BEING STILL

 

“Some of us have been tried and have been tested until our very heart strings would seem to break. I have heard of persons dying with a broken heart, and I thought that was just a sort of a poetic expression, but I learned that it could be a very real experience.

“Don’t be afraid of the testing and trials of life. Sometimes when you are going through the most severe tests, you will be nearer to God than you have any idea, for like the experience of the Master himself…….’angels came and ministered unto Him’  (Matthew 4:11)”  (President Harold B. Lee, In CR, Munich Germany Area Conference 1973, p 114)

During the most intense persecution of the early saints in Missouri the Saviour gave them the most powerful advice: “Be still and know that I am God” (D&C101:16). In other words, you can do nothing, just trust that I have it in hand.

Being still means you are not being shaken or distressed by anything around you. Being still means being at peace, unperturbed by the world. Some of our trials, however, are very much like an earthquake which has immense power to disturb our stillness.

We often find out how very powerless we are to handle some trials in life. When no solutions come to us and it becomes obvious that we have no capacity to solve the problem or prevent the disaster, there is only one option available: to be still and allow God to take over.

In the advice given by the Saviour, He tells us that stillness can be possible by knowing Him, that He is God with all power, and because of it we are in His hands (v 16). A God who creates worlds without number has the power to steady us in the midst of our trials that threaten us, therefore allow God to take over.

One of the Saviour’s names is The Rock of Heaven (Moses 7:53). Helaman referred to this Rock by teaching his sons that if they would build their foundation upon ‘the rock of our Redeemer’, they could not fall (Helaman 5:12). A foundation in Christ is built by faith, trust and obedience (see Elder Bednar’s instructive explanation of foundation in his conference talk “Be Still, and Know That I am God of April 2024).

My greatest strategy for acquiring stillness when I need it is ‘remembrance’. Helaman began his advice with ‘remember, remember’…..remembering what the Saviour has done for me in my life, the revelations I have had, the understanding I have of Him, all my prayers that have been answered, all my spiritual moments with Him…. all goes towards my trust in His control over my life and the path I am on. It wasn’t always like this, but it is now that I know Him….and over and over again He brings me back to stillness and endurance.

My heart overflows with gratitude

For my darkest nights

Because they bring You to me

Flowing like a river with its strongest might.

I bask in Your presence,

I surrender my soul,

I am grounded in Your strength

I am strong enough to carry on.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Be Still My Soul by Mark Missman)