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TONIGHT’S SCRIPTURE
“Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him” (Psalm 37:7, NIV).
SOMETHING TO PONDER
I spent five years in a career I didn’t love. Can you relate? Maybe it was cleaning teeth, selling homes, or working as a social worker. For others, maybe it was attending college, working at your local fast food chain, or making less than minimum wage as a student worker. Nevertheless, I think we all know what it feels like to be in one place in life when we really want to be in another.
For me, that career was teaching. I knew deep down that God was using me, but I also knew that I was created for something more, something different. That constant tension between where I was and where I wanted to be ate at me day after day. Why? Because I hated waiting. I mean, who does, but really, waiting, slow, and patience have often never been in my vocabulary. And I have to wonder: Are they in yours?
In Psalm 37:7, we are told that waiting on the Lord often requires us to be still. Although I’ve struggled to be still in my daily life, I’ve come to learn that the best way I hear God is to slow down. To pause. To exchange my plan and timeline for a God who knows better than I do. To cease from striving and be still before someone who is in control. Because, as hard as I work, try, or pray, that person in control isn’t me. And I have to be okay with that.
As fall turns into winter and darkness comes upon our land, we can prepare our hearts for a season that births the beauty of stillness and hope in Christ’s arrival. This coming Advent season doesn’t just ask us to be still, it asks us to surrender our hopes, dreams, expectations, and timeline, in exchange for something that we know and trust He has that is better. It’s learning to be still, yes, absolutely, but it’s also being still so that we can wait patiently on Him and His timing. We don’t slow down to be in control. We slow down to hear and obey His sovereignty.
Stillness and quiet seasons can make a lot of people uncomfortable. I know it often has me. My thoughts grow too loud when I’m not busy and multitasking. But the Lord has impressed upon my heart that it’s okay to lean into this discomfort as long as I reside in Him. Rest in Him. Pause with Him. Wait on Him. And you have the option to do the same. The most beautiful things in life have come when hope is silent. So we will wait with hopeful expectation.