Stillness & Knowing
It’s easy to gloss over a phrase like “Be still and know that I am God” without recognizing the generous gift inside. (Psalm 46:10 KJV, D&C 101:16)
At first blush, it sounds rather bossy — just another target to shoot and miss.
Yes, it’s a very straightforward phrase that can get our backs up. But what if this is an answer to a heart-felt, soul-deep question? Did we cry out begging for closeness and confirmation of His presence, that a loving Heavenly Father is interested in us and our lives? Did we plead, “How can I know Thee better?” The loving response, “To truly know me — invite more stillness into your heart and soul.” Can we receive this gift as the key to everything?
If stillness is the way to knowing God, what is it and how do we get more of it?
Do we even know what stillness is?
Stillness: devoid or abstaining from motion; uttering no sound; free from noise or turbulence. (Merriam-Webster)
My first thought of stillness is very much this definition: stop doing something. Stop moving. Lay down for a nap. Imagine a game of freeze-tag. Once caught, you stop moving immediately, no shifting to get more comfortable, no scratching, no sneezing… no blinking — if the game was unusually intense. Is this the kind of stillness we need? Putting a stop to things that are no longer serving us a good first step, but there must be more on our path to coming unto Christ and becoming like Him. If all we had to do was avoid doing bad things, we could isolate ourselves and wait for time to pass. Just like being stuck frozen in a game of tag, that sounds incredibly boring at best, and hopeless at worst. Luckily, God’s plan for us is not to halt our progress and leave us there. There must be more. He is a God of eternal progression, after all.
Eternal progression is a basic part of the gospel of Jesus Christ. (Marvin J. Ashton, April 1984)
God loves us as we are, but He also loves us too much to leave us this way… Change is what Christ’s Atonement is all about. (Elder Wilcox, October 2021)
How can we be still and continue to progress?
I believe the Lord’s admonition to ‘be still’ entails much more than simply not talking or not moving. Perhaps His intent is for us to remember and rely upon Him and His power ‘at all times and in all places that [we] may be in.’ Thus, ‘be still’ may be a way of reminding us to focus upon the Savior unfailingly as the ultimate source of the spiritual stillness of the soul that strengthens us to do and overcome hard things. One important aspect of stillness [is] overcoming and tuning out the commotion of our external environment. (Elder David A. Bednar, April 2024)
Elder Bednar suggests that the actions of stillness include remembering, relying, focusing on Christ, overcoming commotion, and when necessary — tuning out the world around us.
Why? How?
Commotion: steady or recurrent motion; mental excitement or confusion; an agitated disturbance; a noisy confusion.
Confusion and agitation are tools of the adversary, not our Heavenly Father. His tools bring calm, power, presence and joy. Isn’t that what we really want?
And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. (Mark 4:39 KJV)
Be still, my soul: The Lord is on thy side; With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain. Leave to thy God to order and provide; In ev’ry change he faithful will remain. Be still, my soul: Thy best, thy heav’nly Friend thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end. (Be Still, My Soul. Hymn 124)
Commotion is also steady and recurrent motion. Our culture values busy-ness: sports, errands, shopping, travel, work, etc. It is easy to have so much going in our lives that we are simply always on the go, with no time to remember or focus on the Savior, even if our days are filled with good things.
Some young people are amusing themselves to death—spiritual death.
We should begin by recognizing the reality that just because something is good is not a sufficient reason for doing it. The number of good things we can do far exceeds the time available to accomplish them. Some things are better than good, and these are the things that should command priority attention in our lives.
We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are better or best because they develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthen our families.
And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. (1 Kings 19: 12 KJV)
Yea, thus sayeth the still small voice, which whispereth through and pierceth all things, and oftentimes it maketh my bones to quake while it maketh manifest… (D&C 85: 6)
And it came to pass when they heard this voice, and beheld that it was not a voice of thunder, neither was it a voice of great tumultuous noise, but behold, it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul — (Helaman 5: 30)
Presence, power, joy… How can stillness be the answer?
Stillness, in a biblical context, refers to a state of quietness, peace, and calmness, both externally and internally. It is often associated with the presence of God, spiritual reflection, and the cessation of worldly activities to focus on divine matters. Stillness is not merely the absence of noise or activity but a profound spiritual posture that allows believers to experience God's presence and hear His voice. (Bible Hub)
We’re getting closer. Not only do we need to stop something, but we need to change our focus and invite God in. Profound spiritual posture sounds mostly cerebral, but is it more than just thinking about God? Is there something we need to do?