“Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the LORD rescue you today.” – Ex 14:13 NLT
“But you will not even need to fight. Take your positions; then stand still and watch the LORD’s victory. ” – 2 Chronicles 20:17 NLT
“Surrender your anxiety! Be silent and stop your striving and you will see that I am God.” – Psalm 46:10 TPT
Don’t be afraid. Trust
Position yourself. Fix your eyes and heart above.
Surrender. Stop striving.
And you will SEE…
You will see Him rescue you.
You will see His victory.
Best of all, you will see HIM.
“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.” -Isaiah 26:3
These words are easy to write, but difficult to live in times of intense pressure. It is so very difficult to be still when everything in you is screaming that you need to DO something.
The truth is many times–maybe even most of the time–we do need to do something. We’ve all heard it said that when we are waiting on God, often, He is waiting on us. Often it is true.
Often…
But not always.
There are times in our lives when ONLY He can move the mountain you face–without the tiniest little bit of help from you.
It is in those times that we need to keep standing. We need to be still. We need to surrender.
That isn’t necessarily a passive response. You still need to “position yourself.” You still need to choose to trust. You need to choose to hope. But if we’re not careful, even things like trust and hope can become striving.
The other day I was telling the Lord I felt like I had been hanging onto a very thin strand of hope. The miracle was that I was hanging on and that I did have hope. But I felt like I was about to suck the last tiny bit of hope out of that itty bitty thread and it was going to snap in two. I knew it wouldn’t be pretty when it did.
But the Lord asked me to do something quite surprising…
He asked me to let go of it completely.
I did. And you know what? Underneath were the everlasting arms.
Here is the deal: I want to trust. I want to hope. I never want to bring an accusation against His character–not even in my own thoughts. I want to honor Him with my “yes” in the most confusing and challenging of times. He knows that. It blesses Him. I get the distinct impression He even thinks it’s kind of adorable.
But He doesn’t need me to keep holding on in order to come through for me. It is completely irrelevant to the equation. In fact, when I try to “hold on” so hard that it becomes striving, it actually hinders the process.
Because striving in any form hinders my peace in the process.
Sometimes, when you say “yes” so many times…so many “yes no matter whats”…there simply isn’t a “no” in you that is loud enough to uproot what has been planted in faith. That’s when having done all–you just keep standing.
No matter what “standing” looks or feels like on any given day.
What it looks like for me is really quite simple. It not about getting all my reactions and thoughts just right. Lord knows it definitely isn’t about getting all my feelings just right. But it is about continuing to show up in some manner before Him. It is about maintaining connection. It is about abiding.
I suspect that is probably what it looks like for most of us.
We all face situations in life that don’t make sense. But the perplexity factor is amplified exponentially when you find yourself in extremely confusing and challenging circumstances, not because you followed your own path, or because life happened to you, but specifically because you followed Him into those circumstances.
That’s when you have nowhere to go but up. When everything has closed in around you and the only door open is the one standing open in heaven, just show up there. Just show up before His face. Just keep looking up. Even when you’re sad, or mad, or confused, or numb, or far worse. Even when you’re feeling hopeless. Even when you don’t know what the heck to think or feel. Even when you don’t know what else you can possibly pray.
Stand still and you will see the salvation of the Lord.
This one is on Him, beloved. And He never fails.
“Surrender your anxiety! Be silent and stop your striving and you will see that I am God.” – Psalm 46:10 TPT (emphasis mine)
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Here is today’s FB live on the topic:
Cindy Powell 