Still and Silent

He says, "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

For anyone who knows me.... they understand that it is extremely hard for me to be still and silent. When there is silence for any length of time, I feel as though I need to fill it by talking and asking questions. It's difficult for me to ride in elevators, subways, and sit at conventions because I have to be still and silent for such a long period of time.

I wonder why this is? Why do I, or anyone else, feel as though silence needs to be filled?

There are so many distractions in life! Music, television, friends, family, homework, cell phones... NOISE. With all of these distractions it is very easy to fill silence with something and get used to that noise in our life a being a normal part of it. Not sure about you, but I have taught myself to not only fill the silence with something, but have a pretty short attention span. Teaching kindergarten over the years has allowed me to change activities every 5 to 6 minutes. Doing this day after day has made my own attention span short, and therefore makes it hard to stay still and silent... :)

Now... I do realize that the scripture verse is saying to be still before God, and I understand the benefits of being still and silent before God. Jesus was silent before His Father many times in scripture, here are a few examples.

 

• "When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place..." (Matthew 14:13)

• "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed." (Mark 1:35)

Now it would be easy for me (and you) to keep living day to day without be silent (really silent) before God, but just think how much He has to say. What if we actually slowed down and listened to Him? I'm willing to start being quiet (at least I'll try) ... :) How 'bout you?