Be Still = Stop Striving

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Keyword Study Bible

Being still is not removing our minds…it’s renewing our minds (Ro 12:2). It’s thinking rightly.

We need God’s help to think rightly about who He is (Creator), who we are (creation), and how we can be saved. We need to stop striving (building our own ladders to God) and rest in the work God has done on our behalf through Jesus’s life (Phil 2), death (1 Corinthians 15:1-8; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 John 4:9-10), and bodily resurrection (Colossians 1). Think upon those things (Philippians 4).

Psalm 46

God is our refuge and strength,
    a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
    though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
    though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
    God will help her when morning dawns.
The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
    he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

Come, behold the works of the Lord,
    how he has brought desolations on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
    he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
    he burns the chariots with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God.
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth!”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

Romans 12:1-2

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Dr. Douglas Groothuis