Be Still and Know You Are Enough
Defining our Value #3
by Jamie Steach
Today I want to take a different direction on a classic scripture, and look at the relationship between value and stillness. What could value and stillness have in common? I think there are actually many ways these two ideas are connected, especially if we look at the qualities of stillness. What is stillness? Or rather, what is it not? Stillness is not striving, it’s not working, it’s not a desperate effort to achieve, and it’s certainly not a measure of performance. Stillness is peace. It’s rest, contentment, and confidence that allows us to release our worries. Here are some really well-known scriptures on stillness:
“13 Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
(Exodus 14:13-14 NIV)”
“Be still before the Lord
and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when people succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.
(Psalm 37:7 NIV)”
“He 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 NIV)”
The overwhelming theme in these passages is one of rescue, confidence in God, and being at peace regardless of what we see. It’s clear that God wants us to put our confidence in Him and trust what He will do. In Psalm 46 especially, the psalm opens with a picture of the world in chaos, where mountains fall into the sea (Psalm 46:2), yet God is described as a refuge, a fortress, and an ever-present help even in the turbulence (46:1, 7). The psalm is a call for us to not be afraid, but to put our confidence in God and to be at peace. After the opening chaos, the psalm closes out by saying that God ends conflicts throughout the earth. He destroys the weapons of war all on His own before calling us in verse 10 to finally be still, to see what He has done and know that it is always God who will prevail and be exalted (46:8-10). It evokes a wave of stillness and peace on the heart as you read it, a sense of calm that no matter the problem, the world will be set in order. The principle is much like our verse from Psalm 37 above, that God is always enough for the problem, whether it’s a world at war or in chaos, or evil people exacting their will on everyone else. God will always be greater than the forces at work against His people, and God will always be enough to rescue us. We don’t need to fret, worry, or strive, we simply need to be still and remember who God is.
There is so much to unpack on the topic of stillness that I won’t necessarily get into here, but I hope that whether you have been walking with God for a long time or you’re deciding to follow Him now, you do some digging on your own into this idea. For our purposes today, however, I want to transition into relating and applying these principles of stillness to how we perceive our value. The title of this article is actually a mantra I came up with while meditating on Psalm 46:10 (as you may have guessed from the similar verbiage and structure). I was doing my own deep dive into the concept of biblical stillness because, as a recent college graduate, I had noticed that much of my life as a follower of Jesus had become about “doing” enough. Was I sharing my faith with enough people? Was I being bold enough? Was I bearing enough fruit to be considered worthy of not being cut off the vine (John 15)? I was becoming so consumed with the busyness and anxiety of my performance-based mentality that I lacked the ability to be still and just listen to God’s voice. Thanks to the faithful people in my life, I knew that my lack of stillness was a problem, but I didn’t yet know its deeper roots. That discovery would come later. I took the approach of not only studying out stillness in the scriptures, but forcing myself to practice it in meditation, as well. If we are willing to apply the scripture “Be still and know that I am God” to just about anything we are facing, we will find a peace in realigning our perspective and looking back to who God is. So as I would sit day to day, meditating on the words “be still and know”, the peace and stillness I found was gradually being shaped into understanding myself through God’s eyes. This was becoming a question of value, and the phrase “be still and know you are enough” was born.
A common translation also used for this verse is the NASB translation, which replaces the phrase “be still” with “cease striving”, leaving the reader with “Cease striving and know that I am God”. Both of these phrases are powerful on their own, but I love the picture we get of God’s message when we put them together. Be still. Cease striving. Just trust me, the victory is mine in the end. This is a powerful comfort for anything we can face. But I found that something extra stood out to me in the “cease striving” translation. Ask yourself with me for a moment, what is it that we are almost always striving for? Success? Recognition? Love? Achievement? Maybe you will come up with different things from me, but I found that the answer to this question lands on one idea: value. We strive for things because we feel they either prove or increase our worth. We strive for things because we need a reason to feel we are deserving of love. We strive for things because Satan tells us that we are worthless or our world will fall apart if we don’t, and we have forgotten where our confidence is supposed to be. Again, whether you would call yourself a Christian or not, we’ve all been fed these messages from the world. But what does God say? Cease striving. Be still. Remember who I am, know who I am, and you will know that you are enough. There’s nothing more you need to do to be valuable, just put your confidence in me and be still. This is the overwhelming message I hear from this passage, and I think there are many places in scripture that would support this voice, as well.
Let’s start with this one:
5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
(Romans 5:5-10 NIV)
God’s love has been given to us freely. Was there something we accomplished by striving in order to persuade Jesus to die on the cross? No. This passage is very clear that while we were still sinners, before we ever had a thought or effort to follow Jesus or acknowledge God, Jesus died for us. While we were powerless, and still God’s enemies, Jesus died for us to be reconciled to God. There is no possible way to pull out of this scripture that Jesus’s sacrifice was because of anything we did. Jesus’s sacrifice happened solely because God wants and desires what is His. God created you, and because of this, you are enough. You are enough that God wants to reconcile you to Himself, so that you may belong to Him. You were enough then, even as God’s enemy, that to Jesus you were worth dying for, and you are still enough now. There is nothing more you have to do to earn His love. God’s love has been poured out on us, and Jesus’s death is the evidence of this. If you have been following Jesus for a long time, then this truth about the cross is probably one of the greatest comforts to you. If you’re just starting to seek God, it’s a comfort that He wants you to know. I see the echoes of Psalm 46 here, the call to just be still, cease striving, and know who God is. Know that He is a God who will love you enough, just because He created you, that He would pay the price Himself to have you. Know this, and put your confidence in it. Be still and know God, and you will also know that you are enough.
Not convinced yet? Here’s another passage:
15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs — heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 8:15-17, 35-39 NIV)
The voice of God’s love is splattered all over the book of Romans, perhaps nowhere more poignantly than in this passage. Let’s think about God’s mouthpiece in this instance; the writer of the book of Romans is the Apostle Paul. Paul has a very unique story compared to the other apostles (and really probably all the disciples, for that matter), which is why he writes in 1 Corinthians 15:9 that he does not deserve to be called an apostle. So, what do we know about Paul? Paul, when he was formerly known as Saul, was a Pharisee and one of the leaders in persecuting the disciples by the authority of the Jewish high priest. The first time we see him is in Acts 7, where he is involved with the stoning of Stephen, and even at the time of his conversion story in Acts 9 we see that Saul is “breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples” (Acts 9:1- consider pausing here to read Acts 9 if you aren’t familiar with it) and has gone on a journey to Damascus with the purpose of bringing those who follow Jesus back to Jerusalem as prisoners. It’s at this moment in his life that a vision of Jesus meets him on the road, and Saul, who will come to be known as Paul, becomes a disciple of Jesus himself. Jews and followers of Jesus alike are astonished at this transformation, because everyone knew about Saul and his zealous persecution of the disciples.
Paul was a man of passion. Whatever he did, at all points in his life, he did it with zeal and fervor. Or, at least, that’s the impression we get from the scriptures, especially Paul’s own writing. Unfortunately, this means the sins of his past, including the literal killing and physical persecution of Christians, were committed with full zeal, as well. Even Ananias, the man sent by Jesus to bring about Paul’s conversion, protests because of all the harm Paul has done to God’s people. In Acts 9:16, Jesus responds by saying He will show Paul how much he must suffer for His name. It’s a powerful moment, and honestly I feel that Paul’s conversion is one of God’s biggest miracles in the Bible. But it’s clear that Paul has a choice from the beginning: will he let his past hinder his future, or will he trust that God can truly make his slate clean? I think if we take Paul’s story into account and juxtapose 1 Corinthians 15:9 and Romans 8 against each other, something striking appears. From the first passage, it is clear that Paul is aware of his past sins. Maybe they never left him, or maybe there were some times more than others that haunt him. Paul says that he doesn’t deserve to be called an apostle because he persecuted the church of God. How often can we wrestle with the same feelings? How often do we feel unworthy to receive what God wants to give us because of reasons from our past? And how often do those same feelings lead us to striving, to trying to earn our worth before God, because we cannot shake the guilt of what we’ve done? When I look at Paul, I see the choice he was faced with everyday. I see that Satan probably tried for Paul’s whole life to convince him that he wasn’t worthy of his calling. If he couldn’t measure up, then he should just walk away. It would have been easy for Paul to fall into striving for glory or great spiritual feats to “make up” for his persecutions, or striving for recognition among the disciples to validate himself. He could have been tempted to ask himself the same questions I posed earlier from my own experience. However, in juxtaposing Romans 8 and so many other passages that were penned by Paul to this reality, the choice that Paul made everyday becomes clear. Perhaps except for the Apostle John, there is no one who writes more clearly about the love of God that is found in Jesus than Paul. Paul writes in Romans 8 that he is convinced that there is nothing, nothing that exists on earth or in the spiritual realm, and not even death itself, that can separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus. Paul, who killed God’s own people, God’s own children, found confidence in the love of God that was enough to overcome any doubt or insecurity in regards to his past.
The Spirit of God testifies that we are His children, and even cries out “Abba Father” (v. 15-17 above). This was written by Paul, and it was a truth he chose to put his confidence in. It is impossible for us to be separated from God’s love. One more time for emphasis, it is not possible for us to ever be separated from God’s love, on any grounds, any circumstance, or due to any power. This was written by Paul, and it was a truth he chose to put his confidence in. I think there is a lot we can learn from Paul’s experience as it applies to value. Paul chose to let the voice of God’s love define his value and define what he was worthy of, and nothing else. When we are striving instead of still, and when we are listening to the voice that tells us we must earn our value, we are not letting the voice of God’s love define what we are worthy of. We are letting ourselves, or the world, or Satan define that for us. But if we could only follow Paul’s example, if we could only be still and know who God is, cease striving and know His love, then we would know that we are enough as we are. God has decided we are enough for His love, and we must choose to let Him have the final word. We do not know better than God; that perspective is prideful, even if it’s something like telling ourselves we are unworthy. If God has said I am worthy, it is not my place to say “No God, I know better, and I know that I am not”. Paul stilled himself enough to hear and trust the message of God’s love, and so must we.
This message is not only of the New Testament. If we were to do a survey of God’s love through the prophets alone it would become very clear, very quickly, how much God loves and desires to be with His people. Not only that, but it would probably take me months to write up all the articles of such passages. But for just a snippet of evidence, I’ll leave you with this:
3 The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying:
“I have loved you with an everlasting love;
I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.
20 Is not Ephraim my dear son,
the child in whom I delight?
Though I often speak against him,
I still remember him.
Therefore my heart yearns for him;
I have great compassion for him,”
declares the Lord.
37 This is what the Lord says:
“Only if the heavens above can be measured
and the foundations of the earth below be searched out
will I reject all the descendants of Israel
because of all they have done,”
declares the Lord.
(Jeremiah 31:3, 20, 37 NIV)
God speaks here through the prophet Jeremiah to say just how deep His desire is for those He loves, and how the love we receive from God is everlasting; it will never end, and it has existed from the beginning of time. His heart yearns for those He loves. Perhaps most poignantly, this chapter is rounded out by God saying that only when the impossible happens will God reject those that are His. We will never be able to measure the heavens or be able to reach the foundations of the earth. We can try, but it will just never happen. So God uses this truth to prove to us His own truth, that this is how impossible it is for God to reject us. Just as Paul writes in Romans, God speaks through Jeremiah here: There is nothing that you have ever done that will ever separate you from My everlasting love. Please just be still and know who I am, and you will know that you are enough.
So what does stillness look like in your life? Are you in-tune with the voice of God, or are you so busied by the demands of the world around you that your perspective of self-worth has suffered? If you were to take a whole day and just be still, would you see that time as a waste or lack of productivity, or would you be truly refreshed? I want to invite anyone who reads this, wherever you are on your journey of faith, to take a pause and really think more about this topic. Our commitment to stillness is important to God, and your perspective of your own value might just depend on it. Stillness is, after all, one reason why honoring the Sabbath was such a big deal. God wants us to understand that we can rest in being enough. If you’ve never tried meditating, give it a shot and see what happens! It’s amazing what God will reveal when we can still our minds and give our heart’s focus to Him. Maybe your next step is taking a whole day to just be still, and not expect yourself to produce anything. Ask the deep questions of your heart to God, and give Him the space to answer. And yes, that space means stillness. Maybe you need someone to keep you accountable, and challenge you to regularly be still. Maybe you need a deeper understanding from scripture on what stillness is and why it’s important. The goal of all of this is to find confidence in God’s love and trust that you do not need to strive for it. Whatever you determine your next steps to be, we all must fight our distractions to cease striving, be still, and know the voice of God’s love in our lives that reminds us we are enough.