About the Be Still Tool
Be Still is a Scripture companion designed to help you slow down, listen, and respond to God. Under the hood, it uses modern AI technology, but its heart and “mind” are shaped by classic, Christ-centered voices and a pre–information age view of life with God.
What Be Still Is (and Isn’t)
Be Still is a devotional and study tool. It is meant to sit alongside your Bible, not replace it. It can:
- Help you reflect on a passage of Scripture in a personal, pastoral tone.
- Explain context, themes, and key words in a way that’s accessible.
- Draw from classic Christian writers to deepen how you see a truth or promise.
It is not:
- A replacement for the Bible itself.
- A substitute for a local church, pastoral care, or Christian community.
- Meant for medical, legal, or professional advice of any kind.
Its Knowledge Base & Voices
Instead of pulling randomly from the internet, Be Still leans heavily on a curated library of classic, Christ-centered writers and commentary. That library currently includes:
- John Wesley — sermons, notes on the whole Bible, and a warm-hearted, practical holiness tradition.
- Oswald Chambers — especially My Utmost for His Highest, with its piercing, devotional focus on surrender to Christ.
- A. W. Tozer — works like The Pursuit of God, emphasizing the inner life, worship, and the presence of God.
- Hannah Whitall Smith — especially The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life, centered on trust, rest, and surrendered living.
- F. B. Meyer, Andrew Murray, and others — classic devotional voices shaped by Scripture, humility, and holiness.
These writings come mostly from the pre–information age — voices formed before social media, digital distraction, and the constant noise of online life. Be Still uses them to help call you back to a simpler, clearer way of walking with God.
How the Tool Actually Works
When you ask a question or share what you’re going through, Be Still does two main things:
-
Looks for relevant passages and thoughts
It searches a “map” of Scripture and classic Christian writings (stored as embeddings) to find the most relevant paragraphs and ideas related to your question. -
Asks the AI to respond like a pastoral guide
Those relevant snippets are given to an AI model along with a fixed set of instructions: speak as a Christ-centered, Scripture-rooted guide; be gentle and honest; point back to the Bible; avoid speculation and anything that conflicts with core Christian doctrine.
The result is a response that feels personal, but is grounded in Scripture and shaped by a carefully chosen library, not by the chaos of the wider internet.
Guardrails & Safety
We’ve added strong boundaries to how the Be Still tool is allowed to respond. It is instructed to:
- Refuse to celebrate or instruct in evil, abuse, hatred, occult practices, or anything clearly contrary to Scripture.
- Turn away from requests that try to make it mock God, justify sin, or speak in harmful ways.
- Redirect those moments toward repentance, hope, and truth in Christ, when appropriate.
- Remind you that serious struggles (mental health, abuse, addiction, etc.) need wise, real-world help and community.
It is not perfect, but its “rails” are designed to keep it within a faithful, pastoral lane.
Your Role in Using It Well
Be Still is at its best when you use it with an open Bible, an open heart, and a willingness to obey God. You are encouraged to:
- Test everything you read against Scripture.
- Take what resonates into prayer and, if possible, into conversation with mature believers.
- Use the tool to slow down and listen, not to avoid real-life relationships or the local church.
Why This Was Built
The modern world is loud. Notifications, algorithms, and endless scrolling can drown out the quiet, steady voice of God. Be Still (full Still app, coming soon) was created as a kind of “counter-technology” — using modern tools to help you disconnect from the noise and reconnect with Christ, Scripture, and a life of simple obedience.
May this tool not become another distraction, but a servant to deeper stillness, greater surrender, and more attentive love for God and others.
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Be Still was not created to replace good writing, faithful pastors, careful theologians, or the living voice of the Church. Those voices cannot be replaced, and they should not be. Instead, this tool is an attempt to use modern technology in a humble way — to help gather and echo the wisdom that God has already given through His people across generations.
A helpful way to think about it is like this: imagine walking into a room filled with twenty wise pastors and theologians — men and women shaped by Scripture, prayer, suffering, and obedience — and being able to ask them a difficult question like, “Why does God allow evil to exist?” Each would answer from a slightly different angle, but together their voices would form a fuller, steadier, and more grounded response than any single perspective alone.
This tool is designed to work in that same spirit. It draws from a carefully curated library of classic and trusted Christian writers in order to help surface patterns of truth, not novel opinions. One of the central focuses of this project is to preserve and elevate the voices of the pre–information age — writers who lived and wrote before digital distraction, algorithmic pressure, and constant connectivity reshaped how people think and listen.
These authors came from a slower, quieter, and often more contemplative world. And yet, their words remain remarkably alive. A book like The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer, written in 1948, still speaks with piercing relevance into the modern Christian life. That enduring relevance is not accidental — it reflects the timeless nature of Scripture and the unchanging character of God.
Some may wonder why anyone would build an AI tool for Scripture while also longing for less dependence on technology. The answer is that Still Fellowship aims to function as a kind of counter-technology — using modern tools not to accelerate noise, but to help restore attention, stillness, and rootedness in Christ. Its goal is not to pull you deeper into screens, but to quietly point you back to the living Word, the local church, and a life of faithful obedience. Technology has never been the problem; the abuse and misuse of technology is what has created distractions from God. The goal is to help users engage scripture here, then go open their bibles for deeper study.