Step 1.2: A Command (not a suggestion)
In our last update on the above subject we discussed about “secret” , how God reveals secret and who reveals the secret to. In continuation we are discussing on “Command, not suggestion”
This subject “command and suggestion” are two different things.
When we talk of command we are saying that the subject is mandatory.
God has given his people express commands governing the turbulence of their own hearts and the peace that he offers and expects. None stands out so markedly as Isaiah 30:15 “In quietness and confidence will be your strength and you would not…” It declares that the Lord’s purpose is for his people to return to Him to find quietness and confidence before Him. The indictment was that his people “WOULD NOT,” therefore they had no peace.
Psalm 4:4 “Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.”
Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am thy God…”
Isaiah 30:15 “In quietness and confidence will be your strength and you would not…”
Isaiah 32:17 “The effect of righteousness is quietness and assurance forever.”
Isaiah 41:1 “Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment.”
I Kings 19:12 “After the earthquate a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.”
Ecclesiastes 3:7 “A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;”
Habakkuk 2:20 “But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.”
Mark 4:39 “And he arose and rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, Peace be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.”
Revelation 8:1 “And there was silence in heaven for about the space of a half hour.”
It is the mandate of God that we still ourselves before him in order to find his peace and hear his voice. So thus we have as the first and most important step in the believer’s prayer life to still ourselves before the Lord.