“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10

A couple of weekends ago, my wife and I were watching my niece’s children, ages 6,5, & 3. At one point, I put on some Bugs Bunny cartoons, because, tragically, they had never seen these classic comedy treasures. I was excited to introduce them to these treasures from my childhood. What made it sweeter was that they all wanted to sit with me.

After 45 minutes of them climbing over each other—and me–, pushing, pulling, squirming, tattling on someone who wasn’t giving the others enough legroom, and constant questions about who the characters were and what they were doing, I was exhausted! I’ve never gotten so tired just trying to sit still! I told Christi to take the kids so I could get a nap.

In her book, Liturgy of the Ordinary, Tish Harrison Warren writes, “In a culture that craves the big, the entertaining, the dramatic, and the shocking (sometimes literally), cultivating a life with space for silence and repetition is necessary for sustaining a life of faith.”

I think that most people find sitting still before the Lord tends to take them some work too. There are so many things tugging at us and trying to get our attention, filling up our schedule and crowding out the things of God. And all of that commotion only makes having a daily time of getting still and alone with Him that much more important. We need that time where we talk to Him in prayer, and where we listen to Him, through meditating on His word.

As you pray today, Ask the Lord for His help in shutting out the demands and the noise of this world, so that you can be still before Him.