Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

Psalm 94:18-19 I cried out, “I am slipping!” but your unfailing love, O LORD, supported me. When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer. Sharing honestly and openly what God has done in our lives is incredibly powerful. The most wonderful thing about it is that nobody can deny it. Other people might choose to interpret our experiences differently from us, but the moment we declare our personal accounts of how we have seen God at work in our lives, they are bound to take note of what we have said. I draw the conclusion from this that we need to give one another generous opportunities to share what God has done. Sharing our personal testimonies is good at every level. In a large congregation, they can inspire faith and stimulate worship. When we share our experiences in small groups where we can be totally honest with one another, one person’s testimony can trigger other people to share what they have been through. Probably the best time to speak of what God has done is one-to-one. Within the intimacy of a private conversation, we can share our experiences and then explore them with one another. The most important thing is that we don’t keep our testimonies to ourselves. They need to be shared. In the New Testament, we often find the apostle Paul sharing the account of his conversion, but he also loved to speak of the new things that God was doing in his life. He travelled from church to church around the Eastern Mediterranean, bringing them up to date with the ways in which the Holy Spirit was blessing the Church. In his letters, he spoke openly and honestly about how God was using him, even when he was in prison and battling with his “thorn in [the] flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7). Whoever we are, and whatever experiences we may have, each of us has a unique account of what God has done in our lives – and we need to share it. Question What is your own testimony of God at work in your life? Prayer Dear Father, thank you that you are alive and at work in my life day by day. Give me courage and determination to share my testimony with others. Amen

Psalm 93:4 Mightier than the violent raging of the seas, mightier than the breakers on the shore – the Lord above is mightier than these! I was brought up by the sea and have always enjoyed the sight of waves breaking on the shore. I love the rhythm and the drama as they crash onto the beach. There is a timelessness about waves, and it is easy to understand why the psalmists often refer to them. But, however powerful and violent the sea might be, the psalmists insist that God is even more powerful. He is incomparably great. Whatever threat you are facing, God is more than able to cope. I wonder what challenges you are facing at the moment. They may be connected with your family, work, church, neighbours, community or something completely different. Life in our broken world inevitably produces a stream of challenges for all of us, and when we think beyond our immediate lives, we can see incredible problems engulfing our world. There are fires, floods and famine arising from climate change; huge numbers of people fleeing their home countries because of oppressive regimes; and Christians suffering persecution simply because of their faith. As we face these gigantic challenges, it is very easy for us to feel overwhelmed. So, with the psalmist, we need to fix our eyes on the incomparable greatness of God. God doesn’t always fix our problems immediately – the psalmists often complained about God’s apparently slow response – but we can be confident that he is incomparably powerful and, as we place our lives in his hands, we can be sure that he will be present with us in our times of difficulty. We all need to keep watching the waves, enjoying the drama of their power and thanking God that he is incomparably greater. Question What challenges are you facing at the moment? In what way does God’s strength give you confidence as you confront them? Prayer Lord God, help me to live today with a continual awareness of your mighty power. Amen

Psalm 92:1-3 It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to the Most High. It is good to proclaim your unfailing love in the morning, your faithfulness in the evening, accompanied by a ten-stringed instrument, a harp and the melody of a lyre. Throughout the psalms, we are continually reminded how good it is to worship God. In Psalm 84:10, the psalmist says that he would rather spend a single day in the presence of God than a thousand anywhere else! Our verses today remind us of the importance of worshipping God throughout the day. Worship needs to be woven into the fabric of our lives. We can’t do it occasionally or half-heartedly. It needs to claim the best of our energy and attention. Worship is of such huge importance because it needs to affect absolutely every aspect of life. The thought of worship being confined to a couple of hours in church once a week is completely foreign to the Bible. When we worship, we declare the greatness of God and seek to bring our lives into line with his will. One of the most comprehensive definitions of worship was provided by William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury during the second world war. He wrote: “To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.” Those challenging words demand very careful reflection, because all too easily what we do in church can be cheapened. Whatever style of worship we are used to, it is so easy for it to become a performance which we judge by our own particular musical preferences. Worship needs to be focused entirely on God. It is very easy for us to focus instead on the people who lead us and our reactions to their gifts and idiosyncrasies. True worship of the living God brings us to life in a way that nothing else can, so we need to make sure it becomes increasingly central to our lives, however busy we happen to be. Question Give yourself a few minutes to think this through. How central is worship in your life? Prayer Lord God, I ask you in the power of your Holy Spirit to give me a constantly renewed desire to worship you with all of my heart. Amen

Psalm 91:2 This I declare about the LORD: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him. I will never forget where I was when I heard the news of the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 2001. I was buying carpet with my wife in a large store in Exeter, standing at the till. A woman was describing to the shop assistant the awful events in such a way that I assumed that she was talking about a film. Such things don’t happen in real life – or so I thought! As I listened to the conversation, it suddenly became clear that she was talking about a real event, and the horror of it started to sink in. Thousands of people were snatched away in an instant. All of them had gone to work that day with the not unreasonable expectation that they would return home safe and well, but they didn’t. Such events are exceptional, thank God, but we all live in a precarious world where none of us enjoys complete safety and security. In such a world, it is important that we recognise where our ultimate security lies. This is a theme which the psalmists returned to time and again. They often reflected on the reality of life’s dangers and the ferocity of their enemies. They were often surrounded by attackers. They were fully aware that God didn’t stop them going through difficult and dangerous times, and neither does he offer to do that for us. We might like God to be a ‘Bridge over troubled water’, but time and again, the Bible tells us that he actually invites us to wade through the middle of those troubled waters. Our security lies in the fact that, as we face threats and challenges, he is with us. In Isaiah 43:2, God says: “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown.” We might prefer it if God gave us a detour, but he doesn’t. His promise is that he will be with us when we face the waters, because he is our true security for time and eternity. Question How do you respond to the fact that in God, you are eternally secure? Prayer Lord God, I thank you that you are my refuge and place of safety and that I can look to the future with confidence and peace. Amen

Luke 2:37-38 [Anna] never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshipping God with fasting and prayer. She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem. In this part of Luke’s gospel, our eyes are focused on Jesus and his young parents. A new day had dawned that was full of hope for the future. It is important, however, that it was two old people, Simeon and Anna, who recognised the significance of his birth. They had lived so close to God that they were ready for this moment. Age can change people in very different ways. Anna had only been married for seven years before her husband died. She was now an old woman and had been a widow for many decades. She could have become sour and cynical with the passing of time, but her life was clearly focused upon God. She spent her days in the temple worshipping God, and this meant she was spiritually alert and quick to see what he was doing. In this beautiful moment, she came alongside Simeon as he spoke with Mary and Joseph and joined in the celebration. At the time, there were godly people, who were known as The Quiet in the Land. They devoted their lives to prayer and waited patiently for God to come. Simeon and Anna were such people, and their godly example should inspire us today. Over the years, I have met many older people who, as their mobility has decreased, have increasingly devoted themselves to prayer. I have been so grateful for their godly influence and encouragement and delighted that they haven’t gone the way of so many in becoming increasingly grumpy and negative with the passing of time. As we get older, let’s allow Simeon and Anna to set the standard for how we should serve God: always prayerful, expectant and full of praise. Question As you get older, what are you going to do to ensure that you become increasingly prayerful? Prayer Loving God, thank you for the wonderful example of people like Simeon and Anna. Help me to get closer to you and become more gracious and loving as I get older. Amen