Peace in the Stillness
By Jessica Brodie
Have you ever experienced a time of utter exhaustion? That’s been me lately. I don’t know if I have the post-Christmas blues, my immense workload is catching up with me, or if I’m fighting off an illness, but I’ve been really tired for a few weeks now. My energy is low, and caffeine doesn’t help.
What do you do in situations like this? Pushing through often makes a person hit a wall. Prayer hasn’t yielded any answers yet. I’m a cheerful, glass-half-full sort of person, yet it can be disheartening to wake up day after day feeling like everything is a struggle. Have you been there? Have you, too, felt that icky, restless sense of dread and defeat threaten to tug you down beneath the waves?
A Bible verse I come back to frequently is so simple, and I think its simplicity is what is so appealing: “Be still, and know that I am God.”
The verse, which comes in Psalm 46, is part of a larger reflection on God’s vast, powerful, all-commanding and sovereign nature. It begins by proclaiming:
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” (Psalm 46:1-3 NIV)
The psalm continues, talking about how even though nations are in uproar and kingdoms fall, the earth melts at the lifting of God’s voice.
“Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.’” (Psalm 46:8-10)
That’s right… in spite of everything, the hardship and the pain, sickness and despair, nations in uproar and natural disasters devastating the earth all around us… in all of that, God is the Great I Am, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.
And God has everything handled.
I often find it difficult to relax. Being still can be incredibly hard for me.
Yet sometimes that is exactly what we need to do—what I need to do.
Right now, in my exhaustion, my worry, my despair and gloom, what else can I possibly do? What other options remain except to be still in utter faith, trusting that God is working everything out as only God knows is best?
What can I do but wake up every day, read the Bible and pray, and stake my faith in the Lord of the Universe, knowing that everything I do is for his glory and purpose?
Jesus tells us something similar in the New Testament, saying that in him we can find perfect rest. “Come to me,” Jesus says, “all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
Don’t fret, sweet children, our savior and comforter is saying. If we are weary, all we need to do is go to him. He will handle everything.
Perfect rest can be found in him.
If you, like me, have been struggling with exhaustion lately, consider whether these verses are resonating deep within you today. Be still. Rest. Come to the Lord, and lay all your struggles down. Every single one.
Be still and know that God is sovereign. Be still and know that our rest is in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
When we can cling to these truths, when we can take comfort in the Lord in this way, we know that what the apostle Paul writes is perfectly true:
“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).
Amen. Thanks be to the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings… now and forever.
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