Search This Blog

Friday, July 5, 2013

Be Still...and KNOW


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
NIV 84

Ever feel like a certain verse is following you everywhere? In our current Bible study, Cultivating a Heart of Prayer by Wendy Blight, this was one of the verses we reflected on. For the last four years, this is a verse that my mom quotes to me...OFTEN. Anytime I worry, she speaks it. Anytime I get upset, she speaks it. 

Four years ago she bought me a plaque for my wall with this verse on it. Fast forward to a move, and it didn't get to go with us. I forgot it. So, when she came to stay with us for a couple months, guess what? She bought me a magnet with this verse on it. I have two little girls, currently 4 and 6 years old. Anything on the refrigerator is free game. They broke the magnet. I was devastated. 

My OBS sister quotes this verse to me as well. Imagine my surprise when I found this GIANT picture, (see above), on clearance at Hobby Lobby. I snapped a picture and sent it to my friend. She was hopeful I was going to buy it. I did. Small plaque to small magnet to GIANT picture. Was Someone trying to get a message across to me?

We reflected some upon Mary and Martha, see Luke 10:38-42, both in this study and in our previous Online Bible study. The message was loud and clear THEN...what could I learn from it now? I thought I took some time off to be a Mary, what was I missing? I even used this example in the last teaching I did for the OBS. What am I not understanding? Why is this Psalm following me everywhere?

So, I pray and I ponder. Yes, Martha is a busy bee. Sometimes I think she gets more grief from us than Jesus gave her. I can hear the kindness in His voice as He points out her mistake. He empathizes with her. He KNOWS she is worried and troubled, and in His grace, He points out WHY she is so worried and troubled. You see, to me, she only wanted to serve her Savior--to the best of her ability. She wanted everything right for Him. She wanted the best of everything for Him. To her, Mary should have been up serving Him too, not leaving all of the work to her. In all of His compassion, He reminds her that Mary CHOSE what was NEEDED. 

As I reflected on this, another verse came to mind, For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45 NKJV)

Mary CHOSE the better part by allowing Jesus to SERVE her. To minister to her. To speak words of truth into her. He knew that His life would be given for the sins of the world and He wanted to spend time speaking truth into and serving others. Just like in the story of the feet washing in John 13:1-15, Jesus told them in verse 15 that He had given them an example to follow. But notice what happened first. The disciples were SERVED by Jesus, before they were given instructions to SERVE

There is a time for serving, and there is a time for sitting. However, can we also not worry about the "preparations" before sitting? Martha was worried and troubled about much preparing and serving...so much so that she didn't sit at His feet. How many times I have had the intention to sit before my Lord, but got busy with much preparation--routines, checklists, get out all my Bible study tools, read this devotional....oh wait! I didn't start with prayer! I read the wrong day in the devotional! I'm behind in the study. But, I better do it quietly lest I wake the children up. By the time I am finished preparing, inevitably one of the children DO wake-up. The whole "sitting" thing? Gone. Lost in a moment of worry and trouble over how it should look. This was a whole new revelation for my life, packed into two seemingly unrelated verses. One in the Old Testament, and one in the New. 

Be still (Literally, in the Hebrew, slacken, abate, cease).....and know....(be aware of)






17 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing this. I have been working so hard, lately, to get my act together and stay on top of all that needs doing...and I've neglected my relationship with God. I need to find that balance, and perhaps it starts with stillness.

    (Thanks for visiting my blog!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me too. And 'stillness' may not always look like we want it to. It may be in the middle of the day amongst the noise. Bless you and thank you for stopping by!!

      Delete
  2. Thanks for sharing! Loved your point about Mary allowing Jesus to serve her...hadn't thought about it like that before. As a homeschooling mom of 5 I understand your struggle!! Grateful for this study and all the insight! Blessings!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So glad to meet another homeschooler!! Finding balance is so hard sometimes. <3

      Delete
  3. Jennifer, I so love your open heart. You inspire me with your reminder that Jesus seeks to love us, even or especially, in our weakness. He sends us gentle reminders that we need Him. We NEED to be close to Him.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. Oh, and how He does love us. I am focusing more on that this year. Being served by my Savior and sitting at His feet learning about His love for us.

      Delete
  4. Jennifer, that last paragraph....wow! I could have written it myself! Things have to be 'right' before I can focus and concentrate on God... but those things never get 'right'... so the focusing and concentrating doesn't happen. Then it is just a vicious cycle of 'not good enough' and guilt and failure and defeat. Being still is something I MUST learn to do... and do FIRST! I am getting ready to start homeschooling (yay!!) and deep in my heart, I KNOW... I KNOW this has to happen for me to be successful! Thank you for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yay! I am so excited for you! This is going on our fourth year!
      Too much preparation and not enough sitting is what really spoke to me about 'quiet time' and prayer. Everything has to be so so.

      Delete
  5. I was just thinking of this today as I was cleaning the house--how I always put that God time AFTER getting all my chores done, when it should be the other way around!! And I can relate to having things just-so before starting a study. . .and then running out of time! Thanks for writing exactly what I'm feeling!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Same here Kris! It causes me to become worried and troubled too.

      Delete
  6. Jennifer I have really looked deep into the life of Martha and Mary, did two very different blogs on it through the last OBS blog hop but never noticed till you mentioned it here that Mary chose the better part by allowing Jesus to serve her. I realized that Mary chose to listen to all Jesus had to say to her and sat and took it all in but somehow I missed that Jesus served Mary.Thanks for sharing. I was trying to think what more God wanted me to see in the lives of Martha and Mary.Just show there is always more to learn. Marilyn Vaters

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think I see something new many times since I have studied it, especially lately!

      Delete
  7. There is much to be said about knowing when to serve and when to be served... and what really hit me was the heart of service. Really enjoyed this post!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Beautiful, beautiful sister. Love it and love your plaque. Blessed my heart!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Beautiful post, love the verse as well! I've always felt that Martha got a lot of grief too and that Jesus lovingly points out her mistake!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I know what you mean about a verse "following you around" and when that happens, I know I need to pay attention! This same verse, Psalm 46:10 has been speaking to me for a while now. All of a sudden another "be still" verse has been popping up, Exodus 14:14 "The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."
    Thank you so much for your wonderful post!!

    ReplyDelete