Be Still and Wait

Wait!  Stop!  Hold on!  Be Still!  Have you ever had a day in your life where you just wish everything would stop or at least slow down?  Have you ever wanted to just pause life and take a long nap?  Or, have the entire world hold still until you get all the stuff done that you feel needs to be done, then you hit the play button and you are super refreshed and prepared for the day…but, life doesn't have a pause button does it?  Life may not have a pause button, but we do.  We can’t stop life or control the people and circumstances around us, but we can slow ourselves down and wait for the Lord.  Be still and know that He is God and we are not.  Hold on to the promises that He has given us no matter what seems to be swirling around our lives.  Stop trying to control the world and let God rule His creation, you wouldn't help Him much anyway.  Wait for the Lord and when you don’t think you can wait any longer…wait a little more.  Listen to the following passages and just stop for a moment after reading them, take a breath, and, well – wait!

Psalm 46:10-11

“Be still, and know that I am God.
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth!”
¹¹ The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Psalm 27:14

Wait for the Lord;
    be strong, and let your heart take courage;
    wait for the Lord!

Psalm 37:6-9

Commit your way to the Lord;
    trust in him, and he will act.
⁶ He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
    and your justice as the noonday.

⁷ Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
    fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
    over the man who carries out evil devices!

⁸ Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
    Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
⁹ For the evildoers shall be cut off,
    but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.

Psalm 40:1-3

I waited patiently for the Lord;
    he inclined to me and heard my cry.
² He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
    out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
    making my steps secure.
³ He put a new song in my mouth,
    a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
    and put their trust in the Lord.

2 Chronicles 20:17

¹⁷ You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the Lord will be with you.”

Romans 8:24-25

²⁴ For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

And I could go on…but I think you get the idea that we are supposed to wait for the Lord.  I encourage you to do that now, wherever you are and whatever you are doing.  Stop, hold on, be patient, and wait for just a moment…Let God be God and let Him control the universe and let us trust in Him! 

There is a great song that talks about this very thing…it is an older song probably redone many times, but I like the version by Steven Curtis Chapmen…here is a link to the youtube video…enjoy.  https://youtu.be/BgaHaioAjyg

Philippians 4

Last week the youth and I were studying Philippians 4 and thought this was a great passage.  So, I encourage you to read this passage and really digest it.  Think it over and all its implications.  Maybe even print it out and underline stuff, write on it, circle things, etc.  Meditate on this passage today. 

Philippians 4:4-9

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. ⁵ Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; ⁶ do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸ Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.⁹ What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Things to think about:

·         How can you rejoice always?  Do you think we are supposed to smile and shout for joy in our sorrows?  Are we to never be sad?  Can you rejoice and be depressed at the same time?  How is this possible?

·         If you are underlining sentences underline that short phrase in verse 5 “the Lord is at hand…”  What do you think Paul is trying to say with this bold statement?

·         Do you think the command to not be anxious is a command that if you don’t follow you are sinning?  Is anxiety a sin? How do we fight against anxiety?  (Look in the verses immediately following the command to not be anxious.)

·         Read the text again and see the repetitive nature of this paragraph…what themes or truths are repeated?  Is that important?

Have a great week!

Jesus Marveled...

What surprises Jesus?  Strange question I know, but there are only a few passages where Jesus seems surprised while here on earth.  There are a lot of passages about people marveling at, being shocked by, surprised by, and bewildered by Jesus, but how many times does it say that Jesus marveled or was shocked?  That may be a fun study to pursue, but for today I just want to look at one such passage.

Background:

·         Jesus has been doing ministry now for a few months now, maybe even a few years when he returns home to teach and spread the good news of the Kingdom of God.

·         Jesus has by now healed hundreds if not thousands of people.  He has performed incredible miracles including in the chapter before the one we are going to read he raises a girl from the dead!  He calmed the storm, casts out demons, heals the blind, the sick, and much more.

·         Then he goes home…let’s read what surprises Jesus…

Mark 6:1-10

He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. ² And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? ³ Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. ⁴ And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” ⁵ And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. ⁶ And he marveled because of their unbelief.

And he went about among the villages teaching.

Things to think about:

·         Jesus marveled at their unbelief…why?

·         Notice that the people there saw miracles.  They understood that Jesus taught with authority.  They wonder where he got his power and wisdom…yet they doubt him because they know his family.  Why do you think that makes them doubt?

·         How many of us think along the same lines when we read God’s Word and know Jesus can do amazing things, forgive any sinner, heal any wound, bring enemies together, and more…then in our own lives we say, “Well, I don’t think Jesus can do that…”  “He can’t forgive me because I am too bad…He can’t heal this relationship because it is too far gone…He can’t help…”  And Jesus sits back in heaven and marvels at our unbelief! 

·         Their unbelief came from their knowledge of Jesus’ family – he was too human for them that they doubted God could become a man or that this “man” from our town could be anything more than any of us…Where does our unbelief come from?  Time difference since Jesus did these amazing things in the Bible about 2,000 years ago – maybe He doesn’t do those things today?  Science?  Cultural pressure?  What?  What causes us to doubt the all-powerful creator of all things? 

·         There is another story where Jesus marveled, but this time at such a strong faith. 

Matthew 8:5-13

 ⁵ When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, ⁶ “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” ⁷ And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” ⁸ But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. ⁹ For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” ¹⁰ When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. ¹¹ I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, ¹² while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”¹³ And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.

May we be people that cause Jesus to marvel at our belief rather than our unbelief!

What are you afraid of?

What are you afraid of?  Spiders?  Mice?  The boogie man?  Really, what keeps you awake at night?  There are many things in this world that can cause us to be afraid.  Fear is actually a good thing sometimes – it keeps us safe.  But, there are times when fear can get the best of us and keep us from the great things the Lord has for us.  Think about this story for a minute…Do you remember the Israelite people after they escaped from Egypt and the Lord was leading them to the promised land?  After they had received the Law from God Moses led them up to the border of the promised land and they sent out 12 spies to see how amazing the country was.  The report they got back was both good and bad.  Yes, the country was great and had many crops and great places to live, but there were fortified cities and “giant” living there…Here is what they said,

Numbers 13:25-33

²⁵ At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. ²⁶ And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷ And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. ²⁸ However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. ²⁹ The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”

³⁰ But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” ³¹ Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” ³² So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. ³³ And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

The people’s fear of the inhabitants of the land prevented them from enjoying the gift that God was going to give them.  God said that He would fight for them and win this land, but the people doubted and let fear win the day.  They spent the next 40 years wandering around in the desert until they all died, so their kids could go on and conquer the land that God wanted to give to Israel.  And that is exactly what their kids did.  Led by their new leader Joshua the people of Israel went up into that country and despite the giant people and huge fortified cities the Israelites totally destroyed them and won the day. 

Joshua 11:16-23

¹⁶ So Joshua took all that land, the hill country and all the Negeb and all the land of Goshen and the lowland and the Arabah and the hill country of Israel and its lowland ¹⁷ from Mount Halak, which rises toward Seir, as far as Baal-gad in the Valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. And he captured all their kings and struck them and put them to death. ¹⁸ Joshua made war a long time with all those kings. ¹⁹ There was not a city that made peace with the people of Israel except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. They took them all in battle. ²⁰ For it was the Lord's doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed, just as the Lord commanded Moses.

²¹ And Joshua came at that time and cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua devoted them to destruction with their cities. ²² There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the people of Israel. Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some remain. ²³ So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses. And Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments. And the land had rest from war.

Things to think about:

·         What changed in the 40 years between the time when the people were afraid and couldn’t fight and when Joshua totally destroyed these scary giants with their big fortified cities?  Did the Anakim get any shorter?  Did the walls shrink?  Did their swords and horses and chariots fall apart?  I don’t think so.  (for example Goliath was a descendent of these Anakim and was from Gath and he was like 9ft something and a huge dude…imagine a whole city filled with Goliaths!)  What about the Israelites?  Did the Israelites grow?  Did they develop a new secret weapon?  No, I don’t think so either.  What changed?  The faith of the Israelites that God was stronger than any fear they may have. 

·         When you look at all the things you are afraid of – those things may not ever change, spiders still bite, cliffs are still high off the ground, your kids still may get sick, you may give a horrible speech and look foolish – but, don’t let fear win the day – have faith – and let God win the day!

·         Do you believe that God is stronger than any fear you may have?  A question to think about this week…