Day 16 – Issue 11

Be Still Know

Psalm 147:1 NLT

“Praise the Lord! How good to sing praises to our God! How delightful and how fitting!”

I sometimes wonder just how it is we manage to keep living from one day to the next. I’m referring to what appears to me to be the relentless rise in prices from food to fuel. In the past 12 months some of these have thankfully stayed still or even been reduced; however, the longer term trend is ever upwards. What’s more, if one is not contracted on a PAYE scheme, there are no annual pay rises, and of course no income at all if you have to miss work through illness. I confess to feelings of resentment as I gaze down the long list of monthly outgoings, over which I have little control. The life of my youth seems a faint and distant memory.

However, some debts are enjoyable. The psalmist reminds us that our praise is due to God. Now, this is a due date I can too often forget, taken up as I am with navigating my way through all those other urgent demands. Yet, this one debt of praise I owe to my Lord and saviour is the most appropriate use of my time and energy.

Non-payment of my debt of praise has never led to the arrival of the bailiffs. I have not had my salvation cancelled or my assets frozen. Patiently this great Lord of all my life waits upon the many promises I have given, and forgets the numerous false dawns that have come and gone in my failed attempts to order my life around Christ as its centre.

In all the worries generated by the simple task of living life, I can all too easily become agitated and distracted. Such agitation can be levelled at others, most often the ones who love me most, and whom I’m on record as declaring I love equally. I lose sight of the goodness there is to be found in taking quiet moments to consider God, to sing God’s praises and reflect upon the graces I enjoy as a direct result of God’s love for me.

QUESTION: Consider your life and the pressures you currently experience. How are you relating to God in the heart of these anxieties? Do you sense God’s presence with you in the storms?

PRAYER: Lord, you alone can still the storm. Help me see my life as you see it, and to trust in you. 

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright C 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc, Wheaton, Illinois 60189 USA. All rights reserved.