all time favorite for what God is showing me this week…
Psalm 46:10 (NAS) “Cease striving and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
Cease striving. Cease striving? I feel like most of my day is spent striving. Striving to be a better mom. Striving to get rid of the selfishness. Striving to not feel guilty. (vicious cycle that is!) Striving to get it all done. Striving to do this. Striving to do that. I don’t think all my striving is pleasing to God.
I think He might be wanting me to cease. To really be still. For me, part of this is actual physical stillness…because I’m not good at that. But, a bigger part of that is for my heart and thoughts to be still. To stop all that striving in my own mind. Thinking I can get it all done on my own. To be at peace with where God has me and not always longing for being at the next stage spiritually, physically, emotionally. I worry a lot about how messed up emotionally I am, how messed up I am period. I think God is telling me to cease. Cease worrying about all that emotional baggage that I worry way too much about. Cease worrying about how I’m messing up my kids for life. 🙂 Just cease. Cease.
Spend more time in prayer instead of all those wasted hours/days of worry and striving. Spend more time communing with the One who has all my days ordained, instead of striving to get my days in order according to my own plan. Spend more time at the feet of the One who holds my heart in His hands…lovingly in His hands, instead of striving to figure out how I can work myself out of this mess or that mess. Spend time meditating on Psalm 139 and how God created me in His own image, created my sensitivites and emotions and personality…instead of wishing all those things away.
Be still. Cease striving. Know. Know that He is God.
Thank you so much, I really needed to hear those words, and I too need to cease and stop striving, it seems that as much as I strive I never get where I am trying to go, you are right we need to be still to seek Him and seek His will and His Plan. My mind is always going 200mph and I need to CEASE!!! Amen
God Bless
Roxy
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I gave you a TOS Crew award!
Thank you so much for writing and sharing this! I also like the NAS translation:) The CEV is quite fitting for me as well. So many days I really do just need to “calm down.” I often feel like a bit of a “spaz” and allow busyness to consume me and I just need to calm down and BE STILL!