Be Still and Know? Who Has Time for That?

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D. A. Carson, in his book, Praying with Paul: A Call to Spiritual Reformation, tells the following story:

“Lillian Guild and her husband were driving along and happened to notice a late-model Cadillac with its hood up, parked at the side of the road. Its driver appeared somewhat perplexed and agitated. Mrs. Guild and her husband pulled over to see if they could offer assistance. The stranded driver hastily and somewhat sheepishly explained that he had known when he left home that he was rather low on fuel, but he had been in a great hurry to get to an important business meeting so he had not taken time to fill up his tank. The Guilds happened to have a spare gallon of fuel with them, so they emptied it into the thirsty Cadillac and told the other driver of a service station a few miles down the road. Thanking them profusely, they sped off.

Twelve miles or so later, they saw the same car, hood up, stranded at the side of the road. The same driver, no less bemused than the first time, and even more agitated, was pathetically grateful when they pulled over again. You guessed it: he was in such a hurry for his business meeting that he had decided so skip the service station and press on in the dim hope that the gallon he had received would take him to his destination.”

While you and I might be tempted to laugh or wag our heads at the business man for his foolishness, we might want to stop and think about our last few days and weeks. Usually at this time of year, we are so busy running around and shopping for just the right gift for the people in our lives that we remove any margin in our lives for stopping and contemplating why we do this in the first place.

Most of us speed through our days (yes, I said “us”) saying that we believe in prayer, but we don’t pray. We say we believe in the power of hiding God’s Word in our hearts, but we make no effort to memorize or meditate on scripture. We say we believe in the concept of warm fellowship, but we take no time to build relationships with the people we go to church with. Yes, the people we go to church with! We say we believe that devotion to God should take priority, but we are so busy humming along keeping up with what everyone else is doing that we fail to take any time to be still or quiet.

Perhaps this time of year we need to hear Psalm 46:10, “Cease striving and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth.” Some versions translate it as “be still and know”. Let’s not show ourselves to be atheists by our actions when we claim to be Christians with our mouths.

You might think that sounds pretty harsh, but what is an atheist? Someone who does not believe in God. A person who does not believe in God takes no actions that indicate God exists. They don’t pray, read their Bible, tithe, attend church, memorize scripture, meditate on God’s Word, or try to grow spiritually. When we fail to do these things, even if we claim we are simply too busy, we practically look no different than atheists.

Let’s take time this busy season of celebrating Jesus to actually celebrate Jesus.