Be Still: What Waiting Looks Like When We Stop Fighting It
I have a confession. I am terrible at waiting.
I check the oven light every ninety seconds. I refresh my email like something will change. When I'm waiting on a big answer, I rehearse every possible outcome in my head, as if enough preparation could speed things up. It never does.
Then there's Psalm 46:10 (NLT): "Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world."
For years I read that verse as a gentle suggestion, the kind of thing you'd stitch on a throw pillow. But look at where it sits. Psalm 46 opens with earthquakes, roaring waters, and nations in chaos. Right in the middle of all that noise comes the instruction: be still. It's not a command for when life calms down. It's for when everything is shaking.
What stillness actually does
Being still isn't the same as being passive. I've learned the difference the hard way. Stillness is a choice to stop striving, and it changes a few things.
It quiets the spinning. Anxiety loves a vacuum. When we're waiting, our minds fill it with worst-case scenarios. Silence gives us room to notice those thoughts without following them down the rabbit hole.
It reminds us who's in charge. Notice the verse says be still and know. The knowing comes through the stillness. When I stop scrambling, I remember I was never actually running the universe to begin with. That is a huge relief.
It restores us. Isaiah 30:15 (NLT) says, "Only in returning to me and resting in me will you be saved. In quietness and confidence is your strength." Strength, not weakness. Some of the strongest things we can do look like nothing from the outside.
Waiting well
Scripture has plenty to say about the waiting seasons, and it's surprisingly tender about it.
Psalm 37:7 (NLT) says, "Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act." Not wait patiently for the situation to resolve, but wait in his presence. The waiting room becomes a place of company.
Lamentations 3:25-26 (NLT) says, "The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him. So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord." Good to wait quietly. Not good to wait perfectly, or cheerfully, or without a few tears. Just quietly.
And in Exodus 14:14 (NLT), when the Israelites were trapped between an army and the sea, Moses told them, "The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm." They didn't have to have a plan. They just had to hold steady.
A few small ways to practice
Stillness doesn't require a mountaintop retreat. Here's what has helped me:
🌿 Sit in your car for two minutes before walking into the house. No phone, no radio.
🌿 Take your morning coffee by a window and resist the urge to scroll.
🌿 When worry starts spiraling, put one hand on your chest, breathe slowly, and pray one honest sentence. "God, I don't know how this will go, but you do."
🌿 Even Jesus slipped away. Mark 1:35 (NLT) says, "Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray." If he needed quiet, so do we.
The promise inside the pause
Isaiah 40:31 (NLT) holds out this hope: "But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint."
New strength comes to those who wait. I'm holding onto that tonight.
So if you're in a season of waiting, on a diagnosis, a job, a prodigal child, an answer to a prayer you've prayed for years, I hope you'll give yourself permission to stop pushing for a moment. Turn off the noise. Breathe. Let the stillness do its quiet work.
You don't have to have it all figured out. You just have to be still, and know.