Be Still to Discover Your Strong
Discovering strength to thrive in every season of life, has everything to do with finding our true source of strength. Now faith, is the holy habit of choosing to trust God and hang onto hope. Faced with difficulty, our first inclination is to do something to save ourselves, to fix the situation. Psalm 46 has words of wisdom for finding our strength in God.
We learn to focus on God rather than fear when we truly believe He is our refuge, our place of safety and security that does not change no matter what is happening around us. Psalm 46 teaches that God is our strength, and our present, findable help in the troubles and distresses of our lives.
We find our strong as we choose to come and behold to works of the Lord. Today we complete our reflection on Psalm 46, which is filled with practical ways to discover your strong.
When the nations rage and the kingdoms totter, it is our great temptation to give into the rising tides of trouble. Striving within, we often give way to fear and any other fix we can find to win the battle at hand. Yet in the middle of our mess, God commands us to be rather than to do. Be still and know is one simple choice that opens the door to God’s strength.
Cease striving.
Cease striving is often translated, be still. Stop the striving and the battling. The Hebrew word for be still is raphah, meaning to sink, relax, sink down, let drop. It also means to let down your hand and to desist from any person or thing.
Oh friend, sink into this quiet place of inner stillness that has laid down every self-effort, every resentment, every false source of strength. This is the two-fold command:
Be still
and
Know…
I am God.
When the battle rages and my emotions strive within my soul, I cannot hear the quiet strength of God. It’s hard to see, and hard to know by experience that God is my very present source of strength.
Why is it hard to find our strong when mountains are slipping into the sea? What difference can one simple choice to be still make?
Think of trying to find good reception on a radio station. As long as we are frantically turning the dial, we only hear static and the incomplete broadcast before we move the tuner again. It is only when we slow down, tune in, and be still that we can receive a clear station.
The knowing comes as the striving stops.
It is in that place of inner stillness that the streams of God’s presence calm my heart and I can know the He really is God Most High, God Right Now.
This knowing isn’t an intellectual or a casual knowing. It isn’t a far off in the distance as in I know about…
This knowing is a deep, inner knowing that comes through our experience. It points to a process of learning to know, to become aware of, to discover, and to become acquainted with. This knowing is deeply personal and present, right in the center of our need, our hurts, and our fears.
Settle your soul and sink into Him.
Take your hands off the lever that cranks and twists your fears like churning butter. Pry your fingers off the problems and lift your eyes to your Most High.
I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
From beginning to end with all the problems in between, God is our refuge and strength.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Psalm 46:11
For thus says the Lord, “do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but Gods.” 2 Chronicles 20:15
The burden of proof is on Him.
He is with us, right in the very midst of us. Let this truth be your strong hold of faith as you let God fight the battle. Grace for this moment is for the attitudes and choices that we make to focus on God rather than fear, to come and behold His works, and to be still and experience He is God.
How can you choose the simplicity of stillness to live full of God and full with God as you find your strong in this moment?
Come Find Your Strong
Holiness moves through the small things, grace for the moments, simple and short. Added together, holy moments change lives and steer destinies in God’s direction. But it all comes down to attitudes and choices made…one moment at a time. If I reach for the grace of holiness in this moment, what difference could it make? (From One Simple Thing).
What simple choices can become holy habits to give us strength when the day is hard and the night is long? What simple (not easy) ways can we overcome fear? We are continuing finding God’s strength in Psalm 46.
Who or what is your most high?
God has been reminding me that joy and well-being cannot be tethered to the responses and approval of others. Security is elusive when it is based on circumstance or relationships. It cannot be tied to success and it can’t be rooted in the world’s systems or definitions. No person or situation can be a stable source of joy and strength. We are not made for that.
When we put our faith in the world’s mountains and false places of security, we are at the mercy of the roaring waters when they burst through the strongholds of our false gods.
What we depend on, whether for joy or for strength, becomes our most high.
God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
Whatever we are trying to draw life and stability from (apart from God) blocks the flow of God’s Spirit with in us. We will not know His very present help when we look to other solutions or try to fix our problems with our own resources. This doesn’t mean God won’t help, but what we learn and experience will be entirely different.
God will help and the sun will rise.
Sometimes, morning seems a long way off, but the sun always rises and morning always comes. Light is dawning and God is helping as we learn to trust Him.
He is our Lord of hosts and our strong place.
The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered;
He raised His voice, the earth melted.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold.
When the waters roar and foam, the rushing sound of anxiety stirs us up within. It is the inner striving that drowns out the gladness of God in our hearts, isn’t it?
Find your strong in the knowledge that God is with you.
There is very little God asks of us. He is the One who wins the wars, breaks the spears, burns the chariots. He is the One who overcomes everything that can come against us. Notice there is not one word about fighting our own battles here. Again, the focus is all on Him.
He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth;
He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two;
He burns the chariots with fire.
What does God ask of us? What is one way to find our strong in the moment we need it?
Find your strong when you come and behold the works of the Lord.
Come and behold the works of the Lord. –Psalm 46:8
What are you looking at? Are you looking at the problem, or are your eyes on the work God is doing? Come–be present with God. Come and behold His works, perceive and see what He is doing. God invites us to a front row seat to His action in our very own lives.
And when you can’t see what He is doing in the moment, stand in faith and remember what He has done in the past. Remind yourself again and again. Remind yourself as many times as it takes. Notice how many times the psalmist makes a bold statement of God’s strength and presence.
The psalmist shows us exactly how to keep our focus on God in the very writing of this psalm. He doesn’t just tell us what to do, he shows us as he writes out his heart as enemies gather against him. Though he cannot help but recognize the danger, the power of his words exalt God as his strength and help.
May God give us the ability to find our strong as we keep coming and keep beholding His work.
How can keeping presence with God and focusing on His work strengthen you in this moment?
One Simple Focus to Find Your Strong
Life is filled with blessings and challenges. It is marked by cycles of transitions, with a continual planting and uprooting as we journey through life. Our days add up with celebrations and joy, but also with loss and instability. We long to flourish in the midst of it all.
Yet on too many days, survival may see to be the most we can hope for.
Finding strength to thrive in every season of life, has everything to do with discovering and holding onto our true source of strength.
We look for strength in all kinds of places…the good assignment, a favorable situation, healthy family, stable government, a prosperous bank account, and even our own abilities and resources. It is easy to depend on the closest thing for strength and stability, rather than to ground our strength in God.
God is
OUR refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
The words of Psalm 46 open with all of the focus on God. Who He is to us.
He is our refuge, our place of safety and security that does not change no matter what is happening around us. God is our strength, and our present, findable help in the troubles and distresses of our lives.
If we do not know He is the one that is for us, the present One, we will look for strength wherever we can find it.
When life as we know it crumbles, God is our source of strength.
We can only discover this by going through the hard things.
The Psalmist begins these words with his focus on God as his strength, rather than getting caught up in the trouble that spins around him. His eyes are on God and not on the problem as he looks to God for his right-now help.
There will always be trouble and there will always be help when we place our confidence in God as our strength.
When our faith is planted firmly in the strong presence of God we can echo the psalmist who writes this anthem of faith.
Focus on God not fear.
How can focusing on God rather than fear enable you to find your strong today?
Tweetable:
Everyday Choices for Living Faith
Do you ever feel like faith is a dry, nebulous concept? Like cotton candy, faith can seem to be something fluffed up of with imaginings and held together by a web of sugar coated wishes. Just have enough faith and you can conger up whatever you want, our misconceptions whisper.
We chide ourselves that we must try harder to have more faith. In our confusion we function as if we must act better and perform the right spiritual tricks–as if God is only moved to work in a life if the faith is good enough.
That skewed thinking puts it all on us, doesn’t it?
Living faith one moment at a time.
But faith is real and is one simple thing for living right now in this very moment. How do we choose faith in the moment and enter into what God is doing?
Choosing faith begins with God, not on our ability to harness belief and make it go our way. Faith begins and ends in the rightness of God–His way of doing and being right. Faith is inseparably tied to the power of God.
Grace for saving and faith for believing, the gospel is good news for every moment and every life.
The foundation of faith is the gospel that demonstrates the power of God. In the Greek, power is translated Dynamis, which is God’s power for creating life, performing miracles and righting the crooked soul.
Everyday choices.
We make thousands of choices every day. Little things, big things fill up the decisions and choices that make the measure of a moment. From faith to faith, God’s righteousness is uncovered to our eyes, opened to our understanding with a progressive light.
In a moment, we respond with faith and we discover more of God. He reveals truth and faith grows. God graciously stirs up more faith when we embrace and live out the faith we currently hold in our hearts. It is the choice of a moment: to believe or not. To trust or not. Step by step and choice by choice we are walking into greater faith.
But the righteous will live by faith. In that small three letter word, but, is the choice of the moment. We can choose the wholeness of believing God, faith for every moment. Or the buts can become excuses and questions that turn our eyes away from Gods power and ability. When the excuses of our souls barge in, we take our eyes off God and we focus on the problem. The buts begin to bury our souls and faith grows increasingly weak.
Living faith bridges the gap between our need and God’s supply.
But…
Choose faith.
Choose to believe in this moment.
The righteous–that’s you and that’s me–
will live.
See, it’s a living thing.
Faith is for living life out of the shadows in the vibrancy of God.
Faith is real life for whole living in every moment. It is God’s life, his zao, that brings joy and true life.
From faith to faith, we are learning that the word live means to enjoy real life, to know the vitality of God in our soul, to be active, powerful, and efficient, blessed eternally, to know true life and worth.
“For in him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:28 NIV
There is significance and worth embedded in these words that sprouts from faith that goes far beyond what we think—it isn’t a head thing. It is an everything kind of thing. How gracious God is to reveal Himself in ways that initiate and nurture faith that blossoms forth in true life.
“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” John 7:38
Yes, living faith is the life of God made available to us by believing, made real in us by choosing faith in the moment. Living faith for one simple thing– it makes all the difference.
What one simple thing can you do today to choose living faith? What difference will choosing faith in this moment make?
Love to have you share this post with others using the social media options! I’m super happy to share that this post has been chosen be be featured at Grace and Truth.
This post is part of a series. Each post stands alone, but they are part of a larger idea. You can find the other posts here:
One Simple Thing: Living Whole
The Opportunity of This Moment
Simple Grace to Overcome Worry
Now Faith for One Simple Thing
Choose Faith for One Simple Thing
Now faith.
Just as umbrellas shield us from the rain, faith covers us from the questions and fears that flood our souls. When storm clouds gather, rain can sprinkle in a mist or pelt in torrent and an umbrella is only as good as the using of it in the moment.
Umbrellas left in the closet or forgotten in the car offer no protection from the deluge. And faith left unused, growing rusty in the back of our hearts will not shield us from unbelief.
Enough for now.
We need now faith for every moment to choose the simple and the whole. Faith in the moment stretches us to believe God for what we cannot see. Faith for one simple thing is ours for the choosing.
Now faith is for this moment, not left over from yesterday’s issue or saved up for tomorrow’s trial. Now faith rests in the wholeness of choosing God in the moment before us, the one opening up right now.
Now emphasizes and points to the timeliness of faith. Raise the umbrella of faith over the banter of doubt that echoes in your ears and tugs at your insides. Rest in this moment standing under the power of one holy choice to trust God, to hang onto hope.
“…yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. Therefore it was also credited to him as righteousness.“–Romans 4:20-21
[tweetthis hidden_hashtags=”#faith”]Now faith has the power to hold on in this moment.[/tweetthis]
Gather for the day and rest in the moment, refusing to step off to the left or right. Set one foot in front of the other, now faith is a step by step journey right into the goodness of God.
Strong and steady, faith is one simple thing for the choosing. What moment is before you? What is your right now need for faith? A fear or frustation? A discouragement or decision?
In this moment, choose to trust in the rightness of God who gives faith by the sweet gift of grace.
Ask Him. Trust Him for…
… the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith”–Romans 1:17
Now faith takes us all the way…
From faith.
To faith.
Here is the power of this moment.
Faith for this moment has power to protect because it is God’s hand that covers. It is His righteousness and steadfastness that enfolds our souls. How many times have I thought that faith is dependent on my strength?
“We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God… ” Hebrews 6:18-19 MSG
Faith is the power that anchors hope to our souls. Hold fast with confidence when the waters rise. Now faith is for the rainy moments–the showers, the drizzles, and the downpours. Open your umbrella and choose wholeness that is your solid ground when dreams grow soggy at your feet.
Don’t wait for the rain to stop.
Umbrellas are for the rain and faith is for saving.
Choose now faith for one simple thing.
[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@GingHarrington” hidden_hashtags=”#faith”]Choose God’s best for you one moment at a time.[/tweetthis]
Choose holiness in the simple things. Choose life that brings joy despite the rain and grace in the moment. Rest your goals in His hand and seek God with all your heart. Love your family and do your work–but each day choose grace in the simple things and let the moments add up to God’s best in you.
God’s best for you.
One moment at a time.
[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@GingHarrington” hidden_hashtags=”#faith”]Now faith rests in the wholeness of choosing God in the moment.[/tweetthis]
What challenges have caused you to struggle in faith? Which scripture passage most inspires you to choose the wholeness of now faith?
One Simple Antidote to Worry
We’ve been wrapping our hearts around the holiness that we find in the simple things that create faith and wholeness. We are choosing to rest in the simplicity of faith, right now in this very moment. Last week I posted at 5 Minutes for Faith, and it fits right in.
“Do not let your heart be troubled;
believe in God, believe also in Me
–John 14:1.
How many times have I read this verse? Quite a few, yet because I am prone to worry, I come back to it again and again.
Isn’t it easy to grab hold of a verse and try to stick it onto our souls like a bandaid? As if one quick fix and the bleeding of our hearts will stop.
No more worries and no more struggles.
Yet bandaids will not cure the troubles of our souls, any more than pulling a single verse out of context will fix our brokenness. Do not let…oh, how many times I let worry creep in and then I open the door wide. When trouble gets a foot in the door, it’s time to shut the door.
The biblical word for trouble is tarasso, meaning to agitate, to cause inward commotion, to take away calmness of mind. As if that’s not enough, the meaning extends deeper to strike one’s spirit with fear and dread, to render anxious and distressed. Like a bully, trouble, threatens and darkens our thoughts, and it is oh-so-easy to cave, giving into the temptation to let our thoughts spin with an increasing, frantic energy that can drive you right into full on fear.
Believe in God, believe also in Me.
Jesus simply states the antidote to fear and worry. Verses will never be bandaids, but believing opens our hearts for the power of God to strengthen and calm. Peace of mind and rest for the soul are the blessed by-products of believing Jesus as we learn to cast all our cares on Him.
Overused and diluted, the word believe has become more of an opinion rather than strength for the soul that changes a life. To rely on, trust in, cling to and place confidence in–this is the lifeline for our souls and the conduit to receive the strength and peace of God.
Join me for the remainder of this article.
Tweetable:
Believing opens our hearts for the power of God to strengthen and calm.
What verse have you been tempted to use as a bandaid?
Simple Grace to Overcome Worry
Holiness moves through the small things, grace for the moments, simple and short. Added together, holy moments change lives and steer destinies in God’s direction. But it all comes down to attitudes and choices made…one moment at a time. If I reach for the grace of holiness in this moment, what difference could it make? (From One Simple Thing).
[tweetthis]If we choose to breathe grace for the simple things each day, what will happen? [/tweetthis]
Can we learn to take life one step at a time, trusting God in the midst of the moment, no matter what that moment looks like? Or feels like?
The strength of simplicity begins internally with thoughts, attitudes, and choices as we remember that God is good in every moment. Not every moment is good, but God does not change in the face of our circumstances.
Oh yes, it is the goodness of God that gives grace for the moment, empowering “us to do what we could never do on our own.” (Richard Foster) This is His goodness at work, giving wholeness right in the middle of our brokenness. This is the practical power of holiness.
We are beginning to see it.
Grace to overcome worry.
Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life (Philippians 4:6-7, MSG).
Real simplicity comes through faith. It is the faith of a child that doesn’t demand explanations but knows that everything will be okay, simply because Daddy is there.
Isn’t it the worries and discontents, the complaints and the self-desires that drive us to complicated? Isn’t it the suspicion that God isn’t really trustworthy, that compels us to create our own solutions and lament our losses?
Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies (Philippians 4:8-10, MSG).
These are the simple things—the good and holy within reach of our needy hands. Choosing the true and the best, trusting God to put it all together, we can do this.
Take hold of it and don’t let go.
Fill your thoughts with simple goodness–
- One true thing.
- One beautiful thing.
- One praiseworthy thing.
- One excellent thing.
Break the back of worry with something that makes you smile and reminds you to trust God. Let these choices become simple graces to overcome worry today.
One simple solution for every need. When the worries and the whimpers of our souls learn to rest in the simple strength of God, peace that surpasses every contrived fix of this world is ours.
Have we really believed this?
In this moment, we can live settled and whole. We can choose wholeness in the response of the moment, quieting the strife that spins in our heads. Let’s walk this path together into the moments of this day, step into the real now that is both a moment in time and endless space in eternity.
Tweetable:
- If we choose to breathe grace for the simple things each day, what will happen?
- Choosing the true and the best, trusting God to put it all together, we can do this!
What simple grace can help you overcome worry today?
I am sharing community with other bloggers at Testimony Tuesday , Intentional Tuesday, #RaRaLinkup, Coffee For Your Heart, and Three Word Wednesday.
The Opportunity of This Moment
Holiness moves through the small things, grace for the moments, simple and short. Added together, holy moments change lives and steer destinies in God’s direction. But it all comes down to attitudes and choices made…one moment at a time. If we reach for the grace of holiness in this moment, what difference could it make? (from previous post).
The opportunity of a moment.
Days are made up of hours; hours are made up of moments. Change the moment; change the hours that create our days. In the moment, change the attitude and trust God to transform the heart. Grace to live well in little choices is the blessing I crave. Added together, holy moments change lives from the inside out.
But how?
How do we choose the simplicity of resting in faith…right now?
Our best moments.
Heart, mind, soul, and strength—these are the gifts in our hands for loving both God and others. God and Truth and Spirit, God comes alongside and we are no longer alone in the struggle. Life with God opens the door of possibility as we learn to embrace the togetherness available in every moment.
I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.
–John 14:16
I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
–John 15:5
This is the simplicity of doing the one thing, the best thing, that God asks of us. This is His way for the whole and the holy. For doesn’t the secret of living whole in this life have everything to do with discovering the joy and freedom of God’s grace filling up all our moments? We are learning the practical art of abiding.
Forgiven, accepted, re-made with love, we are learning to live large and free. All comes down to the life we live each moment. Trust or fear? Shame or forgiveness, strife or peace, what will we choose?
How many moments have we made difficult through giving into selfishness, frustration, or fear? How many times have we complicated life trying to control outcomes and hoard that which cannot be kept?
One simple thing.
What is one simple thing we need to do?
To learn?
To give away?
To let go of?
To hold on to?
With this in mind, the daily steps that walk through the week, let’s focus on the small things.
The simple things.
The moment things.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………….
What simple thing can you do to remember that God is in this moment with you? What moment could have been different if you had remembered that God is in it with you?
Join me for a new series. If you missed the first post, you can find it here.
Leave a comment and let’s encourage one another in the simplicity of this With-God life of wholeness.
,
One Simple Thing: Living Whole
Holiness moves through the small things, grace for the moments, simple and short. Added together, holy moments change lives and steer destinies in God’s direction. But it all comes down to attitudes and choices made…one moment at a time. If we reach for the grace of holiness in this moment, what difference could it make?
How do we live life whole?
How do we fold our hearts around joy each day? Desires, questions, aspirations and inspirations spin willy-nilly in our heads. Time slips like sand through our fingers. How do we make the best use of the time given, each day wrapped in the gift of twenty-four hours?
What’s the secret to a life well lived?
My mind meanders to one aspect, one word: holiness. Though this word sometimes reeks of stale religion bound tight with pious do’s and don’ts, holiness is a refreshingly simple concept.
Holiness has to do with being set apart, made whole, consecrated, sacred, dedicated, pure, and devoted and it is accessible to us all through grace. Holiness enables us to live full of God and full with God, in spite what the moment may look like. There is something clean and simple about living life whole, dedicated with purpose and meaning.
Wrapped up tight in our insides is a frenetic tendency to make life complicated. My soul is hard wired with a desire for significance, and I think yours is too. Feeling less, we take on more, and try harder, be better, do more is the rant of our souls that have swallowed the compelling lies of this chaotic, bent world.
I could write down goals and stamp them onto the tender flesh of my heart. I probably will, but I often overwhelm myself with goals and intentions, never seeming to fully accomplish the entire task. Do you do this? I leave a trail of the undone that calls out condemnations and validates my fears that I’m not enough.
Where is wholeness in this? But now, I am choosing something different as I explore wholeness that can brighten each day. Will you join me?
Tweetables:
If we reach for the grace of holiness in this moment, what difference could it make?
Live life whole, dedicated with purpose and meaning.
