Be Still - The Sabbath of Fellowship

There is a kind of communication in fellowship that holds a special power...it is silence.

Silence is always full of something...it is another language without words.  The pause of contentment in conversation at the end of a good meal, the weighty silence of sorrow in pain and grief, the companionable stillness while surveying with awe some glorious view in creation or the quietness charged with joy in moments of glad communion are things that cannot be replaced with mere words.

We are, in fact, enjoined to silence before our God.  Psalm 46 says “Be still, and know that I am God...” This is not a suggestion or a request.  It is an imperative command...a required service of worship to God by His people.  It follows an admonishment to consider the works the Lord has done; to survey with Him together the pleasure He has made for Himself through commanding all things after the perfect order of His will.  He finishes the command with a declaration of His right to exact such service from men: “I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” -Psalm 46:10

Consider: Sunday is a reminder to us to rest and rejoice in the God of our salvation for the wonderful work He has done for us through His Son, Jesus Christ.  He tells us as a Father that it was made to be holy because He rested on the seventh day after speaking the world into being.  We as His children should not always be disappointed in the silence with which our Maker sometimes answers our prayers.  We should rather see it as a special gift of fellowship with the Creator of the universe...a sabbath rest in the accomplishment of His work for us when the glory of His sovereignty is most eloquent.  In times of "silence" we are pressed to rest in His sovereign will and commune with Him by confiding quietly in the promises He has abundantly provided.  It is here in the ceasing of our strivings that the Possessor of all wisdom and knowledge shows us how one Word is yet enough to provide for our every need.

The Christian need not and must not always strive within himself.  We, the children of God should rejoice that He cares for us so much as to desire communion with us in stillness and obey.