Be still and know that He is God

Do you ever have those nights when you just can’t seem to get to sleep, or the ones that see you wake in the night and struggle to resettle?

I used to really dislike those nights – the seemingly endless hours of lying awake when all I wanted to do was rest. But then my perspective shifted to see them as an opportunity rather than a threat.

Now, if I wake in the night and I just can’t sleep, I take the chance to call upon God, to listen to what He wants to say to me in those moments when all distractions can be set aside.

Only this week I had something on my mind; something which had the potential to preoccupy me either positively or negatively. And as I lay in bed one night having woken up, I thought not about the sleep I was missing out on by being awake but about how blessed I was to have the opportunity to call on God in the small hours of the day.

And in that moment he laid on my heart a single line from Psalm 46: “Be still and know that I am God.” In that moment I knew what God was telling me: “I’ve got this; you don’t need to worry.” And in that moment I was filled with a sense of peace and positivity, not because God had revealed something I didn’t already know but because He had reinforced it when I needed His reassurance most, and because He had demonstrated what I already knew – that He sees me where I am and knows my every need.

When day had dawned, I read the whole of Psalm 46 before stepping out to face the situation that had been on my mind during the night. It is a clear reminder that the all-powerful God is there amid all our trouble, He is the fortress we can run to when life’s arrows threaten us, and we have no need to fear if we will let Him be our protector.

I put my Bible back in the glove box, got out of the car and faced my challenge, and I soon knew that God had gone before me to make all things right and, like the psalm said, I had nothing to fear.

“Be still and know that I am God.”

Sarah Moore is the author of For the Love of Lentil, A journey of longing, loss and abundant grace, which tells the story of her experience of pregnancy and miscarriage. Copies of the book are available here.