Where are you?  I’m genuinely afraid for my life and the lives of those I love, Jacob might say.

Have you ever felt that way?  Afraid for your own life or the life and safety of your loved ones?

Genesis 32:9 Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ 10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups. 11 Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. 12 But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.'”

Fear is a formidable enemy of stillness.  It can keep us up at night with worry. It is unfortunately a most committed companion.  We can go to bed with fear on our minds and wake up with it in the morning.  It can cling to us throughout the day and consume our every spare thought.  It can infiltrate even moments of contentment as a dart to a target or a dagger to the heart.

Fear is not an unreasonable thing.  Fear is a perfectly understandable reaction to threats against your physical person or your emotional well-being.  We don’t see it, but it is often most active in the unseen world of our spiritual lives.  For that reason, fear will always get in the way of stillness.

Jacob was afraid, but look what he did: Jacob became still and prayed.  And then he remembered who God is.

Be Still.  In spite of fear, be still and pray.  I’m listening.

Be Still.  No enemy has seized you that I, the LORD, have not already conquered.

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Be Still and Know that I AM God. Deuteronomy 31:8 “The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

Questions for reflection:

1. Did Jesus give in to fear?  Why not?
2. What does fear suggest about faith?
3. Why does God command us so often in Scripture not to be afraid?  What role does our trust in Him play?

Yesterday in our 2014 Lenten Devotional series entitled Be Still and Know that I AM God, we saw that Leah, Rachel’s sister, wanted a gold medal in the Most Competitive Fertile Woman in the World games.  Rachel wasn’t going to let her have it without a fight.

Where are you, Rachel?

I’m in depression, God. 

I’m jealous of my sister’s ability to have babies.  I’m competitive and coming up short.  I’m striving every way I can and still have no child to call my own.  I am barren and I’m brokenhearted about it.  I’m even blaming my husband.

Genesis 30: 1 When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!”  2 Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”

When we are competitive for the wrong reasons, we don’t rejoice with others and their successes.  We envy them and resent their joy.  We see only winners and losers.  No one wants to be the loser.  Being a loser is depressing.

Depression is a great killer of stillness.  It churns the mind. 

It’s a powerful force that refuses to be still. 

It can be centrifugal, forcing us into the outer world to deal with it in relation to others.  In a positive sense, it can become compassion for others who are suffering.  But more often, perhaps, negatively as striving, scheming, or spreading our woes to others.

• Weighing others down with our problems that we’d rather coddle than cure.
• Anger that we take out on those we love and those we don’t.
• Bitterness that turns relationships into dumping grounds and creates a graveyard of loneliness in a garden of friendship that used to sustain life and joy.

Depression can also be centripetal, spinning and spinning, forcing all our emotions inward into one consolidated lump buried deep in our core.  Depression sits there and weighs on us.  It ferments and grows, refusing to be comforted.  It becomes the friend we never wanted and the house guest that refuses to leave.

Where are you?  Are you like Rachel, trying and trying and spinning and spinning and getting nowhere?

Be Still. Are you spinning inward?  I need your decision to stop before I can change your direction.  I’m not a puppeteer and I love you too much to override your will. You must decide to stop and look to Me.

Be Still.  Are you spinning outward, but in a negative way?  Some things need more than human effort.  That’s why you particularly need My touch to show you how to live with joy even in difficult circumstances. 

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  When you are still in My presence, when you seek Me, the desires of your heart will be conformed to look more like mine.  Sometimes human desires and effort get in the way of what you really need.

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  I don’t ask you to approve of My plans for you.  But when you reach the other side, the place I alone can see at present, you will know that I AM God and will have done right by you all along, even if it’s not what you wanted right now because you couldn’t see the better things I had planned for all eternity.

Questions for reflection:

1. Everyone experiences depressing circumstances from time to time.  It’s part of living in a broken world.  What direction do you spin when depression hits?
2. Do you know someone who is depressed, perhaps like Rachel because of infertility, or perhaps feeling like there is no hope?  How might you help that person to have hope?
3. The desire for babies is strong among women and infertility is a sorrow of immense proportions.  What might be some ways for infertile women to spin their sorrow outward to helping others and having that nurturing relationship they desire?

As I’m writing, we just finished watching the Winter Olympics in Sochi and saw athletes representing nations and competing for gold, silver, and bronze medals.  Sometimes, there was good sportsmanship and it was congratulations all around for people doing their personal best.  Sometimes, like at the end of the men’s speed skating competition, there was a little attempt at grabbing at the person ahead to try to pull him back in order to gain position for oneself.  That’s considered unsportsmanlike.

Competitions can bring out the best and the worst in people.  When viewed as “a rising tide raises all ships” or each person inspiring another to his or her personal best, competition can be wonderful.  It’s the training that makes us all better.

But competition can be an enemy of stillness. 

It can turn into striving to be better than someone else.  Not just to do better and win, but we internalize it to being better.  By internalizing it—the competitive impulse for greater value and worth, the desire to gain position with God or with others, or the inner drive to beat someone arising from a selfish and jealous nature—all of these can drive a wedge between our hearts and stillness.

Such is the case with Leah.  She was given in marriage to Jacob when he had worked to secure her sister, Rachel.  As the older daughter, she was forced into a deception by her father Laban and from that point forward, she felt like the lesser wife of Jacob.  She felt unwanted.   Scripture says “Leah was not loved” and that “Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah.”

Genesis 29:31 When the LORD saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. 32 Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, “It is because the LORD has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.”

It wasn’t Leah’s fault that she was given in marriage to Jacob in a deceitful way.  Her reaction to the situation, however, showed that her motivations arose out of a competitive and jealous spirit.

Where are you, Leah?  Only after her fourth son, Judah, did she stop having children.  Only then does Scripture say in Genesis 29:35 “She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, ‘This time I will praise the LORD.’ So she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.”  This time…I will praise the LORD.

Leah’s focus of the first 3 sons was human-centered, jealous, and competitive.  You can almost hear her taunting Rachel as a result of her fertility and Rachel’s infertility.  The fourth son finally prompted Leah to think about praising God.

Leah’s whole life was consumed with a competitive spirit and she missed out on the stillness of God so long as she competed for gold in the event called Old Testament Reproduction.

What about you?  Where are you?  What kind of competitive spirit do you have?

Be Still.  Take time to remember Who is the giver of all good things and how I desire to do good to all people.  Here’s what My Word says to you:  “But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matthew 5:44-45)

Be Still. Don’t compare yourself to others.  I love them too.

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  I want you to take your eyes off of you and off of them.  Instead, look to Me to be your very best.  I AM the reward at the end of the race.

Questions for reflection:

1. What types of life events bring out your competitive spirit?
2. What kind of competitive spirit do you have: one that seeks to raise all ships or one that seeks to be the best?
3. How does this verse point to stillness?  Philippians 4:12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Maybe you’ve experienced the same thing I have: Wondering whether what you think you’re hearing from God is actually from God.  Abraham must have felt that way. 

You want me to do WHAT?

Where are you, Abraham?  Are you so in love with the promise and enthralled with the blessing that you’ve forgotten what it’s like to love the LORD your God? Let’s do a heart check.

Where are you?  Are you in danger of substituting the blessing for the Blesser?  Trading the Giver for the gift?  Trusting in the provision rather than the Provider?  Here’s a test so that you can see where you are.

I can’t even begin to imagine what must have been going through Abraham’s mind when he was asked to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah.  Somewhere along the way, did he wonder if he heard right?  Somewhere on the journey did he stop and think about God’s character and whether what God was asking him to do was consistent?  How do you trust in God when He’s asking “Where are you?”  And how do you continue trusting when you’re thinking, “OK, God, where are YOU?”

Don’t we often ask God where He is?  Or why didn’t He stop this or that from happening?

Where are you?  Are you standing in a place of trust or doubt?  Is your trust in something or someone God has given to you?  Are you holding so tight to a person, a ministry, a thing, or a dream that maybe it’s to the detriment of your relationship with God?

Be Still.  I’m just testing you so that you’ll know I AM still here with you.  You don’t need to ask where I AM.

Be Still.  I haven’t stepped off the throne or gone on a vacation.  I’m not asleep.  I’m very well aware of the whole thing, not just the parts you can see, but how all the parts fit together today, tomorrow, and the next.

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  I AM the God who provides, who gives, who blesses and who saves.

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  I want you to know Me.  Because when you truly know who I AM, you won’t ask where I AM.

Questions for reflection:

1. Scripture doesn’t tell us Abraham doubted at all.  In fact, it says, Genesis 22:8 “Abraham answered, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’”  How would you categorize that response?
2. Scripture also says, Hebrews 11:17 “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ 19 Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.”  How can reasoning show faith?
3. Is your default position cynicism, skepticism, or doubt?  Is your default position the same with man as it is with God?  Bring your honest answer before the LORD and ask Him to help you to Be Still and Know that He is God.

Where are you? 

I’m in a place of lonely despair and I’m crying.

I’ve been kicked out of my home.  I’m feeling rejected and alone.

Countless Americans can relate to that every day. 

As I write, there are dozens of people I know who are facing this because of divorce, breakups, illness, abuse, etc.  They are almost always devastated, frequently scared, and painfully lonely.

That’s how Hagar was feeling after Abraham—with God’s permission—sent her away (Genesis 21:1-20).  How could God allow such a thing to happen?  God doesn’t need for me to defend Him, but sometimes God’s ways don’t make sense to us.

God has been known to remove what we’re relying upon, forcing us to stillness and dependence upon Him.  But it can get lonely. 

It may sound counterintuitive because it seems like it should be easier to be still when we’re alone, but being alone puts us on a battleground for confronting the enemy of loneliness.  Yes, there are fewer distractions when one is alone, but it’s also a vulnerable place.  Remember that the one thing God proclaimed as “not good” in Creation was Adam’s being alone. (Genesis 2:18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”)

We were meant to be in relationship with others, in community.  Why?  Because we support one another and ultimately, being in relationship with others points us to the relationship we have with God.  When we are alone, the temptation is to focus on the loneliness instead of on the relationships we cannot see.  With God, are you ever truly alone?

Be Still.  Bring your fears to Me.

Be Still.  Rest in Me.  I will provide what you need.

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  I desire a relationship with you and for you never to feel alone.  I AM with you.

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  I have a plan and I have heard your cries.  I love you and will not leave you alone.  I will provide for you, yes, even in the wilderness.

Questions for reflection:

1. Read Genesis 21:1-20  What reasons might God have had for permitting Sarah to send Hagar away and telling Abraham to assent to it?
2. What relationships do you desire most?
3. What is your reaction to loneliness?  Be honest with yourself about any sins that have their roots in coping with loneliness.
4. What strategies can you take to respond to loneliness in God-fearing ways?

Do you ever feel like life has passed you by?  Where are you? At the winter of your life with more days behind you than ahead of you?  Or perhaps exhausted from the Christian journey and feeling completely spent?  Do you feel like you’re old and probably of no use anymore?

Sometimes, these feelings are from a lifetime of struggle, but at other times they can resemble an excuse.  I remember back when I was in a Garden Club, the older ladies encouraged the younger women to do all the work because they felt it was part of the club’s seasonal cycle.  The older ladies had paid their dues when they were younger and did all the work back then.  Now it was someone else’s turn.  The older ladies felt too old to be on the field, preferring to let the parade go on and just watch from the stands.

Abraham and Sarah might have felt that way.  Too old to have kids.  Their lifetime had been spent childless and they’d come to accept that the parade has passed them by.  So when God tells them their lives still have purpose, they were surprised. 

Feelings of uselessness and resignation are enemies of stillness.  Excuses are what we sometimes offer in order to not feel so bad about giving in to these enemies.  You can lay these feelings down at the Cross of the One who calls you every moment to a life of useful service and purpose.

Romans 4:16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring– not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed– the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. 18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead– since he was about a hundred years old– and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

Are you persuaded in that way? 

Like Abraham, are you fully persuaded that God has the power to do His will? 

Be Still.  Listen in hope to hear what I want to do in your life.  I’m supplying your ongoing breath for a reason.

Be Still.  Purpose comes from Me and is not a function of your age or natural abilities.  Some things are done best in the stillness of the winter of your life.

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  I give life to the dead and call things that are not as though they are.

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  Believe that I have the power to do anything I want in your life.  I’m looking for your continued willingness.

Questions for reflection:

1. How might getting older become an excuse we use to keep us from remaining active in Christian service?
2. When we feel like the parade has passed us by, what does that say about us and our view of God?
3. What are some things that older Christians can do that younger Christians with families and fulltime employment might find more difficult to do?
4. “Older Christians can find themselves demanding to be served by the church (with their favorite music and activities) because they feel like they’ve paid their dues all these years.  They use their money and time to lobby churches to satisfy their preferences at the expense of reaching younger people.”  Do you agree or disagree with this statement?  Why?  What does your answer possibly say about views of Christian service?

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. (Hebrews 11:8)

Where are you, Abraham?  I am stepping out in faith, but I don’t know where You are taking me.

Have you ever felt like that?

Uncertainty and confusion are enemies of stillness.  We can have confidence in our past because we know how it all turns out.  The future frightens us because we don’t know it and can’t control it.

I can only imagine that Abraham must have wanted a little more regular communication from God.  Something like God’s voice ahead of him saying, “Walk here. Turn here. Stop here.”  Or like a map or a GPS giving indication of what’s ahead so you know when to turn or stop.

Genesis 12:1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.”

God didn’t show Abraham what was ahead.  He just said, “Go.”

Faith isn’t built by having God show us what’s ahead. Faith is built by confidently pressing into the unknown, listening to the voice of God in each and every moment.  Believing God always takes place most profoundly in the present for the future.

Like a parent holding the hands of a baby who is learning to walk, God does not walk before us, leading the way.  He walks behind us while holding our hands to let us develop confidence in stepping out.

If uncertainty and confusion are enemies of stillness, we can discover both trust and order in a faith relationship, in the stillness and nearness of God who holds our hands.

Be Still.  Confidence is found in the One who loves you.

Be Still.  I know the future.  While I might let you fall from time to time, it’s not to harm you but to help you develop confidence in stepping out in faith. I will never let you down.

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  The future belongs to Me.  I know the end of the story.

Be Still and Know that I AM God. The future may be unknown to you, but you can Know Me, the One who knows the future.

Questions for reflection:

1. How often do we fear what the future holds?  What does it say about our trust in God?
2. Why is the unknown more frightening than what we can reasonably predict?  How does control play into that?
3. Read Romans 8:31 “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all– how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”  How can this encourage us to step confidently into the future?

Where are you, people? Trying to build a legacy? Does that legacy include worship of God or are you too busy making a name…for yourselves?

Genesis 11:1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel–because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Progress has a way of interfering with stillness.

Remember when people told us that email was going to free up so much of our time? Kind of makes you want to go back in time and slap that person. Computers were going to make our lives simpler. In some ways, life seems easier but it’s often just quicker. Therefore, we cram more into less time and make a name for ourselves called “Productivity” or “Efficiency.” But when the crash happens, the virus comes, or the software doesn’t work right, it can get pretty stressful.

With smart phones, iPods, and laptops, it seems that technology and progress want to follow us into the most quiet and private places.  Into worship even. It breaks into the stillness with its beeps and buzzes and blings. Even on silent mode in church, it can be a visual distraction, taking you away from focus on God and into making a name for yourself.

Be Still. Put the phone away for a while. You’ll be glad you did.

Be Still. Open a paper copy of your Bible and pray as you meet with Me in the pages.

Be Still. Turn off the noise and be amazed at the feel of your beating heart or the sound of the breath of life in you.  I put it there.

Be Still and Know that I AM God. I’m not one of a million distractions and I certainly don’t want to feel like a smartphone is coming between us.

Be Still and Know that I AM God. I will do what I must to get your attention and to bring you to the humble place of stillness. Better, isn’t it, that you do it willingly rather than as a last resort?  The texts can wait.  The emails can wait.  I want to spend some time with you–in my Word, in prayer, and in song.

Questions for reflection:

1.  Where does reading Scripture fall in your priorities for the day?  Do you feel prepared to take on the day only if you read the news, Facebook status updates, and emails?  Or is reading God’s Word part of your preparation?
2. Do you view obstacles to achieving your goals of building a reputation and a name as being God’s wake-up call to a better life or as a problem to be overcome?
3. How do technology and progress impact your life?  Even good things can come between us and the peace God desires to give us in the stillness.