Wait, What? Learning to Be Still, While You’re Waiting on God to MoveSample

The Israelites had just come out of Egypt. They had just watched God part the Red Sea as they walked on dry land RIGHT THROUGH IT. They had just witnessed a MIRACLE, a prayer that was answered in a mighty way. They had experienced God’s promised provision in a way that they couldn’t have even imagined.  As they looked back, they watched God destroy their enemies but as they looked ahead – they started to complain about the wilderness in front of them.

They didn’t know how long that part of the journey was going to last but God had promised that they would go to the land flowing with milk and honey (for my fellow friends with food allergies, this truly does sound like heaven). And they still complained.

How often do you complain about your current situation instead of recalling how God has answered you in the past? Ouch.

We forget how God has come through so often in our past because we become so focused on what we don’t have in the present. We start to act out of our emotions (like fear or panic) instead of facts or rationality. We start to view other situations through the lens of our waiting (impatience, loss of hope, negativity). We try and fill that lack of movement with movement in other areas like emotional eating or emotional shopping (*adds to cart) because we get antsy. 

And then our hearts get hard because we are so impatient.

In Psalm 95, God said “Do not harden your hearts like they (the Israelites) did” or we will be like them and NOT ENTER REST. God’s not talking about a nap. He’s talking about REST. Emotional and spiritual REST. Not angst, busyness, hustling, worrying, fretting. 

That rest doesn’t come when we’re complaining about our circumstances. It doesn’t come when we try and control the situation. 

It only comes when we stop, sit still, and trust that God is making a way through to the other side.