“Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.”
-Job 13:15
“Be still and know that I am God.“
– Psalm 46:10
Have you ever been through something you never thought you could get through? Maybe you are going through a time like that now?
Now i’m not referring to the anger you feel after you’ve gone through the drive-thru and get home just to discover they forgot to put your fries in the bag. Not to mention the sorrow you feel when you pour your cereal into a bowl then realize you’re out of milk; I just hate that.
However, beyond the minor frustrations, there are some really painful things we may encounter in this life. Wether it be the loss of a loved one, being laid off at your job, bad news at the doctor, being rejected by your family, broken homes; whatever it may be. I have found that after days of enduring that, weeks of enduring that, years of enduring that; it can take but just one of those ‘minor frustrations’ to make you lose it. I can not be the only one who can withstand an insanely stressful day all the way up till the gas station cashier decides to cop an attitude; adding the cherry on top of a bad day to result in a breakdown.
Sometimes we allow anger, hurt, and stress to accumulate.. and accumulate until the smallest thing seems to knock us off our feet. Unbeknownst to the passing on-lookers, only we ourselves know that it wasn’t the cold fries or the lack there of that really upset us. So in a world where stress is a very real thing, we must learn to continually cast.
“Cast thy burden upon the Lord and He will sustain thee; He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” -Psalm 55:22
Learn to continually cast your pains and heartaches and worries onto the Lord; let the Lord have it.
Have you ever heard the expression “the straw that broke the camel’s back”? Well, one night – I found my straw; or shall I say, my straw found me. It had been a rough day and an even more rough, night. I found myself zipping down roads at 10pm, weaving in between traffic and snot and tears. I was feeling ate up by fear and rejection and loneliness, so I sped to the church.
For a season in my life, if I wasn’t at work or in service, I was at the church. I felt like I was barely breathing, however at that altar I found my oxygen. So, I sped to the church but when I got there I couldn’t even summon the strength to go inside. It was 10:30 pm, it was winter, and this camel’s back was broken. I remembered I had a blanket in my trunk so I got that out; there I was, middle of the night slouched over a railing, wrapped in a blanket that smelled like my spare tire.
I was crying out to God pleading with Him to just speak to me. All the little things and not-so-little things had crippled me and no one was coming to my aid. I turned on my K-LOVE app and just sat there listening for an hour or so until my phone died- then it was silent.
The night was still and I was restless. As it approached midnight, I just looked up and gazed at the stars. God still said nothing. However, I have found that God’s silence can often say much more than any of my run-on sentences.
But I went on; fast forward to present day and I survived it. How? How do you survive past the night that you want nothing more than to just die? You breathe, you cling to God, and you stand still.
You settle within yourself that you have no idea how you’re going to face tomorrow- you just know that you will. I’ve discovered since that night the best way to go on, is ironically to stand still. Stand still and know that He is God; God that will :
keep you………………….. Psalm 41:2
sustain you………………. Psalm 55:22
love you…………………… Romans 8:38-39
comfort you……………… Psalm 119:76
help you…………………… Isaiah 41:13
strengthen you………….. 2 Thessalonians 3:3
Fight for you…………….. Exodus 14:14
“I’ve discovered since that night the best way to go on, is ironically to stand still.”
God sometimes will speak with a loud voice into our spirit or through a powerful word or sermon but what a great treasure it is to learn God’s voice in the times He doesn’t speak. In the moment we wonder how we could feel so hurt and alone and God is speechless but later you see that it’s in those times He says nothing that we learn Him. It’s in those times that we learn to stand on our own two feet. We stand still and trust Him that as long as we follow His lead everything will be right, not perfect but right.
“What a great treasure it is to learn God’s voice in the times He doesn’t speak.”
So if you are hurting and it seems that God isn’t saying anything, I challenge you to listen a bit closer. In the still of the night you can hear it…deliverer….keeper…..comforter….fighter….
It speaks volumes. Trust Him, You will make it.