The next Be Still book is currently a work in progress.

As conflict, chaos, change, and challenges continue into 2021, I’m thankful for the consistency of God. And I’m humbled by his inspiration and provision when I’m coming up empty.

The year opened with him giving me another word: listen. Which the husband and I tried to do with some planned camping retreats. We had plans to reflect on, pray about, and discuss what the Holy Spirit might have for the Be Still book on Psalm 23. However, green pastures and quiet waters weren’t meant to be during the first weekend retreat. Unfortunately we had connectivity where we camped and the world crashed in on us. First, nationally with alerts on the storming of the capitol building, and second, locally with another frustrating issue arising at church and needing our attention.

We then had to cancel the second planned camping retreat before it even arrived, as forecasts called for extremely cold temperatures across Texas, including snow in our area (and if you know anything about the Texas Hill Country, that rarely happens). It was cold. Below freezing for a week. And it snowed. We experienced what we now call the snowpocalypse. And we, like many all over the state, were without power or water for a period of time.

Again, the months rolled by and I wondered what this year’s Be Still book could be or if it would be.

Again, my Tuesday morning Bible study came through. Somewhere in the discussion on the book of Colossians, the idea for a devotional on R words came to me. This wasn’t a new idea, because in 2019 I did a blog series I called Let’s Re. Let’s be Re. The concept of R words came, of course, during one of the Tuesday morning Bible studies. It started with D words and I decided that most of them are negative, especially those starting with Dis. Like discourage, discontent, discord, disable, disagree, disadvantage, you get the idea.

But R words are not. Especially Re. They imply a new beginning, a restart, if you will. So I began jotting them down as I came across them. Throughout my notes and journals are short lists of R words. They reencouraged me every time. And as I recompiled them, I felt confirmation in my notes from a sweet lady’s testimony in February using the words remember, reflect, receive, and recognize. Then Dawn, in our group chat (a number of women are reading through the Bible with me this year) posted a comment about the book of Ezra using seven different R words.

I’m formatting the book a little differently than last year’s book. I still include Scripture of course, but devotional will be short (and good thing, too, because I’m still writing them). And I’ve included space for contemplation and reflection, answering questions, and writing prayer requests and answers. The other challenge is photos. The year is more than half over and I’m needing new photos from the husband to go along with the R words I’ve selected for this year’s Be Still devotional. I’m praying for God to once again show up and show off. And I’m hoping that somehow, someway, we might make publication in November.

Because it’s been a crazy two years. And we all need some time to reflect, refresh, and recharge.

When finished, the book can be purchased on Amazon. Keep watch and check out all the books in the Be Still series on my Amazon author page Jill English Johnston.

See all the books currently available by visiting my Be Still page.