A guest post by: Debbie Yohn
Be Still and know that I am God. (Psalm 56:10)
Let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance (Proverbs 1:5)
You would think the pandemic would have been enough to slow me down and make me sit, listen and learn in my quiet time. I remember thinking of how many of my friends were complaining about all the time they had on their hands, but I don’t, because Our Farm can not close.
I love the early mornings with the animals as I wake them up for breakfast. There is much to be discovered in the quiet of the morning. I have wondered if this is what it is like for God as he cares for us. My chickens & goats are sometimes outside in the barn yard and clueless to my tender loving care. The chickens avoid my my touch and TLC because they are content to scratch in the dirt and look for worms unaware that their daily bread is already provided.
I am so much like those busy chickens, interested in the things of the world unable to see that I have been given exactly what I need . Recently I was in our barn doing chores when fell resulted in a fractured rib. Ouch! That is an understatement because you don’t realize how much you use your chest muscles for almost everything you do. Over the past few weeks, I have discovered the quiet stillness of doing nothing. It has been my loss of mobility that has allowed the quiet whisper of Jesus to give me nourishment for my soul. Be still and know I am God.
Simple words with profound meaning that I needed to practice.. I am a wife, mother, grandmother and nurse who has not been good at discovering the quiet and the wisdom of stillness. It is so easy to go, go, go but now I can’t even drive due to pain so home I sit. The quiet feels so loud sometimes as I get lost in trying to figure out what God is teaching me through this trying time. Then I am reminded of New Year’s Eve when I was the only one in my home awake and knelt in prayer with a heavy heart for our nation. It felt so good to be alone with the Lord with no interruptions. After praying for over an hour, I confessed to the Lord that I had no idea of what more to pray. It was in the darkness of my bedroom, in the early hours of the new year that I heard the sweet answer for my loss of words. “Pray the Lord’s Prayer.”
Over and over I prayed that with tears in my eyes as the words of the prayer gave light to their meaning. The more I prayed the more discerning I became and the more thankful I was for the prayer that Jesus gave all of us as a gift. I want to encourage you, to be still and stop the rush of day. Allow Jesus to love, embrace and guide you because there is much to learn in the quiet.
hisshadowings.com 