Demolition

“Be still and know that I am God.”  Psalm 46:10

I’m not sure what ever happened to it, but for months I used to have a sign I’d made that hung in my kitchen and said, “STOP TALKING!”  I had more than a few questioning glances at it from visitors, but it wasn’t meant for them, it was solely for me: a daily reminder to “be still.”  I am far from a quiet, confident and assured person, and I often battle the endless ramblings in my head that can end up, if unchecked, stealing my confidence in the Lord.  It was at a time earlier this year when I was particularly struggling with a mind that couldn’t seem to rest that a dear friend gave me her definition of to “be still” as in Psalm 46:10: Hold your peace, stop your talking, stand still.  For years I had confused the “voices” in my head as God trying to get something through to me that I just wasn’t smart enough to understand.  This only brought confusion, discouragement, and reinforced a horrible habit of thinking that I was missing what God was trying to say to me.  The times are too many to count that I spent worrying about all the ways I must have been disappointing God by not figuring out what He was wanting.

It was a lightbulb moment for me when I first began to learn that, although God does often speak in a still, small voice, it is not a voice of guilt or condemnation (as I so often feel when left to my own thoughts), nor one spoken so quietly that we have to strain to hear it.  I used to try so hard to block out all the noise in my head so I could hear what God was saying through it, and then (only recently) I began to realize that I can’t turn off the rambling (doubts about who I am, who God is; the endless reasoning about things), but I can ignore it.  A quote I’ve always loved says, “You can’t stop a bird from alighting on your head, but you can stop it from building a nest.” 

Isaiah 36 and 37 have some powerful examples of this.  Israel is under threat of attack by the King of Assyria, and repeatedly over these two chapters we see a leader of Assyria trying to undermine Israel’s trust in God and cast doubt on His ability to deliver them.  “What confidence is this in which you trust?” he says.  And while God tells them later on in chapter 37, “Do not be afraid of the words which You have heard,” the verse that really stuck out to me was 36:21: “But they held their peace and answered [the chief of staff of Assyria] not a word, for the King’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.””

It’s important for us to remember that there is an adversary, Satan, who is desperate to steal from us all joy, peace and assurance in God.  He often does so by sowing tiny seeds of doubt or a slight variation of truth into our lives.  This is why it’s so important to “take captive every thought...casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.” (2 Corinthians 10:5) I like one version of that verse that says we need to “demolish arguments.”  When we start battling our own feelings and doubts about who God is, we need to demolish them.  Ignoring them, as I mentioned earlier, is only half of the picture…lies are only taken down by truth. “We need to have appropriating faith when it comes to God’s promises and should make His Word our own personal possession…Put your finger on a promise and say, “It is mine.”” (Streams in the Desert, Dec. 29)

We’ve been given an incredible body of armor to wear each day in this “battle”: a helmet of salvation, the belt of truth, the sword of the Spirit, the shield of faith and the breastplate of righteousness. 

“The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.” (Isaiah 32:17)

The next time you’re in a battle, tell yourself to STOP TALKING, measure up what you’re feeling against who God says He is and then believe it.  Then we will be amazed to find the quietness and assurance we’ve longed for to walk confidently with the Lord.