Recently in my prayer time I asked the Lord, “What do you want me to do? What do you need from me?” I was in need of direction. I was in need of understanding. I felt like all my efforts were coming up fruitless, empty, dry, and were in vain.
I’m sure you’ve been there a time or two yourself. Those times when you feel like what you know, what you’ve been taught, the thing you’ve been told to do and what you’ve been doing for so long doesn’t work anymore. It just stops producing results.
You work so hard, pushing, striving, straining, with everything you have within, and it seems you just come up empty. It’s a frustrating and irritating place to be. It’s like this years college football national championship game. Alabama verses Clemson. Alabama was ranked number one in the nation and has been a powerhouse for so long. They’re the kind of team that you just can’t go against because they’re too good to not win.
Clemson was ranked number two in the nation, but came into the game with a lot of talent, ambition, and drive, which paid off. Clemson just flat out ripped Alabama. Alabama could do nothing right, and they could not stop the Clemson Tigers. When the cameras would show Alabama’s coach on the sideline, the look on his face was one that said very clearly, “I have no clue what to do. Everything I know to do, and everything I’ve been doing up to this point is not working. Nothing I do makes an impact and everything seems to come up way short.”
That’s how I was feeling. I had one of those throw your hands up in the air kind of moments, so I asked the Lord, “What do I do? Tell me what to do.” I felt the Spirit of the Lord tell me to turn and look at the picture that was sitting on the table next to me. Knowing already what was there, I turned in obedience and there it was. A project my wife had made that simply said,
“Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10
I’ve heard that scripture my entire life, but have never really looked closely at it. By the promoting of the Holy Spirit, I decided to dive into it a little deeper. I loved what I discovered.
The Hebrew word for be still means to relax, let go, to sink. I had never really interpreted be still that way. I always seemed to get this image in my mind of being young and sitting in church next to my mom. I would get antsy and uninterested in what was going on so I would get a little rambunctious. That is until my mom would tell me to be still. What she was saying was “Stop what you’re doing and don’t move.”
To relax means to make or become less tense or anxious. In other words, chill out, calm down, don’t sweat it. Stop what you’re doing and quit moving. The other night while laying bed, I decided to be funny and start bouncing on the bed and rolling back and forth. My wife was not as amused as what I thought she would be. I may have made her miss her shot in the billiards game she plays on her phone. LOL!
When I finally stopped and we laughed for a moment, I realized a couple of things. One, I had worked myself up enough to make it a little more difficult to fall asleep. When you fail to relax, you prolong the rest your body, mind, and spirit desperately needs. And two, I distracted my wife. Your anxiety never affects just you. Your stress always has an effect on those around you as well.
To let go means to loosen your grip and detach yourself from what you’re hanging on to. This is not always an easy task for us. We feel like we can control what we hold on to. To let go means we relinquish control. Let me try and make it even easier to understand.
When my wife and I travel for ministry, I do most of the driving. My wife is in the car with me. She’s traveling with me to minister with me, but while I am driving, I have control. When I get tired and ask her to drive, I give up control of where we’re going, and I give her control. It’s one thing to ask God to jump in the car and travel with you throughout the day as you go about your daily routine. It’s like the bumper sticker that says, “God is my copilot.” He’s right there with you.
It’s a completely different scenario when you let God drive. You allow Him to control where you go, what you do, and when you get there. He’s making all the decisions on where to turn, which route to take, what speed to drive, and where you’re going. To let go means you change that bumper sticker to say, “God’s my pilot, not my copilot.”
To sink is really what opened my eyes. When I thought of what it means to sink, I began to realize that this is actually one of the toughest things that God can ask is to do. To sink means to go below the surface of water or another liquid. I immediately thought about swimming.
When you’re in a deep pool, a lake, or body of water where you cannot touch bottom, in order to not sink you either have to relax (which we’ve already talked about) and float, or swim. Swimming is constant work. It is a consistent exertion of strength, power, and energy. When you stop swimming, you sink.
This is when I discovered the difficult challenge that being still can bring. Everything I’ve ever been taught, learned, been told, and seen is to always make an effort. “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). We’ve been taught to strive to be better, to push yourself to get further, and believe me, that definitely has its time and place, but to sink, to be still and do nothing is not easy.
To stop swimming and sink goes against our fight for survival and what comes natural. If you’re out in the middle of the ocean and you start to sink, you fight with everything you have to stay above water. You swim, you dog paddle, you do whatever you can to not sink. This is why being still is not an easy command to successfully obey.
There’s more faith required to sink than there is to swim. There’s a fear of drowning when we sink. To obey the Lord and sink means we have to find the faith that He will not allow us to drown.
In Matthew 14 we read the story of Peter walking on water. When he began to sink, Jesus grabbed him and made sure he did not drown. He will do the same for you. Why? Because He’s got great plans for you just like He had for Peter.
Let’s look at the last part of this verse before I break it down in its entirety for you. “Know that I am God.” The word “know” is key. The Hebrew word for “know” here is the same word in Genesis 4:1 “Adam knew Eve his wife and conceived.”
As a worshipper, I know that worship is the intimate part of our relationship with God where we can conceive the dreams, promises, plans, and destinies that He has for us. That’s why it is so important that you spend time in personal worship every day, and not miss the worship part of your church service. When you fail to worship, you fail to conceive what God has for you.
So in my time of confusion and frustration, while I wanted to throw my hands up because I had no idea what to do I asked my Heavenly Father what He wanted me to do. This was His response.
Relax! Stop what you’re doing and stop moving. Stop being anxious and so stressed out. Loosen your grip and detach yourself from the controls of your life and this situation. Get out of the drivers seat and let me drive. Just stop swimming. Stop the consistent exertion of strength, power, and energy. Sink! I know it goes against what you think you know to do, but SINK! Have faith that I won’t let you drown , and know me at a level that only comes through true intimate worship.
WOW!
Maybe you’re in a place in your life where you don’t know what to do. Where everything and anything you try doesn’t work. No matter how much of an effort you put forth, nothing produces results. If that’s you, I have a word for you.
“Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10
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