In the stillness…..

Isaiah 26:3

You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.

There is something so amazing and so precious about being still before Our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ. There is so much joy in having that time to literally be quiet in the stillness of the day or night. A time truly so amazing without a shadow of a doubt!

To sit at the feet of Jesus knowing He has our backs covered. Knowing He alone has our full attention or at least may He literally have our fullest attention. Where we can switch off from the worries of this world and to reset; re-evaluate and re-focus. Jesus Christ is both our strength and our joy at the end of the day and that is the absolute truth. We are taught through His Absolute Truth Of His Word that we can come to Him ALWAYS no matter what. He guides us through each day of our lives but the trouble is ARE we going to let Him take the wheel so we can push forward into the plans He has for us.

Being still is where we can sit awhile at His feet which reminds me of the story of Mary and Martha. If you recall from this passage of Scripture found in the following below:

Luke 10:38 – 42

Mary and Martha Worship and Serve
³⁸ Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. ³⁹ And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at ^[a]Jesus’ feet and heard His word. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”
⁴¹ And ^[b]Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. ⁴² But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Are we a Mary or Martha:

• Are we the kind of woman whereby we get so busy with our lives that we lose our focus on Jesus?
• Do we put off being “Heavenly Focused” ?

• Do we forget who we are in Jesus Christ to the point that we perhaps think that God doesn’t notice the fact that we would rather be doing anything but spending our time in His presence?
• Why are we allowing “ourselves” to focus on what we would rather be doing rather than putting our attention onto the one person who matters above everyone else who is none other than Jesus Christ. No, I am not saying that other people don’t matter in our lives – far from it. However, what I am saying is that we do and should be putting Jesus Christ above everyone and everything else but instead we turn and do everything but. We all do this and not one of us is exempt – PERIOD

So with Mary:

Mary who was the woman who preferred to be still; to be quiet where she sat at the feet of Jesus Christ drinking in His every Word; drinking in the very essence of His Being where He was all that mattered to her. Yes, we have no doubt that whilst Mary knew there were home-making tasks to be done but chose instead to focus all of her attention onto The One who was Her Saviour; The One who truly was The Author Of Her Life. Jesus was more important than getting the chores done in the home.

By the way Disclaimer here:

Am I saying that we should never take the time to busy ourselves with home-making tasks – Nope. Neither am I saying that we should never be doing anything else besides sit at Jesus feet all day. If that were the case, then in all honesty – first of all we would never get anything done so then our home would become untidy and so unclean to the point that it would smell. Secondly, neither am I saying that we shouldn’t spend time focusing on other relationships – can you see where I am going with this. But the point of the matter is that we do need to make sure our first priority is Jesus before we even think about doing anything else.

Taking that time to be still:

In our busy hectic lives we do need to take the time to step away from all the craziness of our daily lives to take ourselves somewhere with a cup of tea or coffee or other non alcoholic drink. Somewhere, with a comfy chair or sofa or even to go outside in the garden if we have one and obviously depending on the weather – and take God’s Written Word with us along with a notepad and pen or even another book and just sit quietly spending that time with Abba Father.

The child in me:

Or even to just literally sit and be quiet. Taking in the glorious surroundings that are around you. It doesn’t have to be in a garden as it can be in your home or in a tea shop or cafe or in a museum – anywhere basically and to observe. I sometimes love to “people watch” whilst out and about where I find a bench and just sit. There are often people passing me by with dogs (and there are plenty of folks with dogs where I am) and/or children where I love to sit and smile or sometimes to say hello as people pass me by. I find this a great opportunity to observe along with looking up at the clouds in the sky etc. I find doing this therapeutic and calming.

Along these lines, I remember as a child in the summer months lying on the grass near my home and looking up at the clouds in the sky where I would allow my imagination to run riot as I would form patterns or shapes from the different cloud formations. Otherwise I would somehow see pictures that the clouds made as in hills or I don’t know but I would have great fun letting my imagination run away with me plus it was so very relaxing. Believe it or not, nothing has changed here as I still have fun looking at the various cloud formations where I would see all kinds of pictures and/or fun shapes etc to this day. I love spending time having fun playing picture games with cloud formations. Though it is very rare that I will find a large patch of grass where I would lie down to do this – but even so the “child in me” does indeed come out into full force here and I love it!

I do have a very vivid imagination where I have the type of personality whereby I love to daydream – this has always been the case since a little girl and I have to say that rightly or wrongly nothing much has changed here! I can very easily allow my imagination to run riot and I have to say that at times I do. At school, I was very renowned for day dreaming and would prefer to do this than do any school work. Needless to say, this did get me into trouble at times. I guess this is why I loved reading fiction stories when younger too.

I would quite often as a child walk the thirty minutes or perhaps longer to the local library, something you would not dare allow your child to do in today’s crazy world and most parents would not even think about allowing their child to play in their front garden for fear of something terrible happening. But for the most part, I enjoyed those walks to the library even though the walks were boring as I would walk past nothing but houses and houses and even more houses. When I arrived at the library I would gravitate to the “fantasy” section of books to do with fairies and goblins and all those kind of very unhealthy books – why I started gravitating to those section of books, I have no idea. There were certain book series where I would take out the amount of books allowed in those days and those books would be read within a few days as I was the kind of child that loved to read above everything else. I would literally have my nose in a book most of the time the time whereby when I had to go to bed at nighttime, I was given a “reading window” before having to put the lights out. Sometimes, I have to say being the “rebellious child that I was” would wake up in the night and get out of bed and put the main light on. I had no bedroom lamps back in the day. There was the rare occasion where I was caught out but did this stop me, aagghhhh NOPE

Just to backtrack a little here:

i mentioned in the above paragraph that I had no idea why I gravitated towards fantasy fiction books with no idea why. Well, thinking about this, because of my upbringing & the need to escape from situations within the home, I do believe was the reason behind my needing for ESCAPISM therefore finding books that allowed said imagination to “run riot” was needed at this time in life!

Getting back to the topic at hand:

Ok, I realise I seem to have gone way off topic here and yep this is what happens with me and is reality! So, moving on what can we do to help us to take that time to be still! Below are some ways in which we can do this bearing in mind I have shared a few ideas further up in this blog post too!

• Find your favourite comfy chair and depending on the season, take Your Bible along with a notepad and your favourite pen and go and curl up on this chair and just enjoy being in the presence of Abba Father – just you and Him
• Light your favourite scented candle(s) and enjoy the ambience of the candle as you site quietly at the feet of Jesus; as you sit and take in the fragrance of whatever candle(s) you have chosen and just simply be still
• Go take a walk if you are able too. Or, if you are unable to do this, go out in your wheelchair or mobility scooter if you have either of these, and as you go along, take in the awesome beauty of your surroundings giving both thanks and praise to Abba Father for His awesome creation. There is so much to enjoy wherever you reside. Don’t waste precious time but again, drink in the presence of Jesus. Actually, hold this thought!
  • Speaking of walking, take a walk down to:
    • The beach
    • A Park
    • National Trust Gardens
    • Fields
    • Nature Reserve
    • A river or lake – even a pond if there are any of these near by
    • Sit out in your garden or conservatory if you are blessed to have either or both!
    • By the swimming pool – again if you are blessed enough to have one
    • By a wood burning stove
    • Go and lie down somewhere quiet
    • Go to your favourite nook/quiet place in your home or garden

Friends, the opportunities are endless – so, with the above, there are numerous choices and I have no doubt there are more but for now the above list will suffice which gives us a few ideas to consider!

I guess at the end of the day taking that much needed time alone to spend with Abba Father in the stillness and quiet of the day is not only valuable but is vital for our spiritual growth with Him. So, to end please also take a look at the “recipe to grow closer to Jesus” below as the recipe below is indeed vital and something that no only should we be incorporating in our every day lives but this is also something we are to have in our one on one time with Abba Father in the stillness at various points (where possible) throughout our day!

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