Stillness

"The Lord will fight for you, and you only have to keep still."


A friend posted Exodus 14:14 on her Facebook page this week and the verse resonated in my soul.

There is the "famous" verse in Psalms 46 about stillness -"Be still and know that I am God." I have always seen this verse to be about knowing God by slowing down and spending time with God. On the other hand, Exodus 14:14 is about standing back and allowing God to work.

Being still is tough for many of us - I know it is for me. When I try to be still with God I find myself wandering. It just seems so hard to sit and wait; to listen for the small voice that is God saying, “Here I am and this is what I want you to know.” Surely God could just send an email and speed up this process, right!?! Maybe a text message!?!

But waiting and being still is something that God calls us to do. Yes, sometimes He calls us to action. Sometimes, though, He wants us to stop and realize what He can and will do for us.

Recently I went through a very tough time that had me wanting to fight and make sure everyone knew the truth. Multiple people betrayed me. People I trusted and called friend let me down in a huge way. It hurt like heck and I wanted to make it stop. I needed to fight back, to restore my reputation. I wanted to force the people who did this to realize and admit they were wrong. I wanted to fix the situation and let life go on as it had been.

God, however, had a different idea. He didn’t want me to fix the situation. Today I realize that He was saying the same thing to me that Moses said to the children of Israel:

But Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.

My mom once said, “You decide you want something and you make it happen.” Every bone in my body is crying out to right this wrong, to make my will happen. My New King James Version Bible ends this verse with “you shall hold your peace.” I don’t want to hold my peace, I want to fight!

God is calling me to hold my peace. He is asking me to trust that He is delivering me. So I back off and stand firm in Him. I am pretty independent and it is very hard for me to do nothing. God didn’t call me to clear my name or fight to make things right. He called me to be still in this situation. He is fighting for me. I don’t know what He is doing in the lives of those who betrayed me. That is up to Him now. Instead I am still and holding my peace. God is working things out in His own way. I try not to worry about what that means to my Egyptians.

Here in my waiting and trusting God is blessing and growing me. He is opening my eyes to greater things than what I was holding on to in this situation. He truly is delivering me.