—Their strength is to sit still. (Isa. 30:7)
Considering that Christmas is rapidly approaching it seems silly to speak about sitting still. Most people are thinking about all the things they need to do. However, I believe there is a valueable lesson here for us–regardless of the circumstances.
Hannah Whitall Smith wrote this about our text for today:
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
Commenting on those thoughts, Mrs. Charles Cowman wrote:There is a perfect passivity which is not indolence. It is a living stillness born of trust. Quiet tension is not trust. It is simply compressed anxiety. We need to think about that!”Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.”(Psalm 27:14).
