Be Still

Isaiah 28:12-13 -- "He who said to them, "Here is rest, give rest to the weary," And, "Here is repose," but they would not listen. So the word of the Lord to them will be, "Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there" That they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared and taken captive." [NASB]

Shuffling my feet from one to the other I stopped to bend down and touch my toes. For a split second, the pain in my lower back eased and I stood upright again. Mentally, I hadn't slowed down to stretch and my lengthy to-do list ran away with my every thought like the tornado in The Wizard of Oz. The more I thought of how long that list was, the more my back hurt, the slower I became, the less I was able to actually accomplish - which left me overwhelmed - which made my back hurt, which made me slower .... you get the picture. 

The thing is, had I actually taken just a few minutes to stop the crazy-person dance with no rhythm and no continuity - to truly rest - I would have had more strength to finish my daunting to-do list. I would have been more efficient and could have actually started to tick things off my list with big happy check marks. None of us runs very well with a drained battery.

In Isaiah God was trying to tell His people this very thing. God was and still is trying to lead us - but we were and are so very busy being busy that we often miss His wonderful opportunities to rest and fully understand His will. 

If we don't take a moment to be still, we simply will not have the mental capacity or the strength to take in God's Word and apply it appropriately. As in verse 13, all we will see is line on line on line, the meaning will slip right through our fingers and we'll march forward into a rather nasty tumble from which we will then HAVE to stop because we'll need the time to heal and pick up the pieces. 

If we continue on our very busy, busy path trying to juggle so many objects and rely on our timing for success, rest, and efficiency - we will find that in the bed of our own making : "the bed is too short to stretch out on, the blanket too narrow to wrap around you." [Isaiah 28:20] 

In short - we will simply be spread too thin to be of any true service to our Lord. We will stumble backward, become snared, and taken captive - then we end up in the spiritual ER totally out of commission. Where is the success in that?

God really DOES want our service. He wants us to accomplish the wonderful things He has in store for us - they are set before us for a reason and with amazing reward! But - just as Rome wasn't built in a day - neither can we serve God fully if we try to do ALL the serving ALL at once. 

pppsssstttt - did you hear that? That amazing THING?! It's called quiet. We can't get that hustling and bustling about - we have to be still. In that amazing quiet lies the rest we need and the opportunity to REALLY hear God's voice!