Do not be rash with your mouth,
And let not your heart utter anything hastily before God.
For God is in heaven, and you on earth;
Therefore let your words be few.
And let not your heart utter anything hastily before God.
For God is in heaven, and you on earth;
Therefore let your words be few.
"God is in heaven, and you are on earth; therefore let your words be few." I was just struck by how we dominate our Christianity with noise. We infuse our prayer life full of speaking. In fact we have come to think of prayer as something we initiate. "Dear heavenly Father . . . " opens the couple prayers we may utter during our hectic day and then we close it with a tacked on "in Jesus name amen." Rarely do we even think about these words that we speak. Beyond this though we limit our interaction with God to what we are aware of. "Thy will be done" is only (if ever) tagged on requests we're making. Instead in a general sense we should be asking that God's will be done in an open, un-tethered sense. How foolish could we be to think that God only has a will for the few things we bring before Him?! In this same way we limit our interaction with God to us speaking. This verse challenges this mentality. "God is holy, God is omnipotent, God is in heaven. Think about who you're coming before yo! Shut up and listen." We've removed God speaking from the equation. Here we are challenged to listen. I am almighty God. I am the ruler of the universe, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient. I am the savior of the world, sovereign over all things, glorious in majesty and power. I breathed the universe into existence. I am the bringer of rain; the builder of mountains. The heavens cannot contain me. I am Holy. "Be still and know that I am God."
This stillness jars us though. We freak out with silence. We fill it with mindless rambling - requests that are spiritually equivalent to the word 'um.' A biblical concept of prayer would realize that God is the one who searched out and spoke to Samuel. He was the initiator. Samuel didn't answer with a fidgety laundry list of requests and fragile recognition that he was speaking to God in Christ's name. He answered "here am I." So simple, so open. Samuel didn't limit God by his requests. He gave God the reigns controlling the direction and subject of their conversation.
God is the one who initiated the conversation with Moses. Moses didn't approach God with his strategy for freeing the Israelites from the bondage of slavery and then halfheartedly rhetorically allow God to stop this if it wasn't His will. No, God came to Moses. In the midst of a burning bush God called out "Moses, Moses" and Moses, similar to Samuel replied "here I am." This is what our prayer needs to be. "Here I am. Have Your way with me. I am listening." Unlike Martha we need to cease running to and fro doing/praying for things that we know and that we find important. But like Mary, we need to sit at the feat of our Savior and hear His words. We need to sit at the feat of Jesus and listen to what HE has to say. Our ears need to be open for when God calls to us. And we need to respond with the recognition that we are in the presence and a very real and very Holy God and that He knows all things and has a will for our life that may be beyond the realm of our limited foresight. We need to respond with a "here I am, use me as You see fit." It is from these prayers that our doubts will be answered with "I am certainly with you!" It is from these prayers that we will be empowered to go out and accomplish things in the name of the great, almighty I AM!
Be still and know that [He] is God. Let your words be few.
This stillness jars us though. We freak out with silence. We fill it with mindless rambling - requests that are spiritually equivalent to the word 'um.' A biblical concept of prayer would realize that God is the one who searched out and spoke to Samuel. He was the initiator. Samuel didn't answer with a fidgety laundry list of requests and fragile recognition that he was speaking to God in Christ's name. He answered "here am I." So simple, so open. Samuel didn't limit God by his requests. He gave God the reigns controlling the direction and subject of their conversation.
God is the one who initiated the conversation with Moses. Moses didn't approach God with his strategy for freeing the Israelites from the bondage of slavery and then halfheartedly rhetorically allow God to stop this if it wasn't His will. No, God came to Moses. In the midst of a burning bush God called out "Moses, Moses" and Moses, similar to Samuel replied "here I am." This is what our prayer needs to be. "Here I am. Have Your way with me. I am listening." Unlike Martha we need to cease running to and fro doing/praying for things that we know and that we find important. But like Mary, we need to sit at the feat of our Savior and hear His words. We need to sit at the feat of Jesus and listen to what HE has to say. Our ears need to be open for when God calls to us. And we need to respond with the recognition that we are in the presence and a very real and very Holy God and that He knows all things and has a will for our life that may be beyond the realm of our limited foresight. We need to respond with a "here I am, use me as You see fit." It is from these prayers that our doubts will be answered with "I am certainly with you!" It is from these prayers that we will be empowered to go out and accomplish things in the name of the great, almighty I AM!
Be still and know that [He] is God. Let your words be few.
