Be Still: Finding God in Life's Whirlwind

“The fruit of the faith comes from the practice of our faith”

A few weeks ago, International Headquarters released a video of the General and Commissioner Bronwyn Buckingham in conversation with a number of our young people who are taking part in the International Youth Forum.

It's a fascinating video. If you have a spare 20 minutes, I suggest that you go away and you find it on YouTube or on social media and watch it. 
There is so much wisdom from our international leaders and from our young people too.

But there was one particular thing that the General said, which really stood out to me as I watched the video.

I'm not entirely sure why because there wasn't anything particularly profound about it, but there was something in the way the General said it, and in the context of which he said it, which just jumped out at me as I listened to him, have a look and see what you think:

Video: General - Practice the Disciplines | 2:00

Isn't that so helpful:

The fruit of our faith comes from the disciplines of our faith.

The fruit of our faith comes from the disciplines of our faith.

That just really stood out to me that the General, because he has been so consistent over so many years in practising the spiritual disciplines, is able to stay grounded, even with all the responsibilities that he holds. 


As a leader that stood out to me and really spoke to me. Am I being consistent in my practice of my faith? Am I practising the spiritual disciplines?

What spiritual disciplines are you practising?

I want you to ask yourself that same question this morning: what spiritual disciplines are grounding me and my faith so that I can be as effective for God as possible? 


I have a book on my bookshelf called the Spiritual Disciplines Handbook. It's written by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, and Adele puts together over 60 spiritual disciplines.

Did you know that there are over 60 spiritual disciplines? 


There are the usual kind of spiritual disciplines that we can think of off the top of our heads, spending time in prayer, reading our Bibles, silence, solitude, and so on, but maybe other spiritual disciplines that you were not aware, even are spiritual disciplines.

It's another book that's worth reading.

But what spiritual disciplines are grounding your faith?

A few weeks ago, we thought about spending time this summer just getting out into nature and connecting with God in that way and then we thought about practising the spiritual discipline of gratitude, finding things to thank God for amidst all the negativity that there is in the world. 


Today we're going to be thinking about the discipline of prayer, and to help us:

Psalm 46:1-11

Psalm 46:1–11 NLT

God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge! Interlude A river brings joy to the city of our God, the sacred home of the Most High. God dwells in that city; it cannot be destroyed. From the very break of day, God will protect it. The nations are in chaos, and their kingdoms crumble! God’s voice thunders, and the earth melts! The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is here among us; the God of Israel is our fortress. Interlude Come, see the glorious works of the Lord: See how he brings destruction upon the world. He causes wars to end throughout the earth. He breaks the bow and snaps the spear; he burns the shields with fire. “Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.” The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is here among us; the God of Israel is our fortress. Interlude

MESSAGE NOTES

The context of war and conflict

Now, many of you will know this psalm, but you may not know the context in which it was written.

Actually, scholars are not particularly sure about when the psalm was written. 


It might well have been written after Jerusalem's rescue from the Moabite Coalition in the days of Jehoshaphat, which you can read about in the 2 Chronicles 20 or it could have been after Jerusalem's escape from the Assyrian siege in 701 BC, which we can read about in 2 Chronicles 32.

Cosmic powers beyond our control

But whatever it is, this psalm for the first nine verses focuses on the destructive outbreak of cosmic powers that are beyond our understanding.

A few weeks ago, a tsunami alert was raised for a number of places around the world, including the island of Hawaii, following an earthquake. I don't know if you if you saw that news report, but as I watched or listened to a news report, I heard described how people were being evacuated from the coastal areas of Hawaii and being encouraged to find their way up into the mountainous areas in the middle of the island. 


Why? Because it makes sense to us as humans that however destructive a tsunami is going to be, it is never going to be destructive enough to destroy the mountainous areas of the world. That's just beyond our comprehension. 


And yet that's exactly what the Psalmist describes in Psalm 46.

He describes cosmic forces, which are outside of human control - the melting of the earth in volcanic eruption, the tottering of the mountains in earthquake and the tumbling of great eroded masses of rock into the angry, roaring sea.

It's just beyond our understanding.

The one command in Psalm 46: Be still!

And amidst all this chaos, amidst all this destruction, there is just one command in Psalm 46. and we find it in verse 10:

Psalm 46:10 NLT

“Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.”

Be still and know that I am God!

Now this is not an invitation by God to look at the cosmic forces around us, the destruction and the chaos and sit cross legged on the floor and practice the spiritual discipline of meditation.

Cease and Desist!

No, the words that make up this command "be still” have more of a meaning of "be quiet!” 


Stop what you're doing.

Desist from what you're doing.

In a military context, it might well be Attention! It is supposed to get our attention.

It's supposed to get our focus. 


God is saying stop - stop what you're doing.

Be quiet and listen to me.

I am God even amidst all the destruction, even amidst all the chaos.

I am God. I have always been God. I am God now and I always will be God.

I am in control and you are not.

And it might just be that in these summer weeks, we need to be still and to hear God say: I am God and you are not.

Amid our busyness, amidst the chaos sometimes that carries on around us.

God may well be saying to us this summer: hands off, stop being so hands on in your life.

Stop trying to manage your own life and allow me to be God.

Sometimes we need to allow God to work in our lives in his own time and in his own way.

So sometimes we have to take our hands off and allow God to lead.

God may well be saying to us this morning: don't meddle. Don't meddle. 


I've got this.

Be still and know that I am God.

Are you too busy to allow God to be God?

And so the question I have to ask you this morning is: are you too busy to allow God to be God?

Are you too busy to allow God to be God?

In the week that I wrote this message and thought through this message, I contacted at least two people to ask them if there was anything I could pray for this week and both of them came back to me and said in different ways, my body and my soul is ready for the holiday that I know is coming.

In other words, I'm working, I'm living on fumes. 


My spiritual life is running on fumes.

I am in danger of burning out, but I'm holding on because in a few days or a few weeks my life is going to be filled with sunshine. I'm going to have some fun and I'm going to have a change of pace, and that's a really welcome sight. 


I wonder if you feel like that today, or if there are times in your life, when you feel like that?

I'm just at the end of my rope, but I can see a holiday coming round the corner.

The reminder from Psalm 46 is that if we are still, and if we allow God to be God, then maybe we won't get to that place.

And the reminder from the General is that if we practice spiritual disciplines like prayer, which we're focussing on this morning, then we may not get to that place because our faith life will be on a solid foundation.

Prayer allows us to remember that there is a sovereign God who cares for us.

A sovereign God who is our refuge.

A sovereign God who is always present in our lives, even when we're so busy that we forget to notice that he is present.

Prayer, the spiritual discipline of prayer, helps us to ensure that we don't avoid God or try to shut him out of what is going on in our lives.

Prayer reminds us that he knows us. 


He loves us and he remains ready with open arms to welcome us.

Amy Julia Becker writes about confusing religion and spirituality and how sometimes our busyness and our restlessness can keep us from the practice of being still and knowing God.

She tells the story of her young son exhausted from not sleeping after they moved him out of his cot to a “big boy bed”.

She writes:

“He was exhausted, but he refused to stay in his bed. I said, ‘William, what do you need to be able to go to sleep?’ He turned his head to look at me and said, ‘Mom, I need a fence.’ We put him back in his crib, and he returned to his previous pattern of sleeping 11 hours at night. In order to be still, he needed boundaries. … When I think about the interplay between spirituality and religion, I imagine that religion is the fence, the boundaries that give us freedom to explore true spirituality. Or, in the words of the Psalm, knowing God is the fence, the protective barrier, that allows us to be still. Our son William needed a fence—the bars of his crib—in order to sleep, and those crib bars were good for him”.

The fence of spiritual disciplines - the cot bars of spiritual disciplines - are good for us.

They are the foundations of our faith, and they help us to be still and recall that God is God, and we are not.

So again, what spiritual disciplines are you putting into your fence in to make your spiritual life secure?

Think about your prayer life for a moment.

Is it made up of arrow prayers where you simply throw up a quick plea to God in the middle of whatever you're doing, asking for is help or do you manage to find times of focussed prayer? 


Don't get me wrong. God hears every prayer and he doesn't judge you based on how long you pray or how many times in the day you pray or whether your prayers are made up of lists of requests or whether there's times of gratitude in there.

He likes hearing from you whatever you say to him.

But there is so much benefit to you in taking time for stillness, confession, and reflection. 


That benefit is all yours, not God’s.

When you take time to sit with God, it gives you a moment to wade through all the urgent things that are going on in your mind, and realise that your heart is a tender place, and it needs God's care.

It gives you a moment to to sort through everything going on in your head, to unburden your heart with what's on your mind, and to listen for what God says in reply, and be ready to make that change when it comes. 


It's so easy in the busyness of life and ministry to press on in survival mode and power through, just hoping for your next holiday to be round the corner, instead of dealing with the mess inside.

Stillness, the spiritual discipline of stillness and prayer allows us to bring all that mess to the Lord.

And to consider how he can empower us to sort through it, to remind ourselves that he is our refuge, a safe place, that he is our defender and protector, and that nothing is too big for him, and that most of all, he is our God. 


He can handle whatever we throw at him.

God is steadfast. God is always with us, but prayer helps us make time and make room for God's voice and his presence to become clearer to us.

Are we too busy to pray?

If we are then maybe we need to make a change this summer, so that we're ready for the next busy season in our lives.

And if we will find time to be still, then we will find God in life's whirlwind.

Songsters: Psalm 91