Friday, October 19, 2012

Stand

Having done all, stand. That is right out of the Bible, and good advice indeed. Once you have done everything you know to do, and everything God has asked of you, then stand in faith.
Funny, I usually find my "standing" looks more like lying down. When I am in the midst of a difficult situation, when the stress of my circumstances floods over and threatens to drown me, I often find that I can't stand. I can barely move.
But over the years, God has released me to rest. I remember being a new Christian, how I thought my "job" was to stay strong, to maintain a stance of warfare (meaning praying loudly and binding everything I could think of), and basically to fight the urge to lie down...and rest. Which is kind of funny when I think about Jesus, and what he was doing when he was in the boat with the disciples and a storm was raging, threatening to overturn the boat and possibly drown them. Where was Jesus? He was asleep in the boat!
I believe the disciples found that a bit frustrating, since they yelled at Him "Lord, save us!! We're going to drown!"
But Jesus wasn't standing in the boat rebuking the storm, raging at the threat coming against his own. He was sleeping!

And now I know that when I lie down I am actually taking a stance...a stance that says "I believe God has me, I believe God has this situation under His control, and since I trust Him...I will just rest."

Believe me. Lying down in the midst of a storm is the best way to stand.

Tears

This morning I read in Revelation 7:17 "And God will wipe from their eyes every last tear."  We all know that scripture. And I'...