Be Still and Know: A Call to Obedience in the Chaos
I wonder…Does anyone else feel like they are running on empty? The pace of life since November hasn’t been a ‘celebration’—it’s been a marathon.
Today is about the radical act of trust required to simply say ‘no’ to the work and ‘yes’ to the rest.
If you feel weary or like you are simply stretched so thin that you’ve lost your sense of peace, this message is for you. But I want you to know: this message is also for me.
Together we are going to examine a message of holiness to honor the Sabbath—not as a burden, but as a radical act of trust. May we learn together to trust and obey God.
Before we go any further, let us go to the Lord in prayer.
Let’s pray:
“Heavenly Father, we invite Your Holy Spirit into this room. We confess that the noise of the world often drowns out Your voice. Quiet our hearts now. Help us to set aside our to-do lists and our anxieties so we can truly hear Your invitation to rest. Teach us what it means to trust You with our time and our lives. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
God’s profound invitation: Our world today moves at a breakneck speed. It is a whirlwind of noise, activity, and incessant demands on our time and attention.
We live in an “always-on” culture that measures our worth by our productivity and our “hustle.”
In the midst of this chaos, God offers a profound invitation in Psalm 46:10: “He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.'”
This is more than a suggestion; it is a divine command. It is a posture of the heart—a deliberate choice to cease our striving and our trying to control every outcome.
It is an invitation to shift our focus from our own limited strength to the limitless power and sovereignty of the Almighty God.
God’s guidance. To understand how to do this, we look to the heart of God’s guidance for us in Exodus 20:8-10: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God…”
This past Thanksgiving, my husband Thomas and I were at Virginia Beach.
For years, it has been our practice to begin our day in quietness with the Lord—reading our Bible and praying.
I recall one morning where Thomas sat on the hotel balcony, reading his Bible and praying, facing the vast ocean with its rhythmic waves in the distance.
The scene beautifully illustrated putting God first amidst life’s powerful ‘waves.
Inside, I was in our hotel room with my prayer journal, my Bible, and a warm cup of coffee.
As I sat there, I looked out over the ocean and thought about the Call to balance and wholeness.
I sat there contemplating: “What gift will I give to the Father this year?” God reminded me that running hard for six days is only achievable when we honor His plan for Sabbath rest.
That quiet moment—choosing devotion over immediate productivity—is a meaningful offering and a lifestyle that I currently live on an almost daily basis.
Yet, I could feel an inner yearning. God was doing a new thing in me. My heart’s desire was to abide (to stay and remain) with God and move to the next level of obedience, allowing Him to fine-tune me into the woman of God He desires me to be.
That quiet moment—choosing devotion over immediate productivity—is a meaningful offering, and it is a rhythm I have sought to live out daily.
Yet, I could feel an inner yearning. God was doing a new thing in me. My heart’s desire was to abide—to stay and remain—with God, and to move to the next level of obedience.
I felt Him calling me to allow Him to fine-tune me into the woman of God He desires me to be.
I am practicing God’s sovereignty through this daily quiet time, but I realized His call was for something even deeper…”
It wasn’t a suggestion to “relax”—it was a call to a radical act of faith.
It was an invitation to move from the theory of God’s sovereignty into the practice of it.
What the Holy Spirit whispered to me in that stillness was a reminder that our horizontal rest (how we relate to our work and our families) is entirely dependent on our vertical alignment (how we relate to God).
You see, we cannot truly rest until we settle the question of who is in charge.
Before we look at the Law, we have to look at Creation. The biblical support for Sabbath and rest is first found in Genesis.
We see in Genesis 2:2-3:
“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”
Consider this: Man was created on the 6th day. This means man’s very first full day of existence was not a day of “hustle” or “work”—it was a day of rest with his Creator. God didn’t rest because He was tired; He rested to set a rhythm for us. He expects for us to practice a Sabbath day of rest because it is how we were designed to function.
When we skip the Sabbath, we aren’t just breaking a rule; we are breaking our own design.
The Ten Commandments, including the Fourth Commandment to honor the Sabbath, are a revelation of who God is, not just what He requires.
They are not merely behavioral modification rules, but a pathway to a deeper relationship with the ultimate Lawgiver.
True stillness—a quieting of our own desires and self-justifications—allows us to truly “know” that He is the sole, sovereign God. It is in the quiet that we recognize He is in control, even when circumstances feel chaotic.
To settle the question of who is in charge, we look at The God-Foundation:
- Dethroning the “God of Hustle”: “You shall have no other gods before me.”
When we refuse to be still, we are essentially making a “god” out of our own productivity. Being still reminds us that God is the one providing, not our constant “hustle.” Exodus 20:3
- Smashing the Image of “Self-importance”: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image… You shall not bow down to them or serve them.” Exodus 20:4-5
Practicing Sabbath stillness is a physical act of humility. It’s that internal battle where we say: ‘I have to get this done… this is urgent… it can’t wait.’
Maybe for you, it’s the laundry pile that feels like it’s judging you. Maybe it’s the text message you feel you must return right now, or that one special project that is so close to the finish line.
We tell ourselves these things are vital, even when God is saying, ‘Wait and be still.’
By stepping away for twenty-four hours, we are admitting to our own souls the truth:
“God is the sustainer and we are not.”
But there is a second danger in the ‘hustle’—the danger of contradiction.
- The Third Commandment in Exodus 20:7 tells us:
‘You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.’
We often think this is just a rule about our language… but the Hebrew word for ‘misuse’ or ‘take’ is nasa. It literally means ‘to lift up’… or ‘to carry.’
It’s the image of a soldier carrying a banner into battle… or a child carrying a family name into the world.
When we call ourselves ‘Christians,’ we are carrying the name of God into our offices, our schools, and our homes.
If we claim to serve a God of peace… but we live in a state of constant, frantic, soul-crushing hurry… our lives contradict the character of the Name we carry.
If we never stop, we are telling our neighbors that our God is a demanding taskmaster who never sleeps… rather than a loving Father who invites His children to rest.
We must remember: God is the sustainer. He doesn’t need us to do His job. He isn’t looking for employees to keep the universe running; He desires for us to rest in His finished work.
When we refuse that rest, we aren’t just working hard… we are carrying His name in a way that hides His heart to the world.
If the first three commandments show us the danger of the hustle, the Fourth Commandment provides the rescue. God doesn’t just tell us to be different; He gives us a rhythm to live differently.
The Fourth Commandment in Exodus 20:8: ‘Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.’
For many of us, the struggle isn’t about pride—it’s about responsibility. We work like it all depends on us, even while we pray like it all depends on God.
We feel the weight of every ‘urgent’ task and every person counting on us. But Sabbath is the moment where we move from knowing it depends on Him to acting like it depends on Him.
Honoring the Sabbath is the act of releasing the weight. It is a physical declaration that while the work is essential, we are not the ones who must hold the universe together.
It is the moment we put down the burden of being the one in charge.
Think of a ship that has been running its engine at full capacity to navigate a demanding sea. The captain isn’t being unfaithful by keeping the ship on course; they are being faithful to the mission.
But no engine is designed to run at redline forever. Eventually, the ship must enter the harbor.
When the captain drops the anchor, three things happen:
- The engine finally rests. The constant vibration of ‘doing’ stops. The ship is just as much a ship when it is still as when it is moving.
- The ‘Burden of the Essential’ is transferred. The captain is no longer responsible for the ship’s position; the anchor is.
Dropping the anchor is saying, ‘I have done what I can; now I will trust the ground beneath me.’
- The ship is restored. In the stillness of the harbor, the hull is cleaned, the fuel is replenished, and the captain remembers that they are more than just a navigator—they are a person.
When we ‘drop the anchor’ for twenty-four hours, we aren’t being lazy. We are being obedient. We are admitting that the world is safe in His hands, even when our hands are still.
I’ve felt that yearning lately for a ‘deeper and richer’ Sabbath. I realized that observing this day is more than a break—it is a Declaration of Sovereignty. It is the most direct, practical application of ‘Be still, and know that I am God.’
This recognition of His sovereignty does three things:
- It declares God as Sustainer: We step back from the ethic that says we earn everything through labor. We admit that while we work, He provides; and while we rest, He sustains.
- It fosters Wholeness: This isn’t just ‘recharging batteries.’ It is spiritual renewal—finding the grace to serve others out of a full soul rather than an empty one.
- It is a Gift, not a Burden: We must resist the temptation to feel guilty. The ‘danger zones’ of ignoring this gift are real: burnout, anxiety, and fractured relationships.
It is easy to sing ‘Trust and Obey’ when the sun is shining and the waves are calm. But the real test of our theology is this:
What does it look like to ‘trust and obey’ when the storm of the urgent is so loud you can’t hear your own breath?
Maybe it looks like dropping the anchor anyway.”
We see this trust most clearly not in the calm, but in the deepest valley.
You may know the name Steven Curtis Chapman—a man who has spent his life writing songs that call us to ‘Be Still.’
But in May 2008, his family faced a tragedy that defines ‘chaos’ and tests the very limit of human faith. His five-year-old daughter, Maria Sue, was tragically killed in their own driveway.
In that moment of unimaginable loss, the command to ‘be still’ was no longer just a lyric on a page; it became the only ground left to stand on. Steven and his family had to make the radical choice to trust the heart of the Father when His hand was difficult to trace.
Their journey shows us that ‘being still’ isn’t about the absence of trouble… it’s about the presence of a Sovereign God in the midst of it. Getting out of the Rocking Chair
Trusting God is not a restless activity. As I sat there by the ocean, I realized that trying to control every outcome while we are supposed to be resting is like sitting in a rocking chair:
It gives you something to do… but it gets you nowhere. It doesn’t move you an inch closer to the Father.
Honoring the Sabbath is the courage to get up and walk away from the chair. Because ultimately, Sabbath isn’t about finishing the work; it’s about stopping the work.“
When we finally settle into that quiet strength, something remarkable happens:
The peace we find in the vertical—between us and God—begins to spill over into the horizontal—between us and everyone else.
The Promise is fulfilled in our obedience. The Sabbath is not a burden; it is the sacred framework for a life where we can truly ‘be still’ because we live within the protective boundaries of God’s kingdom.”
As we look toward the start of a new year, we often think about what we want to get, but I want to ask you: What gift will we give Jesus for the New Year?
The most meaningful gift is our obedience. For me, this “next level of obedience” isn’t just a feeling, it’s a strategy.
As we look at my strategy for the new year, keep this one thing in mind:
Sabbath isn’t about finishing the work; it’s about stopping the work. It’s okay if the list is still long; we are choosing to be still anyway.
- Protect Your Private Time: Start each day by anchoring yourself in God before the ‘waves’ of the week—and the demands of your schedule—hit you.
- Pick Your 24 Hours: As a bi-vocational pastor, I realize I must be intentional. My heart’s desire is to simply abide with God and stop.
My next level of obedience is choosing to let the work be ‘unfinished’ for 24 hours. My Sabbath will be either Friday or Saturday of each week.
- The Courage to Leave it Unfinished: I am a planner, but I recognize that there will always be more to do. Honoring the Sabbath means having the courage to say, ‘If it doesn’t get done today, that’s okay.’ I am choosing to trust that God is at work even when my hands are still.
- Build Accountability: Maintain relationships that help you keep these boundaries and remind you that your worth is found in Him, not in your ‘to-do’ list.”
So, if you call or text me and you don’t hear an immediate response, please do not get upset with me. I ask for your grace as I practice this next level of obedience alongside you.
I am making this change to fine-tune my walk with God and to be the leader He desires me to be. By practicing this, we learn to be still like that seagull on the sand, finding our center while the world rushes around us.
As the music plays, I invite you to leave the ‘rocking chair.’ Bring your burdens, your busyness, your chaos, and your ‘six days of labor’ to the altar.
Let’s give Him the gift of our trust today. I want to invite you to respond. Perhaps you are here today and you are exhausted.
You’ve been running 60-hour weeks, your soul is depleted, and you’ve let the ‘rocking chair of responsibility’ take the place of the ‘altar of rest.
God is calling you back to His rhythm. He is asking for the gift of your trust. This isn’t just a resolution; it’s a return to holiness. As I shared, I plan to be intentional with my gift to Jesus.
If you want to commit to a life of “Sabbath-living”—I invite you to come forward. Let us lay our busyness at the feet of the One who says, “I will be exalted.”
The altars are open. Come, be still, and know that He is God.
Let us prayer:
“Heavenly Father, I hear the invitation to come to the altar and be still. Today, I confess that my heart is often crowded with the noise of my own to-do lists and the chaos of the world around me.
I respond now by relinquishing control. I recognize that my worth is not found in my productivity, but in being Your child. Right now, I breathe in Your peace and breathe out my burdens, trusting that You are moving even when I am standing still.
I commit to the rhythm of Sabbath. Help me to honor Your commandment—not as a burden, but as a gift of grace. Teach me to set aside time to rest, to delight in Your creation, and to listen to Your still, small voice.
May this practice of stillness become the anchor of my week, reminding me that the world continues to turn because of Your hand, not mine.
In the quiet, I acknowledge Your sovereignty. You are the King of the storm and the Prince of Peace. I choose to know—deep in my soul—that You are God, and that is enough. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”
VIDEO: Let’s listen and “Be Still and Know He is God” The altars are open.
“Be Still and Know” by Steven Curtis Chapman plays while the congregation is invited to pray: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wjt5vvad0ljeevrcmsqg5/AOAiI9V6dT-ITpp5WThqCiE?dl=0&e=1&preview=Be+Still+and+Know+3_20.mp4&rlkey=8kv28j4mfkkr6dl6ou93gnrie&st=erk5tfus