I don’t think it comes as a surprise to anyone if I say that I had a bit of a rough week last week. In the grand scheme of things it wasn’t terrible, but I just felt a general sense of malaise and fatigue hanging over me and it seemed like no matter how hard I prayed, or exercised or tried to get over it, I couldn’t seem to shake the feeling. It hung around until Sunday.
Sunday morning the kids in Sunday school were crazy and challenging and frustrating. Before I went up for communion I prayed for patience and a lifting of my spirit. After communion I got down on my knees, and just as I was about to plead with God again for relief the thought came over me, maybe I should stop talking and just listen. So I knelt there, and I waited.
How often do you know exactly what you need from God? You know it so well that you just keep asking him, certain that he must not have heard you the first time. That was me last week. I kept up a running monologue in my head, constantly asking God to lift the heaviness from my heart, show me he loved me, forgive me for whatever sin I had committed. But never once in that time did I just stop and wait. I knew what the answer was that I wanted, so I just kept talking.
Sunday morning, on my knees in church, I waited on God. And it wasn’t long before I felt the peace I had been searching for all week. I felt the certainty of God’s love for me.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5
Such a simple thing and yet so difficult for us to do; to be still. We are constantly running in lives filled with busy work. How much time are you spending with God? Just being still? It’s funny that just stopping for a moment and really waiting on God, I found myself filled with so much energy. I was able to accomplish more Sunday afternoon that I had all week and I went to bed truly rested. Because until that moment, on my knees in the pew, I hadn’t really been trusting in God with all of my heart. I had been leaning on my own understanding of what I needed.
God knows us better than we know ourselves and he loves us fully and completely. Your child might be convinced that he or she really needs that new video game or pair of shoes to be happy, but as a parent you make decisions based not on what you child wants, but on what is best for them. God does the same for us.
This week trust in God. If you have something sitting on your heart, stop leaning on your own understanding. Give it to Him and then…just be still.
God always answers prayer, we just have stop talking long enough to hear him.
God bless,
Meredith
finchmeredith1 