SITTING IN SILENCE

When God doesn’t give you clear answers, do you become busy lighting your own fires and making your own backup plans?

I know I’m experiencing spiritual breakthrough because when I'm not receiving answer after answer it is becoming easier to be content in the silence. Not always, but I am increasingly enjoying simply sitting silently in His presence, knowing He will care for me. And there are more and more times when I am content not knowing anything more.

Psalm 47:10a, NASB says, “Cease striving and know that I am God.” There could not be a better way to say it. If you don’t trust God to be God, you will always be striving. You will always be trying to figure it out and make something happen. Having to know and wanting to be in control means you think you could do a better job being God.

There is unspeakable peace in not having to know the answers because you know and trust God. There is actual joy in silence. When I receive that joy, it's because I can hear God saying, “Relax. Don’t worry. I’ve got it covered.” There are times I can hear Him say, “Hang on. Hang back. I just want to sit with you for a while and hold your hand, just you and Me. Don’t be in such a hurry. There will be plenty of time for you to do what I want you to do. Right now, I just want to sit with you.”

It hasn’t been an easy road for an obsessive controller like me to get to this point. But for the most part, I have. I am like a little child who doesn’t have to know anything, except that she is loved by her Father and she knows He will take care of her.

The most intimate place you can come to in your relationship with God is not when He tells you everything. It is when He doesn’t have to. Just “Cease striving and know that He is God.”