Silence and Be Still

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

The reason why we cannot hear God today, it is because our life is full. Full of thoughts about work, about children, about spouse, about parents, in-laws, boss, and the list goes on. Our mind seldom goes blank. There are groups of people who teaches meditation for spiritual and emotional healing. For us Christians, I strongly encourage meditation, but during meditation, do not leave your mind empty, because that is when the devil love to whispers negative things to you. Instead, meditate on God's words. Today I would like to share some practical tips on how to "rest in the Lord".

Read the Bible

Set aside a time and a place to read the Bible. You do not have to read 5 chapters a day, you don't need to read 1 chapter a day even. Read a partial passage, or a few verses. There is no point in reading 10-20 chapters a day if you don't remember what you read. It is better to read 5 verses a day, but you remember it. A good devotional material will be Our Daily Bread. I love to read them, it has spoke to me miraculously in many incidents of my life. The devotionals are simple to read, practical and most importantly, it speaks to you like as if it is written especially for you. If you do not have Our Daily Bread, you can start from the Gospel. Start from Matthew, read a few verses everyday.

Picture it!

After reading your Bible, meditate on it, means thinking about the verse. I want to invite you to do something different here. I want you to think about what was it like then, when the story took place. Imagine what was it like, the condition of the person who is in the story, what clothes he/ she wore,  the weather described in the Bible, or the society/ community situation back then. Picture the situation as if you are watching a movie. So, imagine what it would look like if you were to turn the story that you read, into a movie. 

Meditate

After you developed a visual picture, go back to the Words and try to apply the following:

A.C.T.S

Adoration : Praise God with the attributes that you have learned from that passage. Example: God is

                     good, God is generous, etc.

Confession : Is there any sins that God reminds you through the passage that you read? If there is, 

                      confess it and repent and run away from it.
Thanksgiving : Give thanks for anything that comes to your mind, especially for the things that are

                           mentioned in the Bible. Example: Matthew 2 - Thank you Lord, for coming to Earth

                           in our humanly form to teach us Your way and to save us from condemnation.

Supplications : Submit your prayer request to God. Whatever that comes to your mind after reading

                           the passage, say it out to God. Place it under His feet (it means that you present it to

                           Him).

Worship
Just spend a few minutes to praise and worship him. If you like to sing, sing some songs to Him. If you do not like to sing, just praise Him with your words. Tell Him how grateful you are for His unconditional love. Tell Him how humbled we are that He saved us even before we repented. Tell Him how we are so blessed to be loved by a Superior God, even though we are not worthy.

Another thing that I strongly encourage all believers to do, is to write down your thoughts during your meditation. Write down the ACTS points. 

Many of us feels that doing a quiet time with God is an additional chore. But strangely, many of us still can find the time to serve facebook, pinterest, instagram, 9gag, etc just before we sleep. I know that many of us can spend 30 minutes or more surfing the social media on the bed lying down even though we claimed to be tired and exhausted. So instead of 30 minutes of surfing the social media, why not spend 15 minutes reading that few passages from the Bible and 15 minutes surfing the social media? 

By the way, you can read the devotionals materials on your phone, anywhere, even in the toilet! There is no excuse to skip devotionals time. Do not blame your work, your children, etc for taking time away from you until you cannot have time to do devotionals. No one expect you to do 1 hour of devotionals. 5 minutes is all God wants from you. You never realise this, but God is desperate for you to talk to Him. We are a nobody, but THE GOD wants to talk to us. Do you even know who God is??? He is your boss's boss's big big boss. Imagine if the president keep messaging you asking how are you, and wants to meet you because he said, HE MISS YOU. Is it weird?? Yes it is!!! It is weird that God wants to talk to us.. But the fact is that, God miss us every second. He wants to talk to us, He wants us to cry out to Him, He wants us to rely on Him in everything we do!

If you are currently overwhelmed with work, family or your own things, I want to remind you that it is time for you to take a break. And there is no one that can restore our energy like Jesus do. Let's come into His presence and withdraw strength from Him to face the day. The day is full of traps, and we need a Superior being to help us navigate the road before us. I want to invite you to spend 5 - 10 minutes today, if you are really busy, to just be still in the Lord's presence.

Let's Pray

Dear Lord, allow me to come into Your presence to renew my strength. I want to invite the Holy Spirit to speak to me today. What do you want me to do today Lord?

---------------------Be still and silence for 5 minutes. Keep your mind focused on Jesus-----------------

(If God speaks to you, give thanks and follow His instructions. It is very very important to not run away from God's words, especially if it has been spoken to you directly).

Self-Reflect

1. How many minutes a day do you spend in prayer, reading the Bible and worshipping?

2. How many minutes a day do you spend on reading people's social media status?

Writer's Note:

I know it is not easy at all to read the Bible, pray and always zealous for God, especially if you are using your own strength. But be patient, God will one day revived your spirit and your spirit will no longer the original spirit, but a new spirit. This new spirit will desire to be with God all the time. And you will desperate to read the Bible and pray as soon as you off work. But in the meantime, God wants to see you making an effort to connect with Him. The least we can do to appreciate what He done for us on the Cross, is to spend time with Him.