QB Women

Be still and know that I am God – Psalm 46:10 This is a verse we would probably already know but do we really know what it means to ‘Be Still’? ‘Be still and know that I am God’ is a command to consciously stop and rest in God. Does it mean we just stop what we’re doing and do nothing? It would be easy to misappropriate this verse as giving us permission to rest while ignoring the second part of the verse. If we were simply to be Christians at rest, we could more accurately be described as being lazy. It is not stillness or rest that is the point here, the point is learning to rest IN God. When we truly rest in Him we rest in the knowledge of God’s ability to win every battle. The victory is His alone and understanding that gives us the freedom to say, ‘My battle belongs to Him’ also.

Coming to the end of ourselves and choosing to fall back into the arms of the Father, is what being still in Him really means. It is listening to Him, hearing His voice. This kind of stillness is an act of faith, not laziness. In fact, it can be far harder to rest in Him than in ourselves, to trust Him with our battles rather than trying to fight them ourselves.

Being still is not a position of weakness but a posture of power. Being still in this way is not a onceoff act, it’s a lifestyle of learning to rest in Him and His infinite strength. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still. - Exodus 14:14 My battle belongs to the Lord. When we are confronted with an enemy, we are to rest in God and He will sweep in for the victory, for no weapon can stand against Him. We see all through the bible that God has won countless victories, and this can give us faith that He also sees our battles and will fight them for us. We fight battles every day, some seen, but more unseen. We fight battles with things like depression, financial strain, relationship stress, work issues and parenting—just to name a few. The concept of a battle won by God gives strength to the position of stillness in Him. He desperately wants to fight our battles, we just need to let Him. He will turn them into something good, something beautiful. A bed of flowers in an abandoned garden where there was nothing but dust; an intricate painting on a blank canvas. He will take those battles and make beauty where there was none before. All He asks of us is to be still, to be still in Him, to rest in Him, to listen to His voice, to put down our weapons and allow Him to do the fighting for us.

This year at Anew Conference, we’re going to be learning about being Still and resting in God, allowing Him to take control and fight our battles for us. We’re taking Anew across the state again and visiting some new places and some we haven’t been to for some years. The team is preparing and planning for the conferences and we are excited with what God is going to do this year amongst His women in Queensland.

The conference dates, venues and speakers for this year are:

• Longreach – May 29th and 30th, Longreach Baptist Church, Speaker – Shannon Perrett • Hervey Bay – June 13th, Hervey Bay Baptist Church, Speaker – Suzie Botross • Rockhampton – July 24th and 25th , Rockhampton Baptist Church, Speaker – Yvette Cherry • Cairns – August 7th and 8th, Cairns Baptist Church, Speaker – Suzie Botross • Mapleton – August 28th – 30th, QCCC Mapleton, Speaker – Yvette Cherry

All information regarding conferences, speakers and registrations is on our website www. anewconference.org.au.

Looking forward to meeting as many of you as we can this year as we seek to share the love of God together and to learn to be Still in Him!

By Cathy Knechtli, State Director - Qld Baptist Women and Sheridan Lindee – Cairns Baptist Church