Restlessness vs. Stillness

"There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." Isaiah 57:21

Those who trust in God find peace, both in life (vs. 13b-19) and in death (vs. 1, 2). Those who trust anything else, any man (vs. 7-9) or any other, lesser god (vs. 5, 6) will never find peace. Peace belongs to God and God alone; nothing else can give it, but oh how we try! We will do anything other than come as paupers to the throne of grace. We will fall into a million side eddys and ignore the true pathway of the sea. We will head into every tourist trap on the way rather than head for home. To be outside of God is to be ever restless (vs. 20): you go hither and thither, instability your only comfort, the 'next thing' your only hope.

The only movement found in a child of God is a movement deeper into stillness, into peace, into God Himself. The child of God is to be marked by (amongst other things) the irresistible stillness of their Father, a stillness that wreaks havoc on the soul of the restless, because it serves to accentuate that they are on the outside looking in. "Be still, and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10a) To know God is to know stillness; not just any stillness, but His stillness, and to not know Him is to know only the restless desire for stillness.

"Be still, oh restless soul of mine.

Bow before the Prince of Peace;

Let the noise and clamor cease..."

(Steven Curtis Chapman)

-Jon Vowell