Make a cup of your favorite relaxing tea and take a few moments with me to consider the significant role stillness plays in our lives:

The Benefits of Stillness?

• Silence through stillness brings inner peace, emotional and spiritual balance.
• It increases self-control and allows you to exercise wisdom.
• Grounds you with stability and helps you get clear mentally to see priorities and values.
• Allows time for unhindered reflection, which makes life more meaningful.  

When you allow stillness into your world, it allows you cultivate a purpose-driven life where you can evaluate past and current decisions to discover the reasons behind your choices. Stillness creates room for creativity to intersect with you, inviting your passions and vision to bubble to the surface.

Stillness enables us to connect deeply with God and hear Him speak directly into our lives. The Lord is always speaking but often we’re so busy that we don’t hear Him, especially when He reveals the hard stuff – like conflicts that we need to resolve.

What is Stillness?

• Stillness is the ability to quiet the world around you, be present in the moment, and learn to pause.
• Being still is a spiritual discipline, a spiritual discipline which connects to the fruit of the Spirit.
• Stillness should be cultivated and engaged with intention.

God has much to say about stillness in His Word. In Psalm 46:10, He tells us to “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” “Knowing” in this verse is not just intellectual but experientially too.

We need to learn how to stop, wait, and rest in stillness. The same God who keeps the sun in the sky and the world in motion can keep our lives moving too. This truth can give us the freedom to be still and not push ourselves to the brink of exhaustion because our lives are in the hands of a powerful, sovereign God who doesn’t need to sleep or slumber.

When we are still, we get a chance to see the character of God. When we’re constantly moving, we can mistakenly think we are god. But we’re called to be imitators of God, not God Himself. Psalm 107: 29-30 reminds us, “He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven.” When we learn how to invite stillness into our lives, we create room for our desired rest haven.  

Life is meant to be restorative, where we’re looking for that haven. And we need to find it by being still.

And even when anxiety desires to cling to you, stillness and rest can overcome it as you speak truth over your life with God’s Word, “…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus,” Philippians 4:4-7.

How to Practice Stillness?

• Start your day with silence and enjoy 15 minutes of noise-free living.
• Set aside time each day to be free from phones, computers, and televisions.

• Sit in silence. This will be easier for introverts (you get energy from being silent and still) than for extroverts (you get your energy from people and noises).
• Find a place that you enjoy – nature, a quiet room, a creative space – and make it the haven that brings you peace, calm and tranquility.
• Drive with no radio or music blaring in the background.

Give yourself permission to cultivate stillness into your life. You have to take responsibility for it to make sure you benefit from it. See and appreciate the beauty of stillness! Rejoice in the silence and share a comment below on the insights God provides you with as you take time to be still.