The Power of Silence

"Be still, and know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10).

Is there any note of music in all the chorus as mighty as the emphatic pause? Is there any word in all the Psalter more eloquent than that one word, Selah (Pause)? Is there anything more thrilling and awful than the hush that comes before the bursting of the tempest and the strange quiet that seems to fall upon all nature before some preternatural phenomenon or convulsion? Is there anything that can touch our hearts as the power of stillness? There is for the heart that will cease from itself, "the peace of God that passeth all understanding," a "quietness and confidence" which is the source of all strength, a sweet peace "which nothing can offend," a deep rest which the world can neither give nor take away. There is in the deepest center of the soul a chamber of peace where God dwells, and where, if we will only enter in and hush every other sound, we can hear His still, small voice. There is in the swiftest wheel that revolves upon its axis a place in the very center, where there is no movement at all; and so in the busiest life there may be a place where we dwell alone with God, in eternal stillness, There is only one way to know God. "Be still, and know." "God is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him."  --Selected

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"All-loving Father, sometimes we have walked under starless skies that dripped darkness like drenching rain. We despaired of starshine or moonlight or sunrise. The sullen blackness gloomed above us as if it would last forever. And out of the dark there spoke no soothing voice to mend our broken hearts. We would gladly have welcomed some wild thunder peal to break the torturing stillness of that over-brooding night. "But Thy winsome whisper of eternal love spoke more sweetly to our bruised and bleeding souls than any winds that breathe across Aeolian harps. It was Thy 'still small voice' that spoke to us. We were listening and we heard. We looked and saw Thy face radiant with the light of love. And when we heard Thy voice and saw Thy face, new life came back to us as life comes back to withered blooms that drink the summer rain." --Unknown

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So, often we find it extremely difficult to end the frenetic and unsettled behavior we perpetuate in the midst of our storms. Our natural human proclivity to find our own resolutions normally lead us further and further from God's design for our lives. When God tells David to "be still" (accurately translated, stop striving), He is saying that it is not your job to figure it out; your job is to trust Me  to work it out on your behalf. This is that place where you experience the silence and it may seem that nothing is being done, but learn to listen in the silence; learn to sense Gods movement in the silence. The calm and still during this period of silence can be unnerving as vibrations of uncertainty are felt in the depths of your soul. I just want you to understand that God works His best works in the silence.

It is the audacity of our faith that God responds to, not our frenetic behavior. God's power is activated by faith. Sometimes it is your responsibility to simply stand still and let God do what only He can do. Prepare to experience the supernatural when you are able to rest in the peace that transcends the moment. This ability to stand still is not passive in nature because it is done from a mindset of expectancy; this brings a thought process that is intertwined and inextricably bound to the process of breakthrough and elevation.
~ Dr. Rick Wallace