You Need Only to Stand Still

Sometimes God’s call is a Call to Action, other times it’s an Order to Be Still.  

Taking action is easy for me.  I’m a doer.  I don’t always come up with the ideas, but I can put them into practice.  Waiting….well, let’s just say, that is not my strong point.  I don’t particularly like to wait.  In fact, I can get quite lost while waiting.  I may even forget what I was waiting for.  

Every morning it’s the same thing, I like to wake up and hit the ground running.  This means that I can quickly burn through my stores of energy.  Any delay can cause my stamina to evaporate like steam.  

This trait is clearly obvious when I run.  It’s off to the races full speed ahead and then, POOF, I’m done.  It takes quite a bit of time training to keep me from burning through all of my energy in the first few minutes of my run.  It’s the way I’m wired.  So, it should not come as a shock that for the last few years God has kept me in a holding pattern.  The doer has had to stand back, be still, and watch.  

This busy little bee has had to govern her pace.  I have had to deliberately slow down so that I can smell the roses, stop so that I can listen to God’s voice, absorb His Word, and saturate in His presence.  I have had to choose a patient approach to each day and have gotten much better about living in the moment, taking each step one day at a time….BUT sometimes I still find myself going full speed ahead once again.  That is why I am so thankful for the tender drawing, nudging, and illumination that comes from the Holy Spirit.  

Last week while struggling with the hurry up and get this virus over blues, He gently reminded me to be still.  Not to look for things to do to occupy my thoughts and mind, but to deliberately stand back, rest, wait, and watch.  

Through His promptings, my devotions brought me to (Exodus 14:14 NIV) “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”  In the NLT the last part of that verse reads, “Just stay calm”.  In verse 13 Moses tells the people to “Stand Still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today.” (NKJV).  In these verses, the Israelites were afraid, they weren’t in a position to defend themselves against the armies of Egypt who were pursuing them.  But that is exactly where God wanted them to be.  He didn’t want them to respond to the threat behind them.  Instead, He wanted them to stand back, trust, and watch as He fought for them.  

In Judges 7:2 (NLT) The Lord says to Gideon, “You have too many warriors with you.  If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me saying that they saved themselves by their own strength.”  You see, God wants the glory for the victories in our lives.  He deserves the glory, it is rightly His anyway.  When we rush ahead trying to do everything on our own, we can quickly forget who is fighting our battles and begin to rely on our own strength and wisdom instead of God’s.  

When Gideon had only 300 soldiers of the original 32,000 (that’s less than 1%), that is when God said, “Get up!  Go down into the Midianite camp, for I have given you victory over them!”  That’s not the end of the story though, it gets even better.  In verse 22 it states, When the 300 Israelites blew their ram’s horns, the Lord caused the (Midianite) warriors in the camp to fight against each other with their swords.  

You see, all Gideon’s army had to do was be obedient and stand back while the Lord fought their battle.  Is there a place in your life where you need to relinquish control?  A battle that you need to allow God to fight for you?  If so, I invite you to turn it over to Him.   To stand still and let Him fight for you.  

He said, “Listen, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem!  Listen, King Jehoshaphat!  This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid!  Don’t be discouraged by this mighty army, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.”  (2 Chronicles 20:15  NLT)