God
calls his people to be doing people. We are
commanded to “be doers of the word, and not
hearers only” (James 1:22). James goes on to
write, “Whoever knows the right thing
to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin”
(James 4:17). But what about those times when
the right thing to do is to do nothing? You’ve
heard someone say to the idle, “Don’t just stand
there! Do something!” But have you ever heard
someone say to the hyperactive worrier, “Don’t
just do something…stand there.” Whoever turned
that phrase made a great point. We have a hard
time leaving things in God’s hands. We want to
be able to do something about everything. And
anything we can do in obedience to God’s
commands we must do. Often when we can’t do
anything to achieve the result we’re looking for
we busy ourselves with other things. That’s
certainly preferable to sitting around or lying
awake worrying. But it’s still not quite the
place to which God wants to bring us.
After
Pharaoh finally let Israel go out from Egypt he
soon had a change of heart. He gathered his army
together and took off after them. Before long
the people hear thundering hooves and see clouds
of dust. As the Egyptians are approaching on one
side the Israelites are closing in on the Red
Sea on the other side. Neither option looks like
a good one. So what do you do when you don’t
know what to do? You find someone to blame, of
course! They said to Moses,
“Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that
you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?
What have you done to us in bringing us out of
Egypt?
Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave
us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For
it would have been better for us to serve the
Egyptians than to die in the wilderness”
(Exodus 14:11-12). They’ve gone from “Get us out
of here!” to “Why didn’t you just leave us
alone?” But Moses’ answer is not for them to
start swimming, build a bridge or even turn and
fight. Moses said to the
people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the
salvation of the Lord, which he will work for
you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today,
you shall never see again.
The Lord will fight for you,
and you have only to be silent”
(Exodus 14:13-14). Don’t just do something—stand
there. Don’t complain—be quiet. Don’t cover your
eyes in fear—see the salvation of the Lord.
There
may come a time in your life when you are faced
with a crisis. It may be that there are a number
of things you can do to affect the outcome. Or
it may be that there is nothing you can do to
affect the outcome, nothing but leave the thing
in the hands of God. And when that happens, can
you? Can you just do all that you can do and
then just be still? In Psalm 46 the psalmist
sees trouble in natural calamity—the earth
gives way…the mountains move into the heart of
the sea—and political upheaval—the
nations rage, the kingdoms totter. Life
seems shaky, chaotic and uncertain. But
overriding all these frightful sights and
scenarios he affirms, “God is our refuge and
strength, a very present help in trouble” (v.1).
Do
yourself a favor and store the 46th
Psalm deep in your heart. Pray over it. Meditate
on it. Believe it. And the next time your faced
with a challenging situation or even a soul
shaking crisis and you’ve done all you know to
do and maybe more than you should, hear then the
words of the Lord,
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be
exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in
the earth!”
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God
of Jacob is our fortress.”
(Psalm 46:10-11)
God bless you,
Brad Fry
