Be Still With the Savior

By Commissioner Colleen Riley

2023 has begun and we are starting another year. What is on your mind? Is it the busyness of your ministry or your life? Is it the calendar that is already filling up or the looming items on your to-do list?

January 1st always brings fireworks and cheering, toasting of glasses and promises of resolutions to be kept. This year, even before the new year begins, I have made the decision to not make resolutions to exercise more, eat healthier, or to be more organized, although these are all good things in themselves. The pressure to be better to do more and to make our mark on the world, is real and can be overwhelming.

Instead, I am challenging myself to be still with my Savior more than ever before. Every day as I sit in my quiet place and focus on my relationship with Jesus, I find myself falling deeper and deeper in love with Him. I find myself with more and more of a sense of peace in my life. I want more of this! To find time in the busy, to find time in the chaos, to find time in the stillness, I can sense, I KNOW that I can FLOURISH because of Christ!

Looking forward into this new year I desire to have not only a sense of peace, but to be truly at peace with the Lord and in the circumstances of my life. While it is busy, I know that God is in control of even my busy life. He in the tiniest of details of yours and my life. I don’t have to fret, He has me just where He wants me, He knows my deepest needs and He cares for every single moment.

God simply wants you and I to dwell in the still of His presence, to listen to His voice and to trust in His plan for us in 2023.

Commissioner Colleen Riley

If you are reading this, I hope that you know this to be true of your life as well. God simply wants you and I to dwell in the still of His presence, to listen to His voice and to trust in His plan for us in 2023. Let’s you and I, be attuned to the voice of God, to really hear what He is asking of us in these next twelve months. I am guessing that it is not to put more on our busy schedules, or to work even harder than we are, but rather to find peace in Christ and to know Him more deeply.

Will you, with me, say to Him – Jesus do all you have in mind, I am with you heart and soul. Whatever you have in store for me, I am here and I am all in. I want to know you, to serve you, to trust you with my whole life.

I pray that in this new year, you will embrace a season of stillness and peace in Christ. In Psalm 4:8 it says “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.” Each evening as you rest your head, be reminded of His care for you. And each day, as you begin your day with Jesus, know that in this time of peace and still, flourish for the Lord. He is with you!