Embracing the Stillness of God

Psalms 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. 

The gift of stillness is God’s peace for our life.  Oftentimes we translate pausing or the need to rest as being complacent or even lazy.  

This stillness, this calmness, is how we learn to sit with ourselves and God.

The stillness was our first home, in our mother’s womb, a place of quiet perfection. Then we enter a world that teaches and speaks the opposite.

• That is why God doesn’t request but commands stillness. 
• Being still allows you to receive God’s daily instructions.

1 Peter 5:6-7 (NIV) Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Psalms 5:3 (NIV) In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.

Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV) Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Stillness requires intentional focus:

• To stop
• To unplug
• To connect with Him

What is the root cause preventing you from seeking the stillness of God?

Psalms 5:5 (NIV) Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you: he will never let the righteous be shaken

Time to give it all to God.

What are you booked with and busy trying to make work?

2 Samuel 22: 7 (NIV) In my distress I called to the Lord: I called out to my God. From his temple, he heard my voice: my cry came to his ears.

Is listening to God a priority? Or are you so booked with your ambitions that you can’t even recognize God calling you to be still and acknowledge him? Telling you to rest, embrace His stillness.

Proverbs 8:34-35 (NIV) Blessed are those who listen to me, watching daily at my doors waiting at my doorway. 35 For those who find me find life and receive favor from the Lord. 

Are you watching daily at His door, or are you so busy building your life that you forget the calling to build your legacy, looking beyond you (Your children’s children).

God’s visions always come with provisions

Ephesians 2:10 (NIV) For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

• How you see yourself will determine what you see for yourself.
• You are ill-equipped without getting God’s daily instructions, your release!
• You are called to rest. He rested on the seventh day when God created the heavens and the earth. God knows the journey ahead; because he loves you, he tells you to rest and be still. God wants to prepare you for what lies ahead, your legacy.  

It’s bigger than you!

• What is your legacy?
• What are you called to do?
• What are your blockers?

Trust in God to Deliver

Psalms 56:3-4 (NIV) When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. (v.4) In God, whose word I praise—
in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?

Background: David had been seized by the Philistines. Not just captured but tortured daily. (Psalms 56:1) In the midst of this torture, David trusted God:

Psalms 56: 6 (NIV) They conspire, they lurk, they watch my steps, hoping to take my life.

• Sometimes in life, we come under attack, spiritual attacks, or attacks from people.
• Like David, put your trust in God.

Psalms 56:11(NIV) in God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me?

• This is an example of God working in the background while you are waiting.

Proverbs (14:1 NIV) The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.

• If you’re not in a state of acceptance, you’re in a state of resistance.

Psalms 56:13 (NIV) For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.

• For God to have delivered David, he first had to cry out and go before God.

Whatever you plant determines what you will grow, your harvest. What seeds are you planting for your Legacy? 

• What season are you in?
• Are you sowing?
• Are you gathering your harvest? 

It’s time to operate in God’s expectations

and not your experiences 

Philippians 3:14 (NIV) I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ.

• What are you pressing toward?
• The real question is, what has God called you to do?
• How can you experience something spectacular if you hold onto the familiar? 

Psalms 37: 5-6 (NIV) Commit your way to the Lord: trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.

Your purpose isn’t something you find; it’s something you uncover.  Looking within is a false narrative.  Only the creator can tell you your purpose. 

Colossians 1 (NIV) For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities: all things have been created through him for him. 

You didn’t create you; God did! 

• God will not bless what He is trying to break, set you free from. 
• What are you hoarding in your life?
• Ultimately, you’re saying, God, I don’t trust you.

Ecclesiastes 6:6 (NIV) a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away. 

What do you need to give to God?

• What is preventing you from being still and spending time with God?
• God will do whatever it takes to capture our hearts and correct our vision.

“Blindness was their trouble, enlightened was their need” -Strength to Love, -Martin Luther King Jr.

• False narratives, faulty thinking=blindness
• Stillness with God=enlightenment

When God said, “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3), He was giving you permission to shine.

• Some of us do not know how to shine.
• Do you know your worth?
• Have you just given up?

Colossians 4:2 (NIV) Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

• Be watchful of the enemy- God doesn’t want to be surprised.
• Be watchful of God- He wants to Bless you! He is already there. 
• Be Thankful! The victory is yours!
• What God has taken you through is about where He is taking you.

Psalms 4:8 (NIV) In Peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.

When you understand the importance of embracing and chasing the Stillness of God, you’ll understand that delays are not God’s denials.”

• He is working on you and in the background.

Matthew 6:25-26 (NIV) Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

© Keysha Dampeer, 2023