Welcome to the next daily installment of this true story, which you can find posted here each afternoon until it comes to an end.
Chapter 93: Noise
Proverbs 3:5-6 says to trust in the Lord with all your heart and to not rely on your own understanding. Are those just words? Are they empty? Do they mean something? How can you possibly put no reliance in what you know and all reliance in God? Isaiah 58:11 says the Lord will guild you continually. Are these just words? Does the Lord not actually mean to guide continually? Isaiah 30:21 goes so far as to talk about a voice that is behind you that will guide your path. 1 Kings 19:11-13 talks about a still small voice.
I do not believe these are empty words to be lightly dismissed. I believe these verses are saying that we are to find counsel in God. Deuteronomy 4:29 says that if you seek the Lord with all your heart and all your soul, you will find Him.
In my upbringing, I was taught many things. Somewhere in my upbringing, how to consult God was left out. I suspect that was because no one actually knew how to do that, and therefore could not teach that. So, instead, I was taught to gloss over these verses. There are so many verses like this about consulting God, that it is fair to consider it a main theme of the Bible. That main team says something like this: that one is to consult God, treating that counsel superior to the thoughts of one’s own mind and the feelings of one’s own heart.
Yet here we stand in the modern era, an era we are told is so advanced in so many ways. We are here with nearly the entire global Christian church unable to hear the voice of God, even unwilling to acknowledge its existence.
How can Rose and Robert hear God, but virtually every pastor in the phone book would have some extremely negative words for me if I mentioned in discussion that Rose and Robert here the voice of God? I used to side with those pastors and I used to make such negative comments, because that is what I was taught. And I used to make fun of people like Rose and Robert, because I never did what the Bible says to do when you want to hear the voice of God. In the Psalms, over and again, there is the theme of waiting.
Chapter 94: Wait
The Bible seems to emphasize the importance of waiting on God. The Bible seems to emphasize the importance of being still. The Bible seems to emphasize the importance of knowing how to rely on God’s power and not your own power (Zechariah 4:6).
Psalms 27:14 says to wait for the Lord. Psalms 33:20-22 says to wait for the Lord. Psalms 37:34 says to wait for the Lord. Psalms 46:10 says to wait for the Lord. Psalms 62:5 says to wait for the Lord. Psalms 103:5-6 says to wait for the Lord. Psalms 130:5 says to wait for the Lord. They each say this in their own way, and there are many more passages that say the same, each with its own interesting take on the benefit of being able to wait on the Lord. It is not just in that book either, but throughout the Bible.
Lamentations 3:25 says the Lord is good for those who wait for Him and a soul for those who seek Him. Isaiah 40:31 says those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. Isaiah 64:4 says to wait for the Lord, who we can perceive by ear and eye.
Exodus 14:14 says that the Lord will fight for us, we need only be still. Those who have waited on the Lord know how true that actually is. A word from the Holy Spirit, a single word, breaks down any barrier, stops any evil, encourages many of repentance, correction, goodness, love. Those who understand what it means to wait on the Lord really tend to find themselves looking back in awe at how good God has been and how mystifying His ways are.
A single word from the Lord can dismantle the staunchest opposition. So what do people who understand that do? They wait. They pray. They spend time in the Bible. They get themselves lined up with the will of God on a matter. They make sure that they are following the will of God on this matter, rather than coming in opposition to God. Thy will be done, says Jesus. Even King Jesus, says thy will be done to God, as he teaches us all to pray, in the Bible passages that are often referred to as The Lord’s Prayer. Not only does Jesus stop by praying that God’s will be done, but He obediently speaks and teaches only God’s will. (John 12:49) Not only does he stop there by teaching, speaking, and praying only God’s will, but with His every action Jesus does the work of God. (John 5:19). Nor does it stop there. Jesus even goes so far as to say that He can do nothing on His own. (John 5:19, 30) And He was our example. (1 Peter 2:21) Each Christian is to take up his own cross and follow Christ. (Matthew 16:24) We are to be a sacrifice for others as Christ was. (Ephesians 5:1-2) Paul calls on us to be an imitator of Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1)
These verses say much more than to just wait. Waiting is one component. One part of waiting is to move when God tells you to move. We see this part of obedience reflected in the previous verses. We are to do what God says to do. And, at the same time, we are not to do what God has not specifically told us to do. That is the nature of waiting. Christ is our example in that. That may seem extreme to some, but once you find yourself under God’s wing, walking in His will, you likely will wonder what it was that you thought you were doing that was so special, so important all those other years of your life. Waiting on God is another example of trading a bologna sandwich for a steak dinner. Some people hang onto their bologna sandwich because it is theirs. They don’t want better. They want theirs. There are times when that is a very good policy in life. Often, when dealing with other humans, riches are a poor replacement for the joy of ownership. That is not what we are talking about here. We are talking about people preferring their own ways and their own ideas to the instruction of God. This is not a mere man that you are negotiating with. You are saying “No,” to someone who wants to give you the very finest.
Without going too far into the embarrassing and distracting specifics, I wish to share with you one of my earliest attempts to find and follow the will of God. There was a time in my life when I found myself in such a desperate situation but denied myself any exit that did not come from God. So, for weeks, I waited, and prayed, and waited and prayed. I refused to lift a finger if I wasn’t sure that it was God’s will. I had no idea what I was looking for. I had no idea how I would know it. I knew nothing. I only knew that I wanted to understand God’s will. I spent time with the Bible. I spent time in prayer. I did little else. Things only started to look more desperate. And then I noticed a voice that had always been there. I noticed a presence that had always been there. I noticed a guiding hand that had always been there. It was not that God was absent from my life. It was that I was so unwilling to drown out all the other noise of life in order to be able to hear His voice, a voice that is loud and clear — if you will let it be. The choice is yours to fill your life with all the other noise of life, or to create the right environment to hear the most important voice.
Chapter 95: Rest
The idea at the heart of sabbath is to not do, but to simply be, to simply be still. God calls for that once every seven days in the Old Testament. He also calls for it once every seven years in the Old Testament. For a minimum of one-seventh of our time, He wanted us to just be still, He wanted us just being, He wanted us just waiting. The penalty for not doing so was very stiff — you probably would not live to sunset. I examine this aspect of rest more in my book ELUL 29.
I am not saying that everyone should be married to the rules of the Old Testament as a pathway to salvation. In fact, I believe the Bible clearly says that the exact opposite is true. To look to those rules as a pathway to salvation is to severely misguide yourself and others. This is not the key to eternal life. (Romans 10:9-10, John 3:36, Ephesians 1:7, 2:8-9, Titus 3:5-6, even Isaiah 53:11, an Old Testament book) This is not the way to God. (John 14:6) This is not the way to heaven. (John 3:16) What I am saying, is that there may be wisdom and blessings and lessons that remain valuable that are tied up in the Old Testament guidance that the Bible offers. Be still we are told. Just be. Stop doing. Rest.
The modern era promises the very opposite. It promises constant movement, constant action, constant stimulation, constant doing. There is something to waiting on God as a path to understanding Him better, to knowing him more intimately, to hearing Him more clearly, and to seeing how his fingerprints are on so much around us. It would not be out of the ordinary for the world to want to separate man from God. Constant noise, constant action, constant doing, little rest — these are the ways of the modern man, the ways of the diligent man. They are also the ways of the toxic world. The man who is diligent in this way is not diligent in the things of God. The man who is diligent in this way — always active — is negligent in the things of God. God wisely insists upon rest in the Bible and encourages rest in many ways.
One might almost imagine that God could recognize that noise (whether well-intentioned or ill-intentioned), haste (whether well-intentioned or ill-intentioned), and busyness (whether well-intentioned or ill-intentioned), are effective at separating man from God, even distracting man by assuring him that he is doing good in how he spends his time.
-Allan Stevo
This is a selection from my forthcoming book, “The Amtrak Vignettes.” A neat story began with the writing of “The Amtrak Vignettes” in October 2023. Every day until that story comes to an end, I intend to share a part of it here. It is a part of my faith journey as a Christian, a faith journey that has been deepened since the Ides of March 2020. Some of it gets pretty wild and nothing that a “reasonable” person would find himself in the midst of. Few will be scared off by it. Instead, many will grow deeper in their faith. I know that, because I know my readers well, and I know that few come here expecting me to give a milquetoast version of anything. Come here to be challenged. Stay here to have your life changed. That, I believe, is what will come of this work. You can support that work by signing up below.