Be Still...

     There is a song that has been running through my mind and heart for some time now. “Still” by Hillsong. I heard this song a couple of years ago and in recent times it has been coming back to me ever so often.
    The lyrics are beautiful but very powerful. It’s about trusting God in the midst of life’s trials and testings. Whether we like it or not, we all have to go through them, or else how would we grow? We would all like life to be wonderful and easy, a life free from stress, heartache, pain, suffering, injustice, even death. But guess what? Unfortunately, where human beings exist, these negative things will exist too.
    Yet, in trying times, God tells us to be still. “Still”. What does that mean? Standing around, doing nothing? The New American Roget’s College Thesaurus in Dictionary Form defines it as: silent, quiet, hushed, calm, peaceful, tranquil, motionless, at rest, stationary. Imagine going through a storm, the wind and waves are tossing you around. You can’t control it yet God tells you to be still in the midst of it. Let’s face it. The normal human response to a storm is panic, even utter chaos. Picture the disciples in the storm-tossed boat. As seasoned sailors they didn’t just sit there I’m sure and do nothing. They jumped into action and even woke Jesus up crying, “Teacher do you not care that we are perishing?” Now picture Jesus awaking from His very restful sleep because he had worked hard healing the sick and ministering to people’s needs, picture Him waking up and very calmly but with authority, rebuking the wind and the waves (Mark 4:35-39 NASB). You see He knew who He was and who His Father was. Oh the storm was real, very real but so was He. He knew it could not touch Him because He had authority over it.
    Now, if this is the God we serve, why is it so hard to trust Him when He says be still? I believe that we are still walking by sight not faith. We trust our feelings and what we see more than we trust God and what He sees. Maybe we need to ask Him to help us see our situation through His eyes instead of our own. Maybe we need to ask Him to remind us that the God we serve still has authority over the winds and waves that buffet our lives and toss us to and fro; that just because we are tossed to and fro doesn’t mean He is asleep and unconcerned, it doesn’t mean He is blind to our plight or deaf to our cries. Maybe we need to remember that just because we may be panicking it doesn’t mean that God is too. He is still calm, He is still authoritative, He is still in control. And above all, maybe we need to let go of what we want the end result of that storm to be. Sometimes the pain has nothing to do with the actual storm but with the possibility that the end result may not be what we want it to be. Absolute surrender, means total trust. It says that even if it turns out the way I don’t want, God I will still be faithful to you, I will still love you, I will still serve You. When we are willing to reach to this point of surrendering our will to God’s will “being still” can be possible. I’m not speaking off the top of my head but from experience, what I have had to do on more than one occasion, telling God that even if things didn’t work out the way I wanted I would still be faithful to Him, I would still serve Him, I would still love Him.  How can I turn my back on God? I have nowhere else to turn. If He slays me He has a reason. If He rebukes me He has a reason. His reason will always be for my good, even for my “best.” So my encouragement to you? Be still and know that He is God. Your God will NEVER let you down, will NEVER turn His back on you and will ALWAYS have your very BEST  interest at heart.