Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Obeying God when obeying isn’t easy”
Our Bible verse for today: “Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “Being still is sometimes harder than being busy”
As we’ve been learning all this month, obeying God when obeying isn’t easy usually involves doing things which are hard, and which we would probably not do. But sometimes obeying God involves not doing anything. Sometimes we are called to simply be still and to sit quietly before Him. And for many of us, that can be much harder than being busy for Jesus.
We live in a busy and fast-paced world. Most of our lives are filled to the brim with activities and demands and expectations. Even church life can become a never-ending cycle of programs and events and work to do. Canadian journalist Carl Honore once described modern life as a “cult of speed”. He wrote:
“Fast and slow are not just rates of change. They are shorthand for ways of being, or philosophies of life. Fast is busy, controlling, aggressive, hurried, analytical, stressed, superficial, impatient, active, quantity-over-quality. Slow is the opposite: calm, careful, receptive, still, intuitive, unhurried, patient, reflective, quality-over-quantity.”
God doesn’t require us to be constantly busy. In fact, being able to live with passion for the cause of Christ has its origins in the quiet times of prayer, meditation, and Bible study. It’s out of the quiet times that our sense of purpose and direction grows. It’s only then that we can effectively be on-mission with Jesus out in the world. Otherwise, we can easily go shooting off in all directions, unfocused and ineffective; busy, but to no good purpose.
Unfortunately many people have difficulty being still. We’ve become accustomed to noise and activity and we’re therefore uncomfortable in the quiet times of stillness. For many people this call to stillness and quietness is where obeying God becomes most difficult, and therefore this is the area which requires the most focused discipline and resolve.
It’s true that being still can often be harder than being busy, but effectiveness in the busy times is directly tied to the quality of the quiet times. I encourage you to have some extra quiet time with God today. You’ll discover that the rest of your day is better as a result.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 