Be Still and Know He is God
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Lucas: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Living for His Glory podcast. I'm your host, Lucas Barrett. As a college student studying pastoral ministry, spreading the word and making disciples of all nations is my ultimate mission. I have a deep but still expanding knowledge of scripture and understand overlooked perspectives and theologies that can provide deep meaning for your life.
Sometimes I talk about these scriptures and theologies on my own, but other times I interview some people from my vast network and discuss a topic they're passionate about and their own life experiences that may help you in your own spiritual journey. Whether you're a new Christian, a growing Christian, or someone who doesn't even believe in God, this podcast is for you.
Be sure to follow and subscribe to this podcast as we navigate what it means to live for His glory. Let's get started.
As we begin the last couple days of this year, I can't help but think about this time last year ~as I was, ~as I was in the, at the end [00:01:00] of 2023 and approaching the new year of 2024. I remember sitting and thinking about, okay, what is my yearly verse going to be for 2024? And eventually. I came up with Psalm 46 10 and my kind of background into that was ~I, ~I loved the book of Psalms.
I really began to fall in love with it. I began to read it. ~Uh, ~and I really felt like it related to my life. I felt that David and his story and how he felt, the emotions he felt related to me. It spoke to me on a personal level, the highs, the lows, the every emotion he felt, I felt like I could relate. too.
And I really began to grow and to love this book. And I,~ um,~ I just looked at Psalm 46 10 and I was like, that right there, that is what I need to work on. You'll see why in a minute. This is from Psalm 46 10 says, he says, be still and know that I am God. I will be [00:02:00] exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.
That first line is what I really focused on. Be still and know that I am God. If you know me, you know I like to talk. You know an emotional guy. You know ~I like, ~I like to talk. I like to show my emotions. ~I wear my, ~I wear my heart on my sleeve. I'm not a guy that you have a second guess about or think I'm ~not~ being on inauthentic.
~I am as I am.~ I am as authentic and genuine and,~ uh,~ vulnerable as most guys can be. The only problem with that is sometimes I can get too erratic. ~Sometimes, ~sometimes I'll say something and it'll come across the wrong way in a way that I didn't mean it. Or sometimes I'll say something that I know is hurtful that I shouldn't say.
I'll let, either way, I will let my emotions get the best of me. And it's not just the way I talk to people, it's also the way I live my life. ~Um, ~just Go to the golf course, right? I'm a big golfer. I let my emotions get the best of me. I don't ruin my round. All these emotions ruin me, and [00:03:00] it destroys my life, and it
causes a decline on my quality. of life. And so I looked at this verse and was like, be still and know that I am God. It's trusting in God. It's focusing on Him and just being still. Don't be so crazy and erratic. Be calmer. ~It was, it to me, it was like, ~to me, it was like being more stoic. My objective was to be more stoic.
And that was how I was going to live according to this verse. But as~ the years, as~ the year went on, this verse began to take a new meaning. Be still and know that I am God. It became less about controlling my emotions and stoicism, while I still tried to focus on that. Because yeah, even now at the end of the year, my emotions still can get the best of me sometimes.
Although, I believe it's a lot better now than it was last year. This verse took on a new meaning for me
with my [00:04:00] faith. With my faith in God. With my faith in His plan. I've had a lot of things ~happen, ~happen this past year. It really tested my faith. It challenged it. ~Uh, ~I began to feel more things actually. ~It's, ~it's ironic. You'd think that I'd be trying to shut off more of my emotions. I actually began to feel more things this year, things that I hadn't felt in a long time.
~Uh, ~I began to feel some really good emotions and fondness,~ um,~ for my craft, for other people,~ um,~ for people I gained more connections with. Than I ever had before and I accessed even more vulnerability Although it was a much healthier vulnerability with my emotions and allowed me to be so truthful about them About myself about how I was feeling and how to deal with that and how to wrestle with that And with that, there were so many things ~that, ~that went wrong, tested my faith,~ uh, you know, ~whether it be people I cared about leaving, or,~ um, ~my grades not [00:05:00] being what they needed to be, or certain disappointments on the golf course, or whatever it may be, there had so many things that disappointed me, and that broke my heart this past year.
And I sit back and ~I thought,~ I think about that verse. I didn't think about it as much as I should have. I should have wrote it on my whiteboard or wrote it in a planner or had a reminder about it every single day. I should have looked at it more, but whenever I did look at it, it was about once a week.
I looked at it and I thought, be still and know that I am God. It became,~ it,~ it transformed from a place of. Be quiet. And it became this
period of
trust, of faith. Like, hey, you're erotic right now, you're emotional. Still dealt with those emotions. Because when things went bad, when people left,~ when, when my great,~ when I found out, When I didn't do well on [00:06:00] exams, when I had a bad day at the golf course, I was in here, man, I was thinking in my head, I was overthinking.
I was thinking bad thoughts about myself, about who I was. I had these self doubts and then all of a sudden it started transition to ~like, ~Hey, you're having this, but, and that's okay. ~But you know ~what's also okay? Everything that's going on. It's all okay. Be still. You don't have to be stressing about it.
You don't have to be emotional about it. I'm glad that you are,~ uh, ~I'm glad that you are expressing yourself in a healthy way and being honest with yourself, but it's okay, my child, be still and know that I am God. ~He, ~he is God. ~He, he is, ~he is ultimate. He is in control ~of all, ~of all things. If somebody left, I'm like, God had it.
~God got,~ if they were supposed to be in my life at that [00:07:00] point, ~then God,~ then they would've stayed. ~God would've, ~God would've had them stay. Now about the, ~you know, if, ~if I was, sometimes I can't control how I do on the golf course that's in God's hands and about the grades. I can,~ I,~ I, there's a lot of stuff I could have done to do better with that.
But hey, God is still in control of that. God is still in control of all things. We can make decisions, ~but,~ and take responsibility. But God is still in control of all of it. And so when these bad things happened in my life,~ I,~ I understood through this verse that God was still in control, and that I could just be still, I didn't have to worry, I didn't have to stress, I didn't have to fight.
Whoever was going to be in my life was going to be there, and whoever wasn't going to be, wasn't going to be there. And ~so, you know, ~with God taking and putting people back in into my life and with him giving me good days on the course and bad days on the course, all I knew and all I understood, all I needed to understand was that he was God.
Was that he was God. [00:08:00] reigned eternally and that he was everything I ever needed to focus on. I just need to be still and trust in him. And I'm so thankful that I did. That is what I've been able to do so well this year. That is what I've really ~become,~ begun to focus on. And grow to love and grow to adore.
And I find such peace in that. I find such stillness in that. And as we're approaching this next year of 2025, there's still so much more to learn. I am confident that I will continue to learn more about these things that I focus on in 2024 as I continue in 2025 with my new goals, with my new aspiration, and my new drives.
I have reached a level of I am now thinking a lot more about my future. I just turned 20, two and a half, almost three months ago. Back in October, early October, I turned 20 [00:09:00] years old and now it's ~like, ~okay, I'm in my twenties. There's a lot of stuff I need to get figured out. I graduated college in two and a half years.
Where am I going to live? What am I going to eat? What kind of job am I going to have? What do, I need, what kind of savings do I have to be able to succeed here? That is a lot of what I'm going to need to focus on these next, not just this next year, but these next two years, the next two and a half years.
And who knows, whatever other expenses that I may not even think about are probably going to happen because,~ well,~ that's how life works. And through it all, whether it be with those finances, whether it be with my family life, whether it be my relationship with my girlfriend, whether it be with my fitness, I need to be still and know that He is God, not forgoing any responsibilities I may have.
I'm still called to deepen my relationship with my family. and my girlfriend. [00:10:00] I'm still called to take care of my body. I'm still called to go out and work ~and earn my, ~and earn my paycheck, and earn ~my, ~my finances in the world. ~But the result, that's,~ those are all processes. But these results, what's going to happen ~with, ~with, what God is going to do with those processes, that's all on Him.
And when it comes to results, That is where we be still. We do everything that we're supposed to do. We go through all the processes we're supposed to, but when it comes time for the results, we be still, we rest, we be at peace, and remember that He is God, and remember that He has a plan, and that He is going to be here with us and taking care of us.
Thank you for listening to another episode of the Living for His Glory podcast. I hope you gained some terrific insights and knowledge about what it means to live for God's glory and more about His character. If you enjoyed this video, please [00:11:00] make sure to press the like button and subscribe if you want to continue watching and hear more about God and how we can live for His glory.
Have a great day, my friends, and I'll see you next time.
