Pickles & Praise

One…Two…Three…. under my breath I count the quiet moments ticking before I start to pray. Do you do this? Maybe you inhale deeply or close your eyes for a few stolen quiet moments. I always feel that I have to center my mind before I ask for God to listen. The truth is he is always ready to listen and we never have to ask him to. More truth be told we aren’t always ready to speak. Even more, we are not always ready for answers or listen. I notice the closer I get to seeking what he wants me to do… my life conveniently gets more chaotic and busy. So much that in the midst of all the hustle and bustle I find myself hardly getting silent or still.

Earlier on in this journey as I started walking through what I believe to be my “refining fire” the “Be Still” scriptures were the ones that I felt were “chasing me.” I started reading and praying for what to do and how to be. “Show me how to do this, Lord.” Slowly, the first “Be still” instruction started coming up everywhere. “Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10.

“Lord!” ( I would say)

“I do NOT know how to BE STILL!”

“I am a DOER.” What is he thinking… I thought out loud. He made me this way. I am and ACTION TAKER and NOW in THIS…

“You’re asking me to BE STILL?”

A little background on me. I am a do-it-now kinda girl. Want to paint your living room? Let’s go! Want to start a diet? Right now is a great time… who cares if we just had ice cream and hour ago… Want to start writing a book? I’ll book that Air B&B to give you a quiet getaway to get started today… Ready to finally start that blog again? … Here we are! So God literally asking me to do ANYTHING else would NOT have stunned me and stopped me dead in my tracks but Be still? … Be Still… sigh ok … be still.

Later in this walk ( notice I do not say run… because Jesus is never in a hurry…) the Second “be still” scripture caught up to me…. “The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still…” Exodus 14:14 … This time I was ready for those dreaded words… I had been seeing them and hearing them endlessly…. “Ok, Lord … I got you… I’m here for you, and your direction because when I stay in your path…. I am overcome with unspeakable and unexplainable peace…”

“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee.” Isaiah 26:3 KJV

Lastly, the most recent “be still” found me… I was hiding from it if I’m being honest, but none the less… it found me.

“Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him.” Psalm 37:7

These words have danced and sauntered around my head and my heart for a few months. No movement for months and then…a very calculated step and pause… then another step and another pause… Patiently I waited for what felt like seconds and decades at the same time… Patiently? Now that I think of it.

When you pray for patience and pray for guidance the way it comes about it not at all like you’d expect. In fact, I have resolved not to expect or dive deep into solving what any outcome will be or how patient I will have to become. The answer is always so far from the things my small minded self can conjure… but I did get an “easter egg” recently, if you will?

On no particular morning… I started my waking moments off with my trusty “Bible app.” Each morning it ignites my screen after snoozing my alarms, and bounces to life as I select the first section that shares a scripture for the day. The second section is usually a video of some popular author, musician, evangelist, or pastor giving a commentary on it of less than 5 minutes and then finally the third section is an invitation to start your daily prayer. Normally after this I spend a lot longer in prayer while I prepare and primp for the day. This day getting out of bed was not in my “action plan” so I decided to click on one of my social media icons where a video flooded the room… it started… “say the word Rapha”, “Rapha is to be still … but it is not to be still like we think… it is active waiting.” The Holy Spirit gripped me … and as I started to explore this I found some other comments about this … “rapha”…and the dance began.

“Rapha stems from the Hiphil stem of the verb rapha ( meaning to be weak, to let go, to release) which might be better translated as, “cause yourselves to be weak” or “let yourselves become weak.” in our English translations of scripture we tend to see “be still” and explosion of emotion erupted from me.

“This makes so much sense!”

“You have been waiting on me to be still, but more so you have been waiting for me to let go of MY strength and…. just . be . weak… so that you can be all of my strength…”

Let’s review those “be still” scriptures now… with the Rapha translation

“LET GO, and know that I am God”

“The Lord will fight for you, you need only to LET GO”

“BE WEAK before the Lord, and wait patiently for him …”

My mind was blown. My gratitude for the patience of our Savior to wait for us to learn and come to these full circle moments in perfect timing…. just wow.

What is He asking you to let go of?

Where are your “be still moments?”

Be still. One….. Two …. Three …. deep breaths and praise.

I love you all, until next time!