Daily Devotions

Posts tagged “stay still

Quiet Confidence in God

Kathy Gabler—In the last two months, I have been in several conversations with upset and anxious people. Hearing their circumstances makes me understand their distress, but mid-conversation I hear again the instructions I heard that morning to “stay still” and “stay thankful”. I want to say to them, “I know it is a challenge when you are anxious and “what-ifs” are erupting in your thoughts and shooting holes in every hope that raises its head, but find the quiet stillness of confidence in God. Then be thankful that opens the door to Him and He is already on the doorstep.”


Stay Still and Stay Thankful

Kathy Gabler—After a time of wrestling with unanswered prayer that hadn’t seen the slightest possibility of being answered and after asking the Lord for wisdom and council before my attitude got way out of line, the Lord spoke to me, “Stay still and stay thankful”. Those are very clear instructions. Immediately I began to think about stillness and thankfulness and Jn.14:1 “Don’t let your heart be troubled”, came to mind. Having studied it I knew it meant “don’t let your heart be agitated or tossed to and fro or perplexed with doubt” and all that is the opposite of being still. Unanswered prayers don’t get to determine the mood for the day. When the man arrived from Jairus’ house and told him not to trouble the Teacher any more because his daughter was dead, Jesus heard the man and said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid! Just trust me, and she’ll be all right.” (Lk.8:50, TLB) Trust is the place where you don’t live by what you see or by what you hear; trust is the place where you stand on the Lord’s steady faithfulness, His unshakeable goodness, His undistracted awareness of what you need, of your prayers and when and how it will be best to answer them.


Stay Still and Stay Thankful

After a time of wrestling with unanswered prayer that hadn’t seen the slightest possibility of being answered and after asking the Lord for wisdom and counsel rowing in stormbefore my attitude got way out of line, the Lord spoke to me, “Stay still and stay thankful”. Those are very clear instructions. Immediately I began to think about stillness and thankfulness and Jn.14:1 “Don’t let your heart be troubled”, came to mind. Having studied it I knew it meant “don’t let your heart be agitated or tossed to and fro or perplexed with doubt” and all that is the opposite of being still. Unanswered prayers don’t get to determine the mood for the day. When the man arrived from Jairus’ house and told him not to trouble the Teacher any more because his daughter was dead, Jesus heard the man and said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid! Just trust me, and she’ll be all right.” (Lk.8:50, TLB) Trust is the place where you don’t live by what you see or by what you hear; trust is the place where you stand on the Lord’s steady faithfulness, His unshakeable goodness, His undistracted awareness of what you need, of your prayers and when and how it will be best to answer them. —Kathy Gabler


Find the Quiet

In the last two months, I have been in several conversations with upset and anxious people. Hearing their circumstances makes me understand their distress, but mid-conversation I hear again the instructions I heard that morning to “stay still” and “stay thankful”. I want to say to them, “I know it is a challenge when you are anxious and “what-ifs” are erupting in your thoughts and shooting holes in every hope that raises its head, but find the quiet stillness of confidence in God.  Then be thankful that opens the door to Him and He is already on the doorstep.”


Stay Thankful

(Kathy Gabler)—Stay Still had been only the first instruction. The second was, Stay Thankful.  That seemed somewhat of a contradictory challenge because it involved facing the troubling again that I had turned from to get still.  Sometimes we can simply walk forward and leave past conditions behind, but this time I had to go back to find where I had exchanged or laid aside my, ‘Thank you, Lord’.  Genuine thankfulness required that I go back and find God’s goodness and mercy and presence and purpose there among the unanswered prayers and unchanged issues.  This time I could not wallow in my emotions but rather stand separate from them and find God in the mix.   I gathered the truths out of the rubble.  Even in the unchanging daily grind, He was there and aware because He is God.  He was looking out for me during the struggles and fears because His love for me is constant. He had good plans for the outcome of each concern because He is good.  He would never leave me to Trouble’s threats or whims because He is faithful.  I had to look again to see Him there, and to see Him there reminded me that He is aware and He is good and He is faithful.  That made me thankful.