Why stillness is the key to peace in your soul

Are you tired of your busy life? Does anxiety weigh heavily on your soul? One path to achieving a peace that will endure is to practice “stillness.”

This type of prayer is as ancient as the Psalms, which states, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

Furthermore, the prophet Elijah found God not in the earthquake or fire, but in “a still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12).

Stillness has been the key to achieving peace and finding God for centuries, but lately we have forgotten this central spiritual principle. It is too easy to get carried away by the busyness of life to carve out time in our day to simply be still.

Think about it: how many times during the day are you simply “still,” not looking at your phone or computer and simply doing nothing?

Clearly one of the greatest temptations of our day is filling empty time by checking our smartphones every few seconds. Instead of being still and letting God enter into our lives, we endlessly distract ourselves. This is something we need to evaluate in our own lives and try to be more intentional about stopping everything to listen.

Mother Teresa made stillness a priority in her busy life.

We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature—trees, flowers, grass—grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence … The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life. We need silence to be able to touch souls.

Challenge yourself to spend 10 or 15 minutes each day in silence. Put down your cellphone, laptop, tablet, smartwatch and TV remote, and listen. Sometimes its easier to do this while sitting outside, or while in a church. Wherever you decide to practice stillness, do so intentionally and set a timer.

“Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

Read more:
How to adore God in the silence of your home

Read more:
How silence can radically change your spiritual life