11/19/2011

The Lord will fight for you; you have only to keep still. (Exodus 14:14)

How hard it is for us to keep still. We are constantly in motion. Working, driving, cleaning, exercising, talking, spending our time. And when we aren't in motion we are connected to someone who is. Cell phone's, laptops, iPads, you name it, we've got it.

How rarely are we still?

How rarely do we sit with our problems and contemplate them, pray about them, before we act. We are so quick to fix, quick to restore, quick to comfort. We are so impatient. So quick to distrust in God's providence. We thrash and move and fight it when we feel things aren't going our way. Do we really believe that God is on our side?

I am the first one guilty of this. I am constantly restless, constantly worrying. In my busy life, where I know that my soul craves tranquility and peace, I find it so hard to be still. I'd rather work my way through a problem, than sit and wait on God.

Maybe he wants to teach us something in the story of the Israelites passing from slavery into freedom.

Maybe they've been so oppressed by their captors and so ready to run, that they believe that they have to keep fighting in order to be safe. With the Pharaoh and his men on the horizon, who wouldn't run? Who wouldn't fear? Who wouldn't distrust? We are so like Moses and the Israelites. Weighed down by the burdens of sin and fear, we sometimes simply can't believe that God fight will for us.

We sometimes take matters into our hands. Myself included. Similar to Eve, we stretch for things that we don't think God will give us. Were so fearful and distrusting sometimes.

We need to be still and wait on God. We need to trust that he is for us, and he will always come through for us.

amen.