On Wallin Pond

I often share about the all-sufficiency of Christ and how He meets my every need. Once again, I have evidence that He is and He does, indeed.

One evening this past week, I received an email from someone who indicated something that I was not expecting would happen. I was totally unprepared and unsuspecting of this information. Consequently, I was very unsettled but tried to commit it to the Lord and went to bed. Predictably, I was unable to relax and was awake most of the night, wrestling in prayer, committing this problem to the Lord, thinking about it, mulling it over. I could not NOT think about it...it was all consuming and overwhelming. 

In the morning, as I was preparing for my day, in desperation I asked the Lord for a word to calm my heart. In my heart, I heard the words: "Stand and see." I looked up that phrase in the concordance and found two instances where that was spoken.

The first one I looked up was 1 Samuel 12:16 where Samuel is scolding the people of Israel for demanding a king. He says to the people: "Now then, stand still and see this great thing the LORD is about to do before your eyes! Is it not wheat harvest now? I will call upon the LORD to send thunder and rain. And you will realize what an evil thing you did in the eyes of the LORD when you asked for a king."

Then the Lord did indeed show His mighty power and great strength by sending thunder and rain. 

The other incident was recorded in Exodus 14 when the Israelites were at the Red Sea and saw the Egyptians coming up behind them. They were terrified and cried out to Moses. Then Moses told the people: "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." (Exodus 14:13-14)

This was such a blessing to me...a wonderful reminder of God's deliverance of His people. They needed only to be still and watch Him work. This beautiful picture helped me calm down and trust that God was going to work out my own situation. He has promised to take care of us.

I have only to be still. I never saw myself as a worrier. But the situation I'm in has revealed to me that I am indeed so prone to restlessness and worry. I leaned a lot more heavily on Andy than I realized. If he would talk to me about issues, I would always be the one to say, "God is sovereign...He will work it out." In essence, I let Andy do the "worrying" for me. But I no longer have him to talk things over with - I feel the weight of responsibility.

But I long to be still, to have a quiet heart, to rest in the knowledge of God's almighty hand in my affairs. 

Psalm 37:7 ~ "Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him..."

Psalm 46:10 ~ "Be still and know that I am God..."

Isaiah 30:15 ~ "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength."

Being still gives us the time and opportunity to contemplate God, what He is like and how He has worked in our lives in the past. Knowing Him gives us the assurance that things are in His competent hands.

Being still, though, is next to impossible for a "doer" like me. I need the Spirit's help and Jesus living through me, letting Him quiet my heart and trusting myself to His care.

Andy's condition continues to deteriorate. His tremors are out of control. If I take his hand to try to stop the tremor, instead of my stopping him, he controls my own arm so that it feels like it might just shake off. I don't know how he can stand it. Actually, it is very frustrating to him and causes anxiety. He's restless and can't sit or lie down for long. I don't think any position is comfortable for him.

I long to relieve his misery but I'm powerless. I've been reading Matthew's gospel to him, about all the miracles Jesus performed. I can't help but think that if we lived in Bible times, I'd take Andy to Jesus for healing. He is the Great Physician; He heals all our diseases. But even in Jesus' day, the people He healed all eventually died. 

So we look forward to eternal healing, where "our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." (Romans 8:18) 

"Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." (2 Corinthians 5:2-4)

Death will be swallowed up by life!  Eternal life - life as it was meant to be, forever and ever. No more sickness or ill health...fully alive in the presence of our Savior. Hallelujah!