be still

One hundred fifty years ago, in a far less complex society, theologian Frederick Faber wrote: There is hardly ever a complete silence in our soul. God is whispering to us well nigh incessantly. Whenever the sounds of the world die out in the soul, or sink low, then we hear these whisperings of God. He is always whispering to us, only we do not always hear, because of the noise, hurry, and distraction which life causes as it rushes on.

Before that, David wrote, “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” - Psalm 46.10

Today's sermon as NSV was a continuation of redefining our pace for hearing from God. In Dt 27.9, Moses and the priests said to Israel, "Keep silence and hear, O Israel: this day you have become the people of the Lord your God." How have we quieted our lives to have any hope of hearing from God?

We looked at several Scriptures extolling the virtue of silence. We then considered Genesis 1. Here we see that on man's first day (the seventh of creation), God commanded rest. We also took note that the "day" started in the evening. It could be understood that God intends for us to start from a place of rest.

Contrary to my natural instincts, God's sequence is slow down, pray, and then perhaps act. I typically jump into action and then perhaps pray (and that's often to minimize the damage caused by my action) - rarely do I slow down.

We closed with this consideration, the fourth of the ten commandments is to keep the Sabbath. If not consciously, certainly in practice, few of us follow that? We would never consider intentionally violating the other nine but with this one, why is it we behave as though that is not still in play? I intend to be more overt in my observance of this. I'm not completely sure what "rest" really looks like but I'm convinced it is in no way can be construed as my current practice.

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