Psalm 46:10-11 English Standard Version
10 “Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, Amen.
Sometimes in life, things suddenly happen which leaves us feeling dismayed, fearful, and overwhelmed.
Worse than that, these same situations we encounter are out of our control.
Worse than that, these situations which arise can even be life threatening.
Calamity happens before our very eyes, deep within our own bodies and despite how much we protest, all we can do is feel the weakness, wait, watch the clock.
All we can do is experience the true reality of the moment we are locked into.
All we can do is instinctively respond with the coping skills we know best.
This happens when we lose a relationship, a job, or a loved one, through no fault of our own.
Things happen that we don’t understand, and we and our loved ones are left to try to recover and rehabilitate and keep moving forward and pick up the pieces.
When things happen that are out of your control, where do you turn?
I was blindsided recently when my heart nearly reached the point of no return.
That’s far from the first time in my life when I encountered something out of my control, but I was reminded of something important – my life was at stake.
One of my arteries was 99% blocked, five others were in imminent danger.
In an instant, life became a slow and slower and slowed walk as I was admitted to a cardiac telemetry unit floor, hospital for open heart surgery – triple bypass.
Admitted on a Friday for urgent surgery on the following Monday morning.
In a moment frozen in time, my life limited to the confines of a single hospital room because I could not walk any distance without getting short of breath.
The surgeon was going to saw open my sternum, spread my rib cage apart, he was going to quite literally stop my heart for an extended period of time as they harvested veins from my leg, my chest wall to “rework the internal plumbing.”
They would put me on a heart lung machine and a ventilator to support my life.
My life literally hung in the balance of both of those machines working 100%.
Over five hours of surgery,
Something people have always reminded me of throughout all the years and something, with all of my now repaired heart, I want to share with you today.
In matters of life and in matters of death,
When balance is something that seems like something which will never return;
Be still, and know that He is God.
God is the One who is exalted.
Chances are, you can pull from many examples in your own life where things suddenly happened that were very fearful, unfortunate and uncontrollable.
Where we turn when these situations arise says a lot about our character.
We learn more about our faith, where we are strong, and where we are weak.
In the suddenness of the moment, no where else to turn, choices must be made, choices which quite literally physically altering, life altering, life saving choices
We consent, we learn where we place our trust, in whom we place 1000% trust.
If we genuinely surrender our earthly and worldly fears and concerns to God, these bad experiences can be an opportunity to build a greater trust in God.
That’s what I decided to do this week when I had to let go of my friend.
In the past, I would have cried and yelled and questioned God all night long.
Deep down, I would have doubted God could help and blamed Him for all these bad occurrences.
After all, if He loved me, how could He let these things happen to my heart?
This time, however, I decided to be still.
I decided to max trust.
Max trust beyond the skill of the surgeon and his team and the machines keeping me alive even while my heart was literally stopped for 80 minutes.
God had His eyes on my physical heart, His hands around my physical heart.
God went echelons beyond good even when my life was literally in His hands.
There’s still plenty of life in my life to appreciate, even amidst all the bad stuff.
That’s what I fervently pray that you to see in your own life today.
There’s good waiting for you just around the bend, even if you can’t see it yet.
And there’s good that will come out of the bad, even if you don’t believe it yet.
Sometimes we just have to lay ourselves down, be still and know that He is God.
For some practical ways to do that, here are some hard lessons I have learned since July 17, 2023 – the day God had mercy on me and He gave me a new life.
1. Stop Striving
One of my flaws is a desire for exercising too much control over me.
As a doer, there’s a certain way I like to do things and have things done.
I have to practice humility, I have to practice surrender, I have to practice God and remember that my way is not always the best way or even the right way.
That’s especially true when needing to trust God.
Too often have I questioned why He allowed something to happen, what good could come out of a situation only to down the road experience the goodness.
How much evidence do I need to trust?
Sometimes, despite our desire to handle a situation, sometimes God just wants us to lay still, to be still, to rely on Him. In that act of trust, we develop our faith.
2. Pray Without Ceasing
Proverbs 4:23 English Standard Version
23 Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
Naturally, when bad things happen, we think about them.
We question whether situations could have occurred differently, whether bad situations could, can be, undone, and we wonder what to do next for ourselves.
Thinking isn’t bad, but we would be wise not to dwell on the negativity.
Instead, where we ought to dwell is in prayer, talking to God about our angst.
He cares and wants to hear.
Not only that, but prayer helps mold us into the image of Christ.
We invite God to speak to us and protect our hearts and to change our hearts.
3. Be Still and Rest
As we pray and as we stop striving, we should aim for rest.
Losing a friendship, a marriage, a loved one, all of that carries weight.
Losing our spiritual hearts, even worse our physical hearts quite literally carries the full weight and responsibility of our moral and ethical and physical lives.
The more we care, the greater the pain.
We cannot get rid of the pain even if you desire such.
Nor can we so easily dismiss the shortness of breath on physical exertion.
Nor can we undo the situation we are trying to gain control of, balance in.
What you can manage for yourself is resting.
Take time to do something fun and relaxing.
Don’t think over much about the sad stuff, the fearful stuff, the stuff that makes you mad, but set your mind on something distracting and positive.
That includes real physical exercise, reading, and other recreational activities.
4. God’s Ways Will Always Be Greater Than Our Own
Psalm 139:1-6English Standard Version
Search Me, O God, and Know My Heart
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
139 O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
There’s no way for us to be still and to trust God if we have no reason to do so.
While we could and should remind ourselves of the good things He has done in our lives, we should also be ever mindful of what God’s Scripture reminds us of.
The issue we face is that when bad things happen, sometimes we all forget the good, we forget the absolute sovereignty God has over all things good and bad.
The solution, then, is to read, study, pray over and know the truth of Scripture because that’s a time honored, time tested, undeniable truth we cannot dispute.
Psalm 46 says that God is in full, complete command over all things in nature.
So, we can steadfastly believe in God’s authority and sovereignty over our life.
5. Keep Trying, Keep Laboring, Keep Living for God
1 Corinthians 15:57-58 English Standard Version
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
If you’re not used to being still, don’t be surprised when you struggle to do just that. What’s instead important is to keep trying. When you fail once, try again.
After the second time, you try again. God is after our hearts, not perfection.
And thankfully, practice makes perfect.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
1. Breathe on me, Breath of God,
fill me with life anew,
that I may love what thou dost love,
and do what thou wouldst do.
2. Breathe on me, Breath of God,
until my heart is pure,
until with thee I will one will,
to do and to endure.
3. Breathe on me, Breath of God,
till I am wholly thine,
till all this earthly part of me
glows with thy fire divine.
4. Breathe on me, Breath of God,
so shall I never die,
but live with thee the perfect life
of thine eternity.
Edwin Hatch, 1835-1889
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning; is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, Amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 