The Advantages Of Standing Still

The advantages of Standing Still

Exodus 14: 10-14

In these times in which you and I live, life presents us all kinds of problems and challenges. We are busy seeking ways to handle the situations and issues in our lives. Life is like a roller coaster. Some days you are up and some days you are down. Some days you have good days and some days you have bad days. Some days you have dark days and some days you have sun shinny days. Job says that a man that is born of a woman is only a few days and those days are full of “trouble”.

As children of God, we know that Jesus is our savior. We know that he is our Lord. We know that if it had not been for him that was on our side, we don’t know where we would be today. We know that it was him that helped us in past situations. Oh, when our bills were overdue and they were going to cut the lights off and the gas off and they were going to put you out, it was him that made a way out of no way. It was him that opened up doors that were closed in your face. It was the Lord who put food on our tables and healed our bodies when the Doctor had given us up.

But, even though we acknowledge this it doesn’t seem to be enough in the face of our trials and tribulations and it is just hard for us to stand still. It’s hard for us to stand still when we hear on the news that there are wars and rumors of wars. It’s hard for us to stand still when the Secretary of defense says that it’s just a matter of time when there will be another attack on the United States that will be worse than September 11th. It’s hard for us to stand still when we hear that there will be suicide bombings on our American soil just like they are experiencing in Israel. It’s hard to stand still when we are living in an unstable world with an unstable economy.

But this morning I want to let you know that instead of wasting a lot of time seeking our own way out, we need to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.

Many of us are struggling today because we want God to bless our agenda rather than our fulfilling His agenda. We want God to O.K. our plans rather than our fulfilling His plans. We want God to bring us glory rather than our bringing Him glory.

When we stand still, we can let God do the leading. It wasn’t Moses who led the people out of Egypt. It was the Lord. He led them by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Moses didn’t even know how to get out of Egypt. He was just following instructions. Sometimes we need to just follow instructions from the Lord. It doesn’t matter what folk say you ought to do, it doesn’t matter what it looks like to folk, what matters is what it looks like to God. That’s all God’s leader is doing, following instructions.

If Moses had been doing the leading, he would have taken them on the shortest route. That’s the way we are, always looking for the fastest, shortest, and easiest way to get something done. But God doesn’t work that way. In fact God doesn’t’ always work in the way that seems best to us. Instead of leading the children of Israel on the shortest route from Egypt to the Promised Land, He took them the long way. Some of us are going through some trials and tribulations right now, because God is taking us the long way. But God has a reason and a plan for taking you the long way. When God doesn’t take you the shortest way to your goal, don’t complain and don’t resist, just stand still and trust God to lead you safely around unseen obstacles. Remember, God can see the end. He may be taking you the long way, but I declare that it’s the best way.

When we stand still, God can teach us something. When I look back over my life and think about the times when I wanted to take the short way to get what I wanted, but the Lord made me wait longer than I wanted too. I was able to wait on him because I heard Isaih say the other day, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” He was teaching me something. My way looked like the fastest and best way, but now I know He wanted me to learn something. He had a lesson I needed to learn along the way. There are some unseen dangers on the short route. There are some pitfalls on the short route. There are some dead ends on the short route. There are some closed doors on the short route.