I vividly remember one Sunday afternoon when Christian was three. We’d been to church and had lunch, and it was time for him to nap. I tucked him in—and not five minutes later he reappeared. I settled him again. Three minutes later he did an encore. With his fourth appearance, I’d had enough.
“Christian, I want you to lie here and ask God to help you be quiet and still.” A few minutes later he popped his head into the den where I was reading a book.
“Didn’t you ask God to help you?” I asked him.
“I did,” he replied. “But He said that’s just not how He made me!”
Perhaps that’s how you feel when you read the words Be still, and know that I am God. I know I sometimes do. Countless times I’ve sat down to try to be still and holy. It’s never worked very well. Only recently when I was studying this passage did I realize my misunderstanding of the text: the original Hebrew root of Be still doesn’t mean “be quiet”; it means “let go.” That’s very different, don’t you think? Let go and know that I am God!
Let go of trying to control your spouse!
Let go of your worry about your finances!
Let go of your unforgiveness!
Let go of your past!
Let go of what you can’t control—and rest in the knowledge that God is in control!
We worry so much about things that we can’t impact. What if we decided to make a list of things we are holding onto and release all of them to God? What if we took one moment each day to be still and acknowledge God’s perfect control? Let’s give it a try.
“Let go and know that I am God.”
Five Minutes in the Word 
Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
Psalm 46:10 ESV
Do you know how God controls the storm and causes the lightning to flash from his clouds? Do you understand how he moves the clouds with wonderful perfection and skill? When you are sweltering in your clothes and the south wind dies down and everything is still, he makes the skies reflect the heat like a bronze mirror. Can you do that?
Job 37:15–18
Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.
1 Chronicles 29:11–12 ESV
Remember the things I have done in the past. For I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like me. Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish.
Isaiah 46:9–10