I am here to tell you two different stories. One is about a girl that a year and a half ago was going and doing it all. Literally. She led weekly Monday night bible study for a group of girls. She was a residential leader. She was dating a sweet godly man that she adored. She was on leadership at her local Baptist Student Ministry and she enjoyed every moment with her group of friends. She loved the Lord so much and had quite a bit of fun recovering from a previous summer of traveling around the world. This girl was consumed and overwhelmed with the mercy and power of the Lord. Despite her busy schedule, she was still in the deepest part of her soul whenever she met with the Lord.
The other girl? It was a year and a half later and life was different. She was recently married to a man that she had known only about a year. She loved him dearly and their life together but boy did they take the hard road, and not the one God called them to at times. She was about to begin her final semester of college with a different major, but none the less she was excited. Due to being recently wed, she had so much time off during Christmas break because her husband was forced to work through the holidays. Yet, despite all the sweet blessings and changes, this girl could not get still. Maybe it was because of unknown illness that she had yet to address the root of, maybe it was because she couldn't bring herself to open the bible due to being a new wife with a house that stayed dirty. Or maybe, just maybe it was because her soul did not rest easy with God.
Have you picked up yet? I am both the first and second girl, but neither of them describe me today. To put together the pieces, I did not marry that boy that I adored so much, God had different plans. I am so thankful though that I was in a season of hearing God then, because selfishly I did not want to give up the life I had in the first paragraph at the time. On the other hand, my husband is absolutely wonderful and a God-send. He loves me well and loves the Lord more. We are both now so restored and thankful for that hard road we took, it has been a bittersweet blessing to see how God desires intimacy even in the moment that running sounds so much better. My calling to be a wife to Chris is life-long and such proof that God gives us the desires of our heart.
The difference in the three different seasons of life all boils down to being still.
Not still physically as time makes no difference. My dear, do not pretend that because you are busy you cannot be still with God. Jesus did it every day and he was busy bearing the burdens of the world, unlike us who simply make it day by day pleasing the flesh.
Do not assume that it rests on the man whom you date because both men were and are wonderful men of the Lord with different struggles but a central focus on God.
Do not think it is dependent on good deeds or that because you do and go and live for ministry means that your soul will learn to rest. Romans 1:7 is correct in saying “He who through faith is righteous shall live” just as Timothy Keller is correct in saying that “Yes and he who through preaching is righteous shall die every Sunday.”
The difference dear one is that to be still and know God is a command, a necessity for life with God, it is not optional nor easy but it must be done. It is now one month since I sat there not resting easy with God, and today I can say my soul abides with the deepest parts of my Savior. Why? Because a couple wise women told me what I am telling you. Then Jesus affirmed all their words to be true.
The call to “Be still and know that I am God” in Psalm 46:10 relies on our souls, minds and hearts believing that what Jesus did on the cross was enough. So much so that God now looks on those that in their very being rejected him and sees his own beloved children. You, oh child of God, with every fiber of your body stand in front of God, so loved, so adored, so cherished and so redeemed that no amount of sin nor ministry will ever change God’s desire to be intimately close to you.
If this is true, as I believe it to be, that must mean that the difference in the three seasons of life I have reflected on is not what I did, how I did it or when. It must mean that the difference is my choice to tell the enemy to leave me alone when I am in that solace place that my knees touch the ground and my soul is touched by my Savior, then and only then, does my soul find rest in the Lord and I am at once, still.
