There’s this one verse in the Bible that a lot of people—myself included—seem to know (but don’t really know). It comes from a song written long ago by a group of Israelite worship leaders called the Sons of Korah who wrote music for people to sing to God. The verse says, “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).
Those words are so powerful.
But if I’m being completely honest, I’ve struggled for the longest time with using these words in everyday life. What does “be still and know” look like when
- it’s 2:00 p.m. on a Tuesday, your bank account says $100, and payday is still 48 hours away?
- it’s 10:00 a.m. on a Thursday and you’re standing in line at a funeral, heartbroken?
- it’s 7:00 p.m. on a Sunday, you have an argument with the one person whom you thought really “gets you,” and now you’re questioning everything?
What do you do? How do you “be still” in those moments?
I got my answer from the life of a historical figure named Nehemiah, whose story is told in the Old Testament of the Bible. Nehemiah was a high-ranking government official whose heart broke for a very special cause. He wanted to restore a city that had been left to rot, the city where God’s temple had been built: Jerusalem.
As he went about the work of rebuilding the protective walls around Jerusalem, many enemies threatened not only to stop his progress but also to harm Nehemiah and his workers. Once the threat became a reality, Nehemiah addressed the workers and residents with a plan. He told them to keep working until they heard the blast of a trumpet. “When you hear the blast of the trumpet, rush to wherever it is sounding. Then our God will fight for us!” (Nehemiah 4:20 NLT).
Nehemiah didn’t rally the troops and assemble them for battle. He didn’t tell them to switch gears from repairing the city to building weapons.
He told them to keep working.
Be still. It doesn’t mean freeze. It means switch gears and do what you can do while you wait on what you can’t do. Allow God to direct your focus toward a project worth your energy instead of wasting time and effort on worries.
Nehemiah told his workers to rush to the trumpet sound and watch God fight for them.
Know that I am God. It means God will work it out in ways you’d never dream were possible. There are hundreds of accounts throughout the Bible in which God made something appear out of nothing or reversed the laws of nature. He will blow your mind with this victory.
It doesn’t matter how big the battle is, God may have a miracle queued up for you.
So keep working. Keep doing the good work God has set before you to do. Keep cracking open that Bible and trusting that God has something in there written just for you. Keep serving others even when you’d rather curl up in a big ball of “overthinkiness.”
And know that God will be exactly what he’s always been: amazing.
