still.

Stillness. Being still may be one of the hardest things for me to do, yet the Lord asks us to sit before Him and be still multiple times in the bible.

"Be still and know that I am God"- Psalms 46:10
"Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him"- Psalm 37:7-9 
"The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” - Exodus 14:14

A few days ago one of my besties and I were talking about what it meant to be still, and how to actually do so. I think stillness can mean a lot of things, depending on the person. For me being still is to totally "unplug"- turn off phone, tv, computer, even music, and sit in complete silence in front of the Lord. And honestly, that doesn't happen very often, or i feel as though it was not "successful". For others, it can mean listening to music and going on a walk; whatever it means to stop your everyday life/routine/busyness we have created and going openly, and vulnerably in front of the Lord.

It's so interesting to me, but when I think back on some of the seasons in my life where times of stillness seemed to be a theme of my days, I was the most broken. I remember the extremely broken states, trying to fight or think of something to do, or fix the situation, or fix/change how i felt because it just hurt, and I kept feeling like the Lord was not "fixing" what I wanted to fix at the very moment I didn't want to hurt anymore. It was obvious, the Lord was saying "Stop. Stop trying to do, stop trying to fix, stop trying to not feel... just stop." And as hard as that was, and still is today, i believe the most healing is done in those moments of stillness.

Thanks to technology, and living in the 21st century, being still is nearly impossible, unless I force myself to do it, and focus on quieting your mind. Yes, completely "unplugging" is a great first step, but getting my mind to stop racing, and stop thinking.. stop doing- is hard. My friend and I were talking about how crazy it is how our minds can still race so quickly, when we are making a conscious effort of being still. As i said earlier, i sometimes feel as though my efforts were "unsuccessful", because i felt as though i failed to get completely still. And i probably did. but our God is so great and He uses that still... even though we know it wasn't a success and feel like a failure.

The Lord is so good, and he knows our hearts better than we do. He commands us to be still, because He knows we need it. He designed our hearts, he knows our needs perfectly. How awesome is it we have a God that created us in His perfect image, and knows us better than we will ever know ourselves?

Being still may be one of the most challenging things for me to do, but it is so good. And again, as always, in all of His ways... He is good.