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When you’re tempted to think your waiting is wasted, be still.
TONIGHT’S SCRIPTURE
“The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still” (Exodus 14:14, NIV).
SOMETHING TO PONDER
It was the fifteenth rejection I’d received. A year after resigning from teaching to pursue writing full-time, I thought for sure God had lined up a slam dunk: A traditional book contract for yours truly. And yet, that hasn’t been quite the path.
Over the last 8 months, my book proposal has been sent to over 17 traditional publishing houses. I’ve been rejected for the size of my platform, not having a degree in mental health, or writing a book for Gen Z. It’s been discouraging, to say the least.
But after 4 months, I thought I’d found the one. This publisher asked for extra sample chapters, and I’d put in the work. When it went to the final publishing board meeting, however, the one where contract offers are made, it was shot down. I was devastated.
Sitting on the couch, tears fell down my cheeks. I wanted to run away, hide, and throw in the towel. Yet, something within whispered these words in Exodus 14:14. Be still and know. Be still and know what? I asked God. Did you bring me to this place just to fail? To not make it as an author?
But the more I asked God these questions, the more He whispered to me to meditate on this verse. And so, I did. I sat in the silence with one hand open to receive and the other lying down to let go. I let go of my expectations. My timeline. My plan of events. I had to trust that His way was better.
Cracking open my Bible and Bible commentary, I learned that to “be still” means to cease from striving. It’s the same word used in Ecclesiastes 2:22, “What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun?” I also learned that “cease,” can mean to sink down, drop, relax, withdraw, refrain, forsake, let go, be quiet, or show oneself slack. It’s not giving up, but rather quite the opposite.
