HI all
Following on from 1 Kings 19 and hearing the still small voice of God, what does it mean to be still and know that God is God? Psalm 46v10 is a favourite verse of mine “Be Still and Know I am God” it then goes on to say I will be honoured By every nation, I will be honoured throughout the world.
When I look at the nations of the world very few are honouring God. In New Zealand Herald’s sideswipe 4/12/08 there is a copy of a Tui Ad ” Let’s take a moment this Christmas to think about Christ” Yeah Right! Someone has obliterated the right on the billboard, suggesting Yeah we should think about Christ. Garth George Pg A13 NZ Herald 4/12/08 in an article with the sub heading ” Nine simple virtues are all New Zealanders need to make a difference” makes some sobering remarks “Yet while religious belief was once the tie that bound us together, over the past three decades religious affiliation has dropped like a lead balloon. That’s what you get for trying to tell others how they should livee – anger, resentment, bitterness, frustration and, in the end of the alienation” being one he counterbalances this by observing how political correctness had created in many a victim mentality and that we blame others for all that happens to us, in other words we live in a world where our rights are most important, and we take no responsibility for our own actions. He states” Where has that got us? It has created among us a large group of people who spend their lives in anger, resentment, bitterness, frustration and ultimately, alienation, which breeds broken marriages, fatherless children, veneral disease, child abuse, violence, disrespect for others’ person or property, overfilled jails, declining economic output and an ever-widening gap between the haves and have-nots”
I find myself saying “Preach it brother!” In the early 1990’s I heard John Jamieson, Commissioner of Police and he pointed then to the way the civil rights movement and the love generation had turn the focus towards individual rights, and while there were some important and necessary changes in that time, that the focus had moved to corporate rights, to personal rights and had bred a “ME” generation which in wanting everything they could have as of right, had lost the understanding that rights are not something given for nothing, that they are a privilege, and with privilege comes responsibility. What we are seeing in our society is people who are unprepared to take responsibility for their actions, who have little self-respect let alone respect for others and their property.
Garth George unlike many commentators makes what I see as a judicious and timely suggestion as to we can right the good ship New Zealand, and get all of us sailing in the right direction. I quote ” The answer is simple: if enough of us are prepared personally to live the sort of lives that are attractive to others, then in a generation or so we will have repaired much of the damage that has been done. If we set personal standards for ourselves and do what we can to live up to them, then others might be encouraged to do the same. And all it requires is a commitment to nine virtues. They are: patience, kindness, generosity, humility, courtesy, unselfishness, good temper, integrity, and sincerity”
His list is not unlike the fruits of the Spirit and does provide us with a template to follow the golden rule ” Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” one of the other things we must consider is that God will be not be mocked, he will be honoured, there will come a time that every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. We need to trust God, and part of the trust has to be that we don’t try and do our own thing, run ahead of him and try and be self-sufficient rather God calls us to come to him and confess and ask for his help.
Psalm 46 vs. 10-11 – Be Still, and Know That I am God
“Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honoured
By every nation, I will be honoured throughout the world.”
God’s command to us is Be still, yet we often run ahead
Of him, doing our own thing, thinking we have it sorted
He calls upon us to stop, be still, we do the opposite instead
We go full pace, to bound up in our own busy, frenetic, world
Do we honour God by doing this? No! We need to follow his lead
Today will you hear his voice he will be honoured in this world
The Lord of Heaven’s Armies are here among us
The God of Israel is our fortress.
He is our strength, our shield, it is he who arms us
Yet do we call upon him in our mess?
Often he is our last port of call, yet he knows us
And all our ways, be still, enter his rest
Mark Maffey, June 2008
(NLT)