Sandhurst Churches Together at SYMC on Sunday 9th March 2025 – report
Our theme for this service was: ‘Be Still: Making the most of the wilderness’
We had a good turnout to the service and a time of worship, group discussion and challenge. We were given a tea-light at the end of the service and Sharon encouraged us to light the tea-light for five minutes each night and just give that time over to God. She also gave us a print out of the words from Psalm 46: ‘Be Still and Know that I am God’.
‘Be still and know that I am God’ – this is a familiar verse from Psalm 46 but did you know that this psalm was written during a time of conflict, fear and hardship. The Assyrian Army under King Sennacherib had surrounded the city of Jerusalem and was besieging it. He had already captured the Northern Territory of Israel and taken them into exile in Assyria. How very frightening for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, almost certain of their own destiny and destruction. And yet whilst this Psalm was being written God is quoted as saying ‘Be Still and know that I am God’. Just how do we do this?
We find ourselves in turmoil and surrounded by troubles in life at times, sometimes we can’t see a way out of our situation – we need to be still and know that He is God. To trust our lives to the living God who loves us and experience his presence. ‘Being still’ is not just physical stillness, that is, the absence of activity, but it is a deep inner surrender to God’s will.
King Hezekiah of Judah prayed and so did the people of Jerusalem. God sent the Angel of the Lord to destroy the Assyrian army, all 185,000 of them, leaving just King Sennacherib who quickly retreated back to Nineveh in Assyria, (read the story in 2 Kings 18 and 19).
Jesus too withdrew to spend quiet times with his Heavenly Father, the longest of these times being straight after his baptism when he spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness. This was a time of preparation and contemplation, completely away from the troubles of everyday life allowing Jesus to be totally focused on his relationship with God and on the mission that God had given him to do. This must have been challenging for him, but with complete trust and surrender, God gave him the strength to see his ministry through.
There are several other characters who spent times in the wilderness, Elijah, Moses, the children of Israel and even Noah floating around aimlessly in the flood. All of these people were being prepared for something greater in their lives, the wilderness experience had a purpose, even if they couldn’t see it at the time.
We need to trust in God recognising he is the ultimate source of strength and stability even when life throws challenges at us. So whether you are experiencing a difficult time in your lives, or whether you are preparing yourselves for some challenge or change in your life, God would encourage you to ‘Be Still and Know that I am God’ being fully reassured that He loves you, He has plans for you, He wants you to experience inner peace, inner contentment and fulfilment, always remembering that as it was said in the Psalm, that God is our secure refuge and fortress.