Despite immense pressures in his life, Jesus took time out periodically to find quiet places to pray. It’s a good example for us. At a recent men’s church group meeting I attended we had lots of discussion about this. The verse for the weeks’ lesson was from Psalm 46:10. The first part of the verse is “Be still and know that I am God..”. Perhaps the point is that during our often busy lives, the best way to seek God is to stop everything, close our minds to the outside world and open our hearts to God.
It is not an easy thing for me to do. It’s very easy to think of praying and seeking God’s advice when things are going really really bad, but what about when I just need to hear his voice, for some guidance. John Ortberg wrote in The Life You’ve Always Wanted ”Today, as best I can, I am going to be still. I am not going to chatter thoughtlessly. I will remember that I don’t have to defend myself or make people think of me the way I want them to. Today I don’t have to get my way. Today, before I make decisions, I will try to listen for God’s voice. Today I am not going to be tossed around by anxiety or anger – I will take those feelings as prompts from the Spirit to listen first. In each of these situations I will ask God, “How would you like me to respond? I will live in stillness.”
Today I don’t have to get my way? I definitely want to get my way every day. I want to think the world will meet my needs, listen to all my complaints, and fix everything I think needs fixing. In fact I’m rather impatient about it too.
Occasionally however I can take time to stop and smell the roses, to bask in the glow of the creation. One of the best places I find is my own back yard. I have not seen any sand hill cranes this year, but they were constant visitors last year. Maybe if I just spend some more time being still.
Thirsty Travels 