What part of "Be still" did you not understand?

Mankind designs cruel torture and calls it medicine.

Chemotherapy kills bad cells and good ones. Surgery causes injury to repair injury. Physical therapy moves muscles that hurt to make them hurt more so they'll ultimately hurt less. It's a bizarre science, full of contradictions and oxymorons.

 
 This week I began my prayer time with a confession.





Busyness and competing priorities had clamored for my attention, enticing me, like Jack of the beanstalk fame, to exchange what was precious for a handful of beans. Each morning my prayer time had grown shorter, more haphazard, and less focused. Instead of entering into a dialogue with my Father, I had settled for throwing  half-formed prayers at him in passing, like a beauty queen throwing candy to children in a Christmas parade.

What drew me back from my helter skelter approach to my quiet time was a growing loneliness for his presence. Like the child of a traveler separated too long from the father she loved, I missed him. My prayers were ineffective, and life started to unravel along the edges.

Be still and know that I am God, he whispered into my ear.

"I'm sorry, Lord. Forgive me," I whispered back.

And later that day, my doctor wrote an order for the traction device.

Fifteen pounds of weight, attached by a pulley to the door on one end and my head on the other. Thirty minutes, twice a day. Designed to relieve the pressure of a pinched nerve,
it would successfully immobilize my busy self.

Be still and know that I am God.

Really?

"But I got it, Lord," I argued on the way home. "I'd like to point out that it was me who came to you and confessed that I haven't been spending enough time in prayer."

It's not punishment; it's potential. Just think what we can accomplish as we meet together in prayer for 30 minutes twice a day. Just think!


"He who prays much, accomplishes much," Leonard Ravenhill observed.

"Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed," (Mark 1:35).

I wonder how many other "inconveniences" I'd view differently if I stopped complaining and trusted God instead?

How about you? If you're facing something you'd never choose for yourself, will you ask God to help you trust him to use it for good in  your life?

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purposes" (Romans 8:28).




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