During Bible study this week, my girlfriends and I asked each other, “How do you find stillness with the Lord”? There were four women and four answers, and in each instance, we realized that we can find that calm and hear God’s voice in ways that are unique to our personalities.
1. An Active Start
One friend said she has to move around a lot to get tired, and then she can be physically still to experience stillness. “I’m a doer, so I need to be busy, and then I can eventually settle down and hear God’s voice.” We agreed that this rest, hearing from God, is tricky to find, but busyness helps her to wind down. This particular lady works out her restlessness and distraction by getting things done like a cat circling and circling until she finally gets comfortable - for about fifteen minutes before she is distracted again. But even that fifteen minutes is something special.
She said, “I wish I could stay there for longer,” but even that tiny glimmer of deep, thirst-quenching communion with her Savior is something to hold on to. She knows it’s there, and there will be more glimmers when we get to be with Christ in Heaven. As she ages, “it’s easier to be still - not much easier, but easier.”
2. Moving To Rest
I start similarly, but I keep going. If you have ever observed children in a classroom, one or more of them is tapping a foot, playing with a pencil, or fidgeting. Without movement for these children, concentration is impossible. I’m like that - if you try to make me sit still and concentrate, it’s rough going. I write this essay in spurts, getting up frequently to clean something, put out my recycling, or get something to eat. At the movies, I sometimes annoy the person next to me by bouncing my leg up and down, though I rarely go anymore (for that reason, among others).
But when I go hiking, I have to move all the time. I want the payout of a beautiful view from a high elevation, and though I stop to take in the picture as I go along or to catch my breath on a steep hill, it’s easier to keep up the pace if I don’t stop.
And meanwhile, I find that an active body allows my mind to stay put on God and to hear from him. There’s nothing else to do, no laundry or cleaning; all I have to do is ask God to talk to me. That is when the Holy Spirit brings things to mind, comforting, convicting, directing, or instructing. My mind is quiet, so my Father speaks to me. An inspiring view helps me to acknowledge his presence, too. He made the view I’m looking at. His hands shaped every groove and crag; how can I fail to worship?
3. Total Stillness
Another friend says she can sit down and talk to God, no problem. She can curl up on the couch with her Bible and pray. It is not difficult for her to stay in bed and talk to Him or sit still without fidgeting.
I admire this kind of peace - peace with self, not to feel guilty for being still, and restfulness with the Lord. She said, “I sometimes let my mind wander, but staying where I am for a while is okay. I don’t feel that urge to be busy when I want to talk to God.” The payout for such patience and self-control is that she genuinely hears from him.
4. The People Person
As far as I was concerned, the most surprising answer came from the fourth lady, the epitome of “extroverted.” She cannot do things alone. She lacks independence or abilities, but her version of recharging is to hang out with women. Mingling is her superpower. When our church closed during COVID-19, and we were participating via Zoom, she felt like she did not know herself. She had the most challenging time of all the people I knew, and that’s not for lack of faith in God’s control over every situation.
She sees and hears God through interaction with other people. This is her deep sigh of contentment and peace. I can’t imagine trying to hear from God by being with people. The other three of us seek solitude as an essential part of our routine, which shows that we are uniquely made.
You Are Unique:
No one way is correct while the others are wrong: if you manage to carve out regular time for this kind of stillness in your spirit to yield to God and whatever he wants to show you, and you regularly seek God’s presence, long to spend time with him, you are doing as you have been instructed. James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” 1 Chronicles 16:11 says, “Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!” What an emphatic exhortation! This is so exciting that the Lord wants to be with us. And since we are to seek him continually, God expects us to look for ways to be present with him no matter what we do. In other words, hyper people like me have to learn to find their rest in themselves by sitting down and not moving for some time. My extroverted friend will need to lean on him when she is alone. At the same time, as we ask him to help us seek him at all times, we see his power at work to overcome our weaknesses, just as he employs the strengths he created us with.
God knit us in our mother’s wombs, and he knows us. (Psalm 139:13) If your personality is not stopping you from seeking his face, then lean into your particularities and enjoy him enjoying you. Do not be ashamed of your ability to sit still or that you find stillness intimidating. Know that you are loved by God, who filled you with his fullness (Ephesians 3:19). He supplied it already, and it does not come from our own striving.
Prayer for More of God
Father, we are apt to try and please you by doing things we think you will like, praying the right way, and looking and acting like the Christian who is so put together. Forgive us; you have not asked us to be put together, shiny, or presentable. Help us remember that you expect us to arrive at your feet completely undone, really needy, so that we caput entirely in YOUR completeness. You have saved us by YOUR grace, not behavior. Thank you! Thank you for not timing my ability to stand in one place without moving or my ability to concentrate on you when the world is noisy. Thank you for that; when circumstances are not the ones we seek to enjoy communion with you, our hunger for you becomes so overwhelming that it doesn’t matter anymore: we’ll make it work, somehow; we’ll find some way to tune out the distractions of too much noise or too much quiet because we want nothing more than YOU. We don’t all arrive at the stillness in your presence in the same ways, but each of us comes to the same God who loves his children with the same love. Father, don’t let us forget it. Amen.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/EmilyNorton
