Tag Archives: stopping

July 10, 2026 · 5:53 AM

Being Still

One of the things I’ve never been good at is being still. As a child, I was a wiggly worm. As a young adult, I had two jobs to occupy my time. Now, I’m always on the go. When I hear the Bible say, “Be still,” it’s hard for me to do. However, it’s as much a mental and spiritual command as it is a physical one. It’s about pausing to clear the noise in these areas so we can make room for God to speak and move in our life. He’s asking us to hit the pause button so we can recharge, react correctly, recharge and renew ourselves. God telling us to be still isn’t a passive thing. It’s an act of obedience. It’s a physical expression of faith because you’re saying I trust God more than my natural reaction. Today, make room for God to speak or move in your life by being still.

Here are some Bible verses on being still:

He lets me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still and quiet waters. He refreshes and restores my soul (life); He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

Psalms 23:2-3 AMP

2. Tremble in awe before the Lord, and do not sin against him. Be still upon your bed and search your heart before him. Pause in his presence

Psalms 4:4 TPT

3. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!

Psalm 37:7 ESV

4. Moses answered, “Don’t be afraid! Stand your ground, and you will see what the Lord will do to save you today; you will never see these Egyptians again. The Lord will fight for you, and all you have to do is keep still.”

Exodus 14:13-14 GNT

5. Be still and know (recognize, understand) that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth.

Psalms 46:10 AMP

Photo by John Mark Arnold on Unsplash

Stop And Look

Have you ever been sitting at a red light, or in traffic, and looked over and thought, “When did they build that?” It happens to me all the time. I take the same route to work each day, but sometimes the traffic patterns change. I’ll look over and see a building or something else and wonder how I missed it before. I’d driven by it a 100 times before, but somehow I’d never seen it. Was I too tired every other time? No. The difference is that this time I stopped and then looked around.

It makes me wonder how much of who God is, and what He says, that we miss because our prayer is just us talking. I wonder how much He’s trying to show us, but our lives are too busy. He created us to be industrious. That’s a great trait that He put in us, but He also knew that it would mean we need to be reminded to stop and breathe every once in a while or we’d miss Him. I believe it’s part of why He instituted the day of rest. We are so busy and have a tendency to make everything about us, that we lose sight of our creator. Stopping helps us focus on what matters.

In Psalm 46:10 God said, “Be still, and know that I am God!” (NLT) When we learn to be still in His presence, in prayer and in life, we begin to notice things about Him that we’ve never seen. Society has taught us that growth and advancement come from being busy, but God teaches us that they come from being still. Today, make time to stop and be still so you can see things you’ve never seen. God is waiting and wanting to reveal Himself to you. Are you willing to slow down and notice?

Photo by Edewaa Foster on Unsplash

Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

Stop. Start. Continue.

At the end of a long class, I like to debrief by asking the participants to reflect on what they’ve learned. I then ask them to think about things they need to stop doing, things they need to start doing and things they need to continue doing. At the end of the year, it’s a great way to think about how you want to head into the new year. As a disciple of Christ, it’s something we should do as well if we want to mature in our faith. There are many things that the Bible tell us we should stop, start and continue as we live for Him. Think about what you will change in the new year. If you don’t stop or start new things, you can’t expect to grow.

Here are some Bible verses on things we all should stop doing.

1. Since a great price was paid for your redemption, stop having the mind-set of a slave.

1 Corinthians 7:23 TPT

2. So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God.

Hebrews 6:1 NLT

3. Think carefully about what is right, and stop sinning. For to your shame I say that some of you don’t know God at all.

1 Corinthians 15:34 NLT

4. “Stop fighting,” he says, “and know that I am God, supreme among the nations, supreme over the world.”

Psalm 46:10 GNT

5. So let’s stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall.

Romans 14:13 NLT

Photo by Cynthia Magana on Unsplash

3 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as bible study on, bible verses on, Devotional, devotional on, spiritual growth, stop doing things, stop sinning, stopping, what does the bible say about