Day 2392 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.


Exodus 14:14 NIV

Stillness almost has this sense of passivity that we're not comfortable with. We think we need to always be on the front lines charging the enemy with as much passion and ferocity as we can muster. Sitting on the sidelines and watching life unfold isn't always an easy thing for us to do. It forces us to relinquish the sense of control that we enjoy thinking we have. The thought of not doing something and just being still goes against this hard-charging, pride-chasing, and glory-seeking mindset that we've been taught to carry with us.

But sometimes in life, being still is the best thing we can do. Sometimes taking a step back, catching our breath, and allowing our faith to overtake our ego is more important than continuing to try to force life to submit to our desires. The simple truth is that we don't have much control over how life goes. We can fight and push and wear ourselves out but if it's not meant to be then it's not going to be. We have to learn to trust in God's plans for us no matter what they may be or when they may unfold.

It's not easy. Patience often feels like punishment. We hate waiting for anything in life. We hate the waiting even more when we’re up against something hard or going through a rough patch where our hope for something better just keeps seeming to drift further away. But what we forget in our egotistical way of thinking is that we’re not the only ones that can accomplish something. Life isn’t all about our strength, our ability, our intelligence, or our perfection. Sometimes it’s just about our humility and our willingness to trust in God. Sometimes it’s about us stepping out of His way and allowing Him to do what only He can do.

We’ve been talking for a few days about trusting God even when we don’t see how things can possibly work out. Contrary to what our pride tells us, we don’t know everything. We don’t see the full picture. We can’t possibly imagine what God is doing, what He has planned, or how those tough times in life can turn into something amazing. That’s why our trust needs to be placed in Him above anything else, including ourselves. He sees what we can’t. He knows the way through storms that we don’t even know are coming. He can do things that we couldn’t begin to dream of doing. So yeah, sometimes we simply need to step back and be still.

Again, I understand that being patient and being still may feel like we’re giving ourselves up to the mercy of life or the circumstances that we’re facing. But in reality, we’re only humbly submitting ourselves to God’s will and allowing Him to take over the control that we like to blindly think that we have. We will always feel this need to fight back and do our part so that we don’t just let life get the better of us. What we have to remember is that sometimes our part is trusting in God and not thinking that we can do this all by ourselves. Sometimes doing our part means getting out of His way and letting Him take the lead for once.

I think so much of the issue is that we like to chase glory. We want to be able to point to our accomplishments and show the world what we managed to do. But this isn’t about us. It’s about God. It’s about His will for our lives. It’s about His glory and living our lives according to His will and His plans. And if that means stepping out of the spotlight and being still while He fights for us, then that’s exactly what we need to do. No matter what we’re facing we have to always remember that God’s in the fight with us. And when our strength, our ability, our best isn’t good enough, His always will be. And thankfully, we can always lean on that promise!

In this life we will face challenges bigger than we can overcome. We will come up against trials that we simply can't overpower or out think. But nothing will ever be bigger or stronger than our God. So we better learn to lean on Him and His strength rather than our own. Ours will fail, His never will!

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