Picture this: You get home early from work and there’s no one there. Your home is completely quiet. There are no kids screaming for you and asking for more juice and a snack, to help them with their homework, etc. Your spouse hasn’t made it through the front door just yet saying the cliché (yet, sweet), “Honey, I’m home!” You have TIME TO YOURSELF…precious IDLE time to yourself! What do you do?
By a show of hands, how many flipped on the TV to a show you’ve been dying to finish “binge” watching and as you’re watching the show you pulled out your phone and scrolled through social media, email, photos, and text messages? [FYI: I’m raising BOTH of my hands.]
I absolutely struggle with that idle time…the time I should be MAKING for the Lord, but I choose to escape into the fantasy world of television and Facebook…because gosh darn it, I’ve worked hard today and I DESERVE this time to MYSELF doing something completely selfish.
Don’t get me wrong, we all need that kind of time in our lives where we can just shut our brain off and watch something mindless on TV, but whenever I have the opportunity to choose a mindless activity over spending time with the Lord and basking in His radiant presence, I almost always choose the mindless-ness (it’s a word…just go with it). Sad right?
We live in a day of instant gratification and there’s always something or someone to fill our time with. Taking time out of your day to spend with God and actually standing STILL in His presence has become a lost art in my life for sure. STILLNESS makes me NERVOUS…and I honestly have NO CLUE why!
Think about it…the time we spend doing absolutely nothing productive, 7 times out of 10 (statistic made up by yours truly) we regret choosing that option. Am I right or am I alone in this? But we NEVER regret spending that time on something productive…laundry, working out, spending time in the WORD or in prayer. So why not choose to take that idle time we are given to spend time with God by being still in His presence? What could we gain from doing just that?
According to Psalm 46:10, by following the command to “be still” we gain knowledge in who God is that He is a sovereign God over everything . He will reveal Himself to you in those times of stillness. In the stillness we are able to shut all other distractions off and really dwell in His presence and really feel Him around. It allows us to put our lives into perspective and understand that this world is not about us and the fact that we “deserve” time to ourself to binge watch whatever we want on TV. Our existence is completely all about God and what He has planned for us and we cannot truly understand what that plan is unless we are willing to stand still in His presence and allow him to reveal Himself to us in those still moments.
The act of standing still in God’s presence is a necessary part of growing the relationship that we have with Him, and if we aren’t willing to do that…to intentionally give Him undistracted moments of our time…we are robbing ourselves of a sweet, intimate relationship with the God that created us. I am going to intentionally stand still in God’s presence this week…only good can come from it! Will you join me?
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
A Love Better Than Life 