Be still? What does that even mean? Be idle while just praying and keeping the faith?!
So I spent time yesterday thinking about this verse…”Be still and know that I am God”. Does it mean when we’ve got anxieties, after surrendering them to God we should idle away and perhaps just pray and keep the faith? I struggled with it because this line of thinking didn’t seem consistent with what I was reading in the Bible.
Then I read this Ellen G. White quote again:
“After we have offered our petitions, we are to answer them ourselves as far as possible, and not wait for God to do for us what we can do for ourselves. The help of God is held in reserve for all who demand it. Divine help is to be combined with human effort, aspiration, and energy. But we cannot reach the battlements of heaven without climbing for ourselves. We cannot be borne up by the prayers of others when we ourselves neglect to pray; for God has made no such provision for us…. The unlovely traits in our characters are not removed, and replaced by traits that are pure and lovely, without some effort on our part….”
Then I asked some Christian friends and got this explanation: “Is there a time we should stop striving and leave everything to God?” There is. You stop striving when you’re out of reasonable options. You stop when you have nothing left to give. That is when God takes over the situation!”
So what did David mean when he wrote “Be still…”?