I know this will be difficult for some of you to understand, or believe, but I am such an activist. I find it so hard to sit still. I find it hard NOT to think about things and imagine new possibilities, or imagine new projects. Ever since I was young my mind was always going at full speed. I could never slow down. My parents and teachers concluded that I was hyper-active, although that’s not what it was called back then. It takes A LOT of wind-down time for me to, well, feel that I have unwound, even just a bit. I have noticed these past few years that when I go on annual leave it takes a lot longer for me to wind down than it did, say, 15 years ago, so that I can then start to enjoy the holiday. But I do need to make the effort and find wind down time and space to just sit.
To just sit is not as common as it used to be in our culture, and I mean, individually just sit. We are always on the go and we don’t seem to be slowing down. Recently, towards the end of my January break, I had time to do a tiny bit of gardening and potting of some new plants and so on at the front of our house. Within days the plants began to take off and it was so nice just to appreciate them as they started to grow and flower. One warm summer’s evening I grabbed a patio chair from out back and plonked it near the front door amidst the new plants and hanging baskets, and I just sat there as dusk slowly crept in and the birds fell silent.
I closed my eyes and sat. Just sat. It was so relaxing, and still.
In those moments of stillness, just sitting, I began to quietly seek the Lord. I prayed for a bit, not all that long, giving up to the Lord the things that were on my mind …
1 Peter 5:7 (NIV)
“Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”
And the peace of God came upon me as He drew near …
James 4:8 (NIV)
“Come near to God and He will come near to you. …”
I sensed the presence of God with me. No words were spoken. I just sat. I received no instruction, no revelation, no wisdom insights. I just sat. It was just the Lord, as it were, sitting with me enjoying the cool of the evening. The peace and reassurance of just sitting with the Lord was so refreshing, so encouraging, so tranquil, so beautiful – so very reassuring. I was overcome with the mercy of it all. And my faith was strengthened, my heart lightened, as the Lord imparted His blessing to me.
When King David was well and truly established as King of Israel and, by now, living in a beautiful palace of cedar, he realised one day that the Ark of God’s Covenant was still in a tent he had pitched for it when it was brought back to Jerusalem. He suddenly has this noble idea that he would build a temple, a permanent dwelling place for the Ark because, to him, it was not right for him to be in an ornate palace and for the Ark of God’s Covenant to be in a tent somewhere. He goes and shares his great idea with Nathan, the prophet. Nathan thinks it is a great idea and encourages David to go right ahead. But that very night the Lord spoke to Nathan and told him that this was not what he had planned for David. In fact, God sent Nathan back to David with this message (a quick summary of 1 Chronicles 17). “David, it was good of you to want to build Me a house, but that’s not how it’s going to be. You’re not going to build Me a house,” God said, “I’m going to build you a house [i.e. the house of David].” When David receives this totally unexpected message from the Lord, it says in v.16 that David went in and sat before the Lord.
1 Chronicles 17:16 (NIV)
“Then King David went in and sat before the LORD”
He just sat. Here is King David, sitting before the Lord – not kneeling, not praying, not dancing, not worshipping, not talking - just sitting. He is absorbing everything the Lord had relayed to him through Nathan, the prophet. He was quiet before the Lord. This activist, warrior king found the space to wind down and just sit in the presence of God with no other agenda than to be with the Lord. This is a really simple thing, isn’t it? But it is a surprisingly difficult thing for many believers today to come to grips with - the importance of stillness before God. To just sit.
Psalm 46:10a
God says, "Be still, and know that I am God;"
The ancient Hebrew verb translated “be still” here is “raphah” (rah-FAH) not rapha, as in Jehovah Rapha. It means to stop striving and relax and know that I am God. Or, cease striving, let go, and stay calm and know that I am God. The key here is to let go, to relax, to open up your being to God in order to receive … and you’ll get to know God. And, as you sit before the Lord, as you absorb, as you are quiet and still – and all the striving has stopped - God draws near. And often this drawing near is a tangible, wordless ‘presencing’ of Himself that imparts such rich blessing for our comfort, consolation, revival, reassurance and encouragement.
Isaiah 40:29-31
“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who wait upon the LORD shall have the strength replenished, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not become faint.”
The patio chair is still out the front of the house, near the front door – waiting for me to just sit again.
Think on these things. Just sit …
Ps Milton