By Hannah Whitall Smith
Their strength is to sit still
(Isaiah 30:7)
In order to really know God, inward stillness is absolutely necessary. I remember when I first learned this. A time of great emergency had risen in my life, when every part of my being seemed to throb with anxiety, and when necessity for immediate and vigorous action seemed over powering; and yet circumstances were such that I could do nothing, and the person who could, would not stir.
For a little while it seemed as though I would fly to pieces due to the inward turmoil, when suddenly the still small voice whispered in the depths of my soul, “Be still and know that I am God.” The word was with power, and I hearkened.
I composed my body to perfect stillness, and I constrained my troubled spirit into quietness, and looked up and waited; and then I did “know” that it was God, God even in this emergency and in my helplessness was able to meet it; and I rested in Him.
It was an experience that I would not have missed for worlds; and I may add also, that out of this stillness seemed to arise a power to deal with the emergency, that very soon brought it to a successful conclusion. I learned then effectually that my “strength was to sit still.”
LIFE ON THE ALTAR 