HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED THE PEACE OF GOD DURING TIMES OF TROUBLE?

Today's promise: Overcoming discouragement brings great blessing

Have you experienced the peace of God during times of trouble?

Be silent, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.

Psalm 46:6 NLT

Be still my soul

Be still, my soul! thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as He has the past,
Thy hope, they confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul! the waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.
Be Still, My Soul (v2) , Katharina Amalia von Schlegel (1697-?)

Whatever your circumstances, if you believe the first line of this great hymn, you will be at rest. In the midst of the psalmist's troubles, the Lord said, "Be still, and know that I am God." It was these same words that spoke to Katharina von Schlegel in the turbulent times of post-Reformation Germany. A century after Luther's reforms, central Europe was racked by the Thirty Years' War, which pitted Catholics against Protestants. The Lutheran church lapsed into formalism and dead orthodoxy. In the darkness of that time, God raised up the Pietist movement, which stressed personal holiness, charity, missions, and music.

The songs of the Pietists were largely unknown outside of Germany until three British women — Jane and Sarah Borthwick and Catherine Winkworth — began to translate them into English a hundred years later. This hymn, penned by the leading woman of the Pietist movement, a canoness of a women's seminary, was among those forgotten songs.

Adapted from The One Year® Book of Hymns by Mark Norton and Robert Brown, Tyndale House Publishers (1995), entry for January 10.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House