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www.truthworks.com          11 MAR 03          devotion archive

BE STILL

I tell you the Truth,

I began writing this devotion Saturday.  I’ve rewritten parts of it because of events that took place Monday.

For all the young readers, I’d love to tell you that life becomes much simpler as you grow older.  I’d love to tell you that life is nothing but fun and happiness as it unfolds.   But that’s not really the truth.  Life becomes complex and requires more faith, more tenacity and more hope.

For those of you who’ve been on the mailing list for a while, you know about my father.  He was diagnosed with brain cancer in December.  He’s had a tumor removed and is at the mid way point of radiation treatment.

My father is unsaved and this past Thursday, my pastor visited him in the hospital.  And once again, dad rejected the offer of salvation through faith by the grace of Jesus.

I had high hopes for a different report.  I expected to hear good news.  I’d had enough bad news in the past few months and expected God’s Spirit to do a miraculous work last Thursday.  But it didn’t happen as I expected.  It wasn’t the news I had hoped for.

Then yesterday (Monday), my father had two seizures, the second one sending him in to cardiac arrest, which he was revived from.  After a cat scan, it was discovered that another fast growing tumor was found in the right temple area of his brain.  Again, the prognosis looks pale.  He was conscious when I left him last night.

I’ve heard it from the pulpit, from books and from the Bible itself.  Pray in faith, expect God to answer and thank Him for the things He is about to do.  It’s almost like a formula for getting what we want.  Of course, the word tells us that God intends to bless us and not hurt us and that He wants to give us the desires of our hearts.

So why didn’t God give me the desire of my heart last Thursday.  Why can’t God just one time work the way I want Him to?  Maybe you’ve asked that same question.  Why doesn’t God answer my prayers when I ask the way I ask?  Is it sin in my life?  Have I been disobedient?  Has God done all He really can do?  Do my prayers in certain matters even mean anything?

When asking myself these questions, I was reminded of one of my favorite verses from the Psalms.

Psalms 46:
10
Be still, and know that I am God

I went back to that one verse because I wanted to really see what God was telling us in being still.  Maybe this didn’t apply to me.  What I found was not only comfort, but I found a place to go, a place to dwell in.

Psalm 46:
1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
Selah

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

7 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah

8 Come and see the works of the LORD ,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
he burns the shields with fire.
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 Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah

Three times, the author ends a segment with “Selah.”  Selah reminds us to pause, contemplate and think about what we’ve just read.  Be still.  And know that the God of creation holds life in his hands.

Be still.  And know that the earth can crumble from beneath our feet, yet our God surrounds us with his glory.

Be still.  And know that He allows things to take place, yet remains in total control.

Be still.  And know that He is God.

In everything we face, we have to come to the realization that we are not in control.  Yet in everything we face, we need to realize that our God is Almighty, Omnipotent, and Omnipresent.  He is our fortress when the world is crashing down around us.  Perhaps your world is in an uproar too.

Please join me.  And be still.

Your Servant,

Randy Hunt


randy@truthworks.com
2TIM 1:7

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Copyright © 2002 Truth Works Publishing. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise specified, all scripture quotations taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV.
Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
All rights reserved.

   

 


"I Tell You The Truth"
by Randy Hunt

Memorial Baptist Church


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