07/17/2022
When our enemies are marching against us, or problems appear ready to overcome us, we drop to our knees and pray, but quite often we hear only silence. However, God is not impressed with the strength of our adversaries like we are, nor does He fear the impending doom of problems that cause us to quake. He remains calm before calamity because it is He who has made the raging sea, and He who calms it. When facing the armies that assemble against us He remains still, even though our enemies might run at us like prides of lions. And, even if every pride in the land were gathered together as one, He is unimpressed, because they were made by His hand, and can be easily defeated with a single Word from His mouth. Do we doubt that God hears our prayers, or do we mistake His silence as a sign of fear or His inability to help us? Do we lean on Him as completely as we should… with all certainty?
“For thus the Lord said to me: “I will quietly look from my dwelling like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.””
Isaiah 18:4 ESV
I love this verse because in it we are reassured that God is acting, even though His efforts are not apparent to us. The sun never shines that it doesn’t radiate heat, and just like we can’t see its warmth we feel it’s effect, and He is as certain as the fall dews, and morning fogs, we don’t see them coming, but we can depend on them to return every year. In the end, God treats us like Israel, in that He is faithful, and true to His word. Joshua reminds us of this fact in this wonderful verse…
“Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.”
Joshua 21:45 ESV
Our Lord does not fail us either. Though He warms us without our seeing, and comes to defend us as certainly as the fogs and dew of the harvest, which rise up from nowhere to dampen the ground, His Word is true, and will not falter. His silence in the midst of our storms, and calm before the uprising of our enemies, only proves His might, and His complete control over every situation or hardship that we believe to be insurmountable. We should trust in Him by remaining calm when He is calm, and still when He is still. We should listen intently for God’s voice in every storm because it comes like a whisper amidst a howling wind, and we should turn to look at His Holy Mountain because that is where our Hope will arise like a mist. He is the God of Abraham, Joshua, David, and Jacob, and He is our same Faithful God as well.
““Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah”
Psalm 46:10-11 ESV
We should trust as Jesus trusted, and listen to our Savior’s voice as He repeats to us time and again “Fear not!” Though Jesus had a will of His own, He remained convinced in the perfection of God’s will, and yielded completely to it… certain in its goodness despite the quiet, and the calm. When we read of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, we hear only silence from God, yet Jesus believed, and obeyed. His faith was unshaken despite His own desire to avoid the coming passion. Are we as fixed on God’s will as Jesus was, and are we just as certain in the plan our Father has for us… even when met with His silence?
“Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.”
Psalm 33:8-11 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your faithfulness, and the steadfastness of your Holy Word. Thank you Lord for the confidence you give us in prayer, and in all things, because nothing has come to be that you haven’t made it, and nothing can stand if you come against it. Mighty are you when you speak, and whether in a whisper, a shout, or the raging sound of the wind, nothing can stand against you. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who can strip every plant from the earth in a Word, or make the harvest of our fields endless by your quiet desire alone. Praised be your name for answering our prayers, and helping us to see your will as it unfolds in so doing. Merciful are you our God who rescues us from the clutches of calamity, and guides us to the solution of every problem. Your grace, which flows through Jesus is sufficient for us, and in it we find your love, peace, and the calm we pray for in every hard situation we face. Wash us clean with the blood of Christ, and forgive our every sin in Him. Lift us up Father, not for what we have done, but for our perfection in Christ Jesus. It is by His stripes we are healed, and by His death and resurrection that we now live. Praised be your name Father, for Great are you our Lord, and our God who was, and is, and is to come.
Rich Forbes