Be Still

I am not always patient. It isn't that I refuse to wait for things, or that I get bored. I can easily go into a waiting room and sit and wait with nothing but my mind for company for a couple hours and I am fine. That isn't really the kind of patience that I am talking about. Although most people tend to think of that as the only kind of patience.

No, the kind of patience that I am talking about is being unable to be still. Maybe I am not alone in this. Maybe some of you aren't great at being still either. I have a lot of friends who have just graduated from college. This is such a major step in their lives. Some of you are just graduating from high school or are starting new careers. I don't know where all of you are in your lives, but I do know that for many of us, there is a rush to be at the next step.

I can say this is 100% true for me. I would love to say that it hasn't always been like this, but it really has. When I was in middle school, I wanted to be in high school. In high school I wanted to be in college. As soon as the church plant that I worked for closed, I was ready for my next ministry. At least I thought I was.

That is what made me so impatient. I was so ready to be doing what God had for me. I would got so frustrated when God wasn't immediately opening up doors. Because I am impatient. Fortunately God is patient. And He is faithful.

At some point, you are also going to be tempted to be impatient about the next stage in your life. Instead, remember Psalm 46. It is a beautiful psalm of encouragement. It starts off with,

God is our refuge and strength,                                                                                                    an ever present help in trouble.  

The weird thing is that from there it then goes on to explain all about the trouble. There are natural disasters and wars. Really just a whole lot of terrible stuff. Mountains are falling into seas. Have you ever wondered how many more mountains there were back then? It seems like mountains are constantly falling into seas...

Here is the take away. For God to be a help in times of trouble, there have to actually be times of trouble. You couldn't call a car a race car unless it actually races. God is a help in times of trouble because those times will inevitably come and then He will actually help. He doesn't simply sit idly by and watch.

The weird thing is that while He won't sit idly by, that is pretty much what he wants us to do. Verse 10 goes on to say:

He says, "Be still and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."

Be still and know that I am God. That is our role when all of these terrible things are happening all around us. Wait and remember that I got this. That is what God wants us to do. It is so easy to get impatient. It is easy to wonder why God isn't moving forward. But a lot of times in our lives, we just have to be still and know that He is God.

Complaining louder that God isn't moving fast enough will not make God move any faster than the speed He knows He needs to go.  A father who is driving his children on a road trip would never drive faster and faster at a reckless speed simply because the children are in the backseat screaming that they want to be there now. That of course would be insane. Instead of complaining that you want to be there, start looking out the window and seeing what all is around you (Hopefully you aren't in Kansas).

Now before I wrap up this up, I want to make sure there is no confusion. Waiting and being still does not involve sitting on a couch playing lots of video games instead of looking for a job. That's not what being still is. Being still is peace. Having peace that God is in control.

Now with that said, be still and know that He is God.