What God Showed Me in the Season of Being Still...

"The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” - Exodus 14:14

In the summer of 2019, during one of the hardest seasons of my entire life, I found myself seeing the phrase "Be Still" over and over again. I saw it so much, I started to get the hint that God was trying to tell me something. It was a reminder to trust Him. My marriage was in shambles and on the road to ending, I was just diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, my job situation was uncertain and it was the only thing in those moments of uncertainty that kept me on solid ground.

I must add that when God asks you to just "Be Still", that goes against anything and everything we are taught in society today and I dare to say even sometimes within the church walls. We are taught to move and act. We are taught to either control or walk away. However, through this journey, I realized "being still" is also so deeply misunderstood. Some think it's being stagnant, lazy, dismissive, passive. But "being still" actually takes a lot of strength and courage.

Being told by God to "be still" didn't make me ignore or avoid what was happening. Instead, it challenged me to spend a lot of time with Him because I felt like I needed to hear from Him. I wanted and yearned more of His presence and His voice . Don't get me wrong though, there were times I would miss a day or two or three... But those absences were usually followed by a bad attitude, extreme sadness, confusion, and dangerously close actions that would have thrown a wrench in what God was trying to do. Those were the symptoms that alerted me that I was NOT spending time with God but instead relying on my own strength and knowledge to navigate the current season.

"You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart." - Jeremiah 29:13

Before we move on, I must ask, do you believe in prayer? Do you believe in the benefit of being in God's presence? Do you even know what any of that looks like or means? If the answer is "no" to any or all of these questions, that's totally okay. No judgment over here, girlfriend. There was a time in my life, I would have answered "no" to all three. In fact, this is embarrassing, I went to ministry school and didn't even really believe in the power of prayer until 5 years after I graduated. I believed God heard me but always felt like He's this big thing and I'm a nobody. I knew He loved me but assumed He always did what He wanted with no help from me. While, yes, that's true, God doesn't need help from you, there is still power in prayer; there is still power in His presence. It took the movie, "The War Room" and a private season in 2016 to show me just how powerful prayer can be!

Here is what the Lord showed me:

"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." - 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18"

The word says to "Rejoice always", that no matter what is going on to feel and show joy. That sounds hard huh? How can I be going through hell and feel joy? "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:7). I am not lying when I say that spending daily time with God gave me a peace that made absolutely no sense. I cannot tell you how it happens, it just does. That through spending time with God, you can find joy in and through Him no matter what is going on around you. I found joy because I believe God cared about what was going on and that no matter what, He was going to take care of me even if it didn't turn out how I wanted. That alone is what gave me peace and joy and allowed me to surrender everything freely and willingly over to God.

The word then says to "Pray continually". The word actually instructs us to pray often! Why? "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 6:12). Prayer isn't about convincing God to move. Although, I think in some weird way we kind of look at prayer like that. But no, prayer is a literal battle. It's speaking life and speaking God's word against the unseen. Unseen things in our lives, in our minds, and in the minds and lives of others. I think this is really hard for many to swallow because we don't understand it. If I may, we didn't understand how billions of particles could fit into an atom but that didn't make it any less true, did it? My point is, if you believe in the word of God, God warns us of the unseen battle and the only way to wage this war is to pray continually. Once you start praying and seeing things change, the more you will begin to realize that while we can't see what's going on, you'll start to see things change that will confirm that it is working, that God is working. I must also add that even after it happens, you must still pray! Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10) and one "success" is not going to scare him off. If anything, he'll try harder and we must always be alert.

Now, "Give thanks in all circumstances" ... I need you to read that again. Wow, how many of us spend more time complaining to God for the things wrong in our lives instead of thanking him for the season? Perhaps Paul knew that giving thanks would allow you to see the positive side of a bad situation. That complaining could cause us miss out on what God wants to reveal because it distracts us. I could have blamed God for why my marriage crumbled, why I had cancer, why my mom was sick, why I was on the verge of being unemployed. Keep in mind, all of these things were happening at the same time. I could have easily been bitter towards God and I don't think anyone would have blamed me. Don't get me wrong, there were several moments of doubt and extreme sadness. However, once I leaned into God, giving thanks, it changed my perspective. It didn't always change the situation but it always changed the way I looked at and felt about the situation. I believe we begin to mature on an entirely new level when we can see all the messiness in life and still, somehow, find joy and find the strength to pray, and give genuine thanks to God.

I believe in prayer so much more now than I ever have. I believe in it because I've witnessed what God can do when I'm just being still, in His presence and relying on Him and Him alone. There was a day last year, that I had a horrible sense of dread. It stuck around for 24 hours and I just could not shake it and man, was it heavy. I literally went into my closet with no intention to stay long and ended up praying for three hours. THREE hours! For those of you non-pray-ers or even those who do, that may sound torturous but let me tell you, it flew by. I thought it was maybe 45 minutes. When I walked out of that closet after three hours, I felt like I could conquer the world!

God can move mountains but sometimes it also takes time and other times it may not turn out the way we expected or wanted. Part of praying is having the faith that He will do the miraculous and impossible while also knowing that He has your best interest in mind.

Bottom line is, being in His presence changes things. It changes the person mostly but it can also change others. His presence is the only place where He will give you instruction and direction. It'll be the place where you find the peace that surpasses all understanding. It'll be the place where you mature, grow, gain strength, and courage. It'll be the place you'll feel his love pour down on you like never before. It's a place where you can be yourself, where you can ask for forgiveness. It's a place where you fight against the devil and his schemes and it'll be the place you find crazy faith and be reminded to focus only on Him.

Being still isn't weak, it takes strength. It takes a lot to fight in prayer, to trust God to fight the battle that isn't yours, to take care of you and your situation. I encourage you to make a plan to carve out even 5 or 10 minutes a day to spend time with Him. As you continue on, you can add more time to each day and I bet, the longer you do it, the more you will crave spending time with Him!

"Lord, bless the person reading this blog right now. I ask that you would move in their lives and reveal to them the very thing you've been longing to. I ask that if they don't talk to you often, that you would begin to encourage them on a deeper level. That they would desire you like never before. I pray this would be the year that they always look back on as the year that was pivotal in their relationship with you. I pray their prayers move mountains and tear down impossible walls. Lastly, I pray that your love pours down in a life-changing way and that they too can love others as you consistently and immensely about love us. In Jesus' name. Amen."

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