Thoughts of Grace

Their strength is to sit still.
Isaiah 30:7

In order really to know God,
inward stillness is absolutely necessary.
I remember when I first learned this.
A time of great emergency had risen in my life,
when every part of my being seemed to throb with anxiety,
and when the necessity
for immediate and vigorous action seemed overpowering;
and yet circumstances were such that I could do nothing,
and the person who could, would not stir.

For a little while it seemed as if
I must fly to pieces with the inward turmoil,
when suddenly the still small voice whispered
in the depths of my soul,
“Be still, and know that I am God.”
The word was with power, and I hearkened.
I composed my body to perfect stillness,
and I constrained my troubled spirit into quietness,
and looked up and waited;
and then I did “know” that it was God,
God even in the very emergency
and in my helplessness to meet it;
and I rested in Him.

It was an experience
that I would not have missed for worlds;
and I may add also,
that out of this stillness seemed to arise
a power to deal with the emergency,
that very soon brought it to a successful issue.
I learned then effectually
that my “strength was to sit still.”
–Hannah Whitall Smith

Let be and be still,
and know (recognize and understand) that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth!
Psalm 46:10 AMPC