Be Still (9/10/2023)

From the time I was a child, I was taught how to pray. I was taught the words. I was taught the demeanor. I was taught the necessity. But it wasn’t until I was an adult that a wise woman told me the final and perhaps most important lesson about prayer – being still and listening.

Until that time, being Irish, I was always able to talk to the LORD. I believed the LORD could hear me no matter where I was at that moment. I believed in the LORD’s love for me, and so I knew I could speak openly and honestly, lay it all out there. I knew there were no subjects “off limits” in my talks with the LORD. But also, being Irish, I tended to be the primary speaker. Okay, most of the time I was the only speaker.

Then this wonderfully wise woman told me that prayer begins with me talking to the LORD, but that it needs to end with me being silent and allowing the LORD to speak to me in the silence of my heart. Life changer.

I often wonder now why it hadn’t occurred to me before this wonderful woman stated the obvious. I wonder why I thought all I had to do was list what I needed like I was ordering from the catalog. But prayer isn’t a catalog order, or it shouldn’t be. Prayer is meant to be a conversation between a believer and the LORD.

If you’ve known me very long, you know that one of my favorite quotes from scripture is from Psalm 46:10: “Be still and know that I am LORD.” Powerful. It reminds me that I need to let the LORD be the LORD, the one who gave me life and knows my purpose woven in my very being. It reminds me that I can tell the LORD anything, but that the true reason for doing so is to be still and listen to the LORD’s response to me. To not “be still” is arrogant. To not “be still” is foolish.

I found a beautiful Irish calligraphed print of this psalm passage. It sits on my kitchen counter (the room I spend my most time in on any given day). I am searching for the perfect place to hang it, but so far, I haven’t settled on the spot. And then a couple of weeks ago, a friend was cleaning out some things and found a holy card with my psalm. She brought it to me. I am blessed to have friends such as her.

As we journey, filled to our brim with faith in the one True LORD, buoyed by hope in the LORD’s promise, and fueled by the LORD’s love poured out upon us, let us flock to the LORD early and often to speak our praise, to offer our thanksgiving, and to express our needs, our desires. And let us then “Be still” and allow the LORD to speak to us, to inform us, to conform us, to transform us. Let us “Be still and know that I AM LORD.”

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.