Verse of the Day for July 5

Before Be still there is a great deal of noise. Bows snapping, spears cut in pieces, chariots burning. Verse nine is God ending wars across the earth.

Then God himself speaks, and the first thing he says is be still. It is not advice from a calm person to a nervous one. It is the voice of the one who has just put the weapons down, telling everyone else they can put theirs down too.

Most of us save this verse for a quiet retreat. It belongs just as much on a Tuesday, when no war is ending and the weapons are smaller: a deadline, an unpaid bill, a child who will not get dressed for school.

Stillness here is not doing nothing. It is knowing something, know that I am God, and letting that knowledge slow the hands for a minute. Then the chorus: The LORD of hosts is with us. Us. The whole tired congregation, not just the calm ones.

So on an ordinary morning, standing at the stove while the beans boil, stop for the length of one breath. Remember who has already done the fighting.

Stillness can fit inside a single minute, even on a busy day.

The God of Jacob is a refuge for people who are ordinary and tired.