Cease striving and know...

Beautiful seems so poor an adjective to describe this day.  Truly, I wish I were both brave enough to walk about the neighborhood and had a foot that would allow me to do so.  I suppose I shall make do with the lounge chair in the back yard.

Psalm 46:10 tells us, "Cease striving and know that I am God...." Such a wondrous weather day inspires that stillness.  I have always focused on the first part of this verse...I suppose because in the evangelical world bits and pieces of verses become almost iconic.  This is one.

Be still and know that He is God.  Be still and learn this.  The focus is on the believer.  Only in the verse, the focus is on our triune God.  For the verse finishes..."I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."  Funny I never noticed the certitude of that second half rests squarely outside of myself.

Even then...that exultation is not for God, but rather what He has done for us.  Our Confessions remind us that Christ had no need of redemption.  Yet He suffered and died anyway.  He did so for us.  God as Creator has no need of such beauty in the perfection of the weather of this day.  Yet He created them anyway.  He does so for us.

I step outside and, to me, it is almost as if God is shouting, "I created this magnificence. I WILL be exalted.  Look closer, Myrtle.  Be still.  I created this perfection for you.  One day, you WILL be perfected, you WILL be magnificent in purity. Be still. Cease striving.  Know that I am God, your God, who has called you by name."

I know that there is beauty in the black skies and wild winds of fierce thunderstorms, but it is easier to see in brilliantly blue skies and gentle breezes.  I am thankful for the ease of today's reminder that He is God, that He will be exalted, and that all of His promises will be as He has spoken them...to me, for me.


I am Yours, Lord.  Save me!