Day 3...learning to sit tight

It's funny how we, well let me say I, have "favorite" verses in the Bible.  It's so easy to love the poetry of the scripture without experiencing the power of it.  I've always loved Isaiah 40:28-31: "Have you never heard?  Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth.  He never grows weak or weary.  No one can measure the depths of his understanding.  He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.  Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion.  But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.  They will soar high on wings like eagles.  They will run and not grow weary.  They will walk and not faint."

It's sounds so nice, but honestly I usually fall in the category of weak, tired and falling in exhaustion rather than the trusting and soaring group.  Well, today's been a trusting and soaring day.  The thing is it didn't feel that way.  For most of the day I felt uneasy, but I kept mentally meditating on the Word, which again didn't feel like it was working.  Sometime later this evening that heaviness lifted.

So, the lesson I learned today, which is starting to sound repetitive, is don't be moved by how I feel; stay the course and keep trusting God for the breakthrough.  What I'm realizing is that the more I trust God, the more grace I find to not faint in the situation.  But the key is trusting Him, and not trying to sustain myself.

For me personally, one of the hardest things is to just sit still when I start feeling anxious.  I'm often prone to want to call someone to either talk about what I'm dealing with or get it off my mind.  I'm sure in some cases we need each other for support and encouragement, but the first call should be to God.  Tell Him how you're feeling and listen to His instructions.  He may just need you to sit still for a moment and rest in Him or He may have very specific instructions for you and needs your undivided attention, but you miss that opportunity if, like me, your default is to phone a friend.

What was nice about today is that after trusting God in spite of feeling anxious, once the heaviness was lifted He gave me the opportunity to talk to a friend.  One of my favorite cousins was in town for work and we got to sit over tea and have a wonderful discussion and encourage one another.  But rather than going into the conversation empty and looking for her to fill me, I had already been filled by the presence of God, which allowed me to add value rather than drain the conversation.