Being Still

By LaDwana Whittenberg, Fellowship Bible Church, Roger, Celebrate Recovery TEAM Training Coach, 6/10/20

 


Over the past few weeks of having more down time than I’m accustom to, I’ve learned that being still doesn’t always look the same for everyone. I can “be still” and go for a walk with my niece and take pictures of nature, enjoying the amazing flowers, trees, and waterfalls in the vastness of God’s creation. But I can also “be still” and watch nature in my backyard without ever leaving my home.

While “being still” in my own backyard, God has allowed me to watch two families of birds go from eggs, to babies, to flying away. Matthew 6:26-27 came to life for me during this experience. In those verses Jesus says, “Look at all the birds—do you think they worry about their existence? They don’t plant or reap or store up food, yet your heavenly Father provides them each with food. Aren’t you much more valuable to your Father than they? So, which one of you by worrying could add anything to your life?”

 

Those baby birds don’t worry about food or shelter. Their parents have picked a place for them to have shelter, and they work really hard at providing food for them. So as much as they care for their babies, how much more does God love and care about me?

 

Being still isn’t a punishment, it’s a way to renew my heart, mind, and soul. God desires a relationship with me, and the only way to build a relationship is to spend time together and hang out. The message paraphrases Ecclesiastes 3:1 by saying, “There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth.” This is what God wants for me right now. He wants to give me food for my soul, living water for refreshment, and rest for my body.

 

Click HERE to listen to “Be Still” by Hillsong Worship


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why do we introduce ourselves?

One of the things that might confuse a newcomer coming into this great ministry is the way we introduce our self and do so every time we meet in a Step Group and/or Open discussion group. The question that often comes up is; “Why in the world would we have to introduce our self every time we come together? I mean, we all know each other don’t we? We all know what the other is struggling with right? So why should I have to state my main issue I am dealing with? These are all logical questions and I think the below content from Tina at Saddleback might help shed some light on this. As you may already know, in our small groups we ask our Leaders to introduce themselves with this statement: “Hi my name is _______; I am a believer who struggles with________.” We ask our leaders to keep it short; to stick to one or two primary areas of recovery. We ask them not to state a host of recovery issues and character defects, etc… especially because we do not run recovery specific groups for cha...
Read more

12 Days Of CR Christmas

Image
One of our great leader Monica rewrote the lyrics to this old Christmas song to tie into the 12 steps. We had a lot of fun singing it and love that it keeps the focus on the 12 steps thru Christmas. Great job Monica! On the first day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, the notion it’s not about me; On the second day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the third day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, the will to be faithful, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the fourth day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, my inventory, will to be faithful, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the fifth day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, the chance to come clean! my Inventory, faithfulness, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me On the sixth day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, desire to be humble, the chance to come clean! my Inventory, faithfulness, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the ...
Read more

Guidelines are there for a reason

Anyone who has participated in a Step Study or a small group through Celebrate Recovery has heard the five small-group guidelines. They’re supposed to be read aloud before each meeting starts, just to remind everyone or to inform any newcomers. Most of the guidelines are obvious and make perfect sense on the first reading. Anonymity is vital and as people who are submitting to God as our Higher Power, we should realize that we are in no more a position to “fix” each other than we are to “fix” ourselves. There’s one guideline that puzzled and even annoyed me at first, that pesky no. 2. “There is NO cross talk. Cross talk is when two individuals engage in conversation excluding all others. Each person is free to express his or her feelings without interruptions.” At first I really didn’t understand the guideline. “Did they seriously need to tell us not to talk to each other while someone was sharing?,” was my thought. But as the guideline was explained further, I better understood. We ar...
Read more