Stillness

This morning snippets of several verses are on my mind: "Be still and know that I am God", "I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee" and "In quietness and confidence shall be your strength."

So, as usual, I'll look at these verses in greater depth (and other versions).  Starting with the last one, I find this in Isaiah chapter 30:

"God, the Master, The Holy of Israel, has this solemn counsel: "Your salvation requires you to turn back to me and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves. Your strength will come from settling down in complete  dependence on me — The very thing you've been unwilling to do.  You've said, 'Nothing doing! We'll rush off on horseback!' You'll rush off, all right! Just not far enough! You've said, 'We'll ride off on fast horses!' Do you think your pursuers ride old nags?  Think again: A thousand of you will scatter before one attacker. Before a mere five you'll all run off. There'll be nothing left of you —  a flagpole on a hill with no flag, a signpost on a roadside with the sign torn off."  But God's not finished. He's waiting around to be gracious to you. He's gathering strength to show mercy to you. God takes the time to do everything right — everything. Those who wait around for him are the lucky ones." (Isaiah 30:15-18 - from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.)

This morning this feels like clear counsel that I've done all I need to about handling the attempted fraud for now.  I had thought there might be something else I should do, but that feels like an effort to save myself this morning. I don't want to be one of those that says "nothing doing, I'll ride away really fast".  I choose to wait and depend on God.  I trust He will guide me to anything else that I need to do, and I am SO grateful for His guidance and protection!

And in the next passage is more assurance:

"Don't worry, because I am with you. Don't be afraid, because I am your God. I will make you strong and will help you; I will support you with my right hand that saves you.  All those people who are angry with you will be ashamed and disgraced. Those who are against you will disappear and be lost. You will look for your enemies, but you will not find them. Those who fought against you will vanish completely.  I am the Lord your God, who holds your right hand, and I tell you, 'Don't be afraid. I will help you.'" (Isaiah 41:10-13 NCV)

And yet, my human mind is so slow to trust!  I'm ashamed to admit that I find myself almost immediately moving into fear, thinking, "Oh no, what's going to happen now, that I would be so tempted to be afraid?"  Father, I want to follow your advice, I don't want to feel this fear! I want to be full of trust in You! And I've already seen your salvation in a powerful way these last couple of days.  I KNOW you can be trusted.  Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief!  Please fill me with your perfect love that casts out fear!  Thank you for your promises to me this morning that you will help and save me and that I have nothing to worry about or fear from those who are arrayed against me.  I am so grateful, Father for your love and guidance and protection! Blessed indeed are those who trust in you! 

I'm reminded of my experience of a couple days ago.  I was given advice that could have scared me, but at the time it wasn't what I was focused on.  My focus was on trusting in God and delighting in Him.  As it turned out, something WAS going on that made the advice very timely, but clearly I didn't need to worry about it.  God had it handled before I even knew there was a problem.  Clearly I can trust Him to be my Saviour in EVERY way. My experience then gives guidance for now.  What am I focusing on?  I need to focus on trusting my Heavenly Father and delighting in Him.  I think of a child with a human father. Suppose that father is loving and protective and has all the power necessary to protect his child and yet the child insists on crying in fear about every little thing.  Certainly a loving father will comfort and support his fearful child. Yet how much better will things be for both of them if the child simply trusts her father and enjoys life in his presence?  It seems to me that this is what I'm being called to do.  To simply trust my Heavenly Father and enjoy life in His presence.  

Thank you, Father!  Thank you for your love! Thank you for your guidance! Thank you for your protection! I am so grateful to be your child and to have such a strong and capable Daddy to look to for my daily needs!

As you have reminded me:

"Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world." The Lord of Heaven's Armies is here among us; the God of Israel is our fortress. (Psalms 46:10-11 - Holy Bible, New Living Translation ®, copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.)

Father, thank you for understanding my fearful human nature and for being my comfort and strength.  Thank you for being so ABLE!  It's amazing to me that you could have already removed my fear!  You are AMAZING!  Thank you that with you there is nothing to fear and that I can trust you to give me guidance as needed and to be my strength, today and every day.  I praise you, Father, for your protection and love.  Thank you for being a Father that indeed knows how to give good gifts to your children.  I love you, Father.  Again, today I choose to trust and delight myself in You. I think of the words of that song, "God is so wonderful".  You are indeed, Father, and I am grateful!