Be Still

I admit I am seething mad.

People have been hurt. Lies have been told. A tangled web of deception has been uncovered. Relationships have been destroyed.

On every single turn we’ve prayed and asked for God to intervene. He hasn’t failed yet. But what hurts the most is knowing people hurt people.

Make no mistake. I want revenge. I want justice to be served. But God has asked me to be still.

“The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:14

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve claimed that verse. But I can’t tell you I do it well. I want revenge to be mine. But the Lord says it’s His. I want to get even and I have no trouble telling someone exactly what I think of their poor excuse for character. But I’ve been put in my place with a Holy hush. For now.

How hard is it?! To be still when you want to take matters into your own hands. To trust He will make your justice shine like the noonday sun when the darkness seems to be closing in. To believe He will restore what the locusts have destroyed. To rest in knowing that nothing you do or say will take the place of His sovereignty to use what man intended for evil for His own good.

So hard.

But rest and trust and stillness are where we find Him. These are the spaces He brings healing to the hurt, where He restores what’s been destroyed, when He works to reveal something even greater, a plan far beyond the deception and lies and pain.

This is where I have to rest. Knowing that even when people hurt people, God is our refuge and source of strength. Even the Psalmist understood this. It’s an age-old problem. People hurt people. But God will always be faithful.

1 Save me, O God, by your name;
vindicate me by your might.
2 Hear my prayer, O God;
listen to the words of my mouth.
3 Arrogant foes are attacking me;
ruthless people are trying to kill me—
people without regard for God.
4 Surely God is my help;
the Lord is the one who sustains me.
5 Let evil recoil on those who slander me;
in your faithfulness destroy them.
Psalm 54