in the midst of chaos

​7You are my hiding place; 
You shall preserve me from trouble;
You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. 
Selah
8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will guide you with My eye.
9 Do not be like the horse or like the mule,
Which have no understanding,
Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle,
Else they will not come near you.
10 Many sorrows shall be to the wicked;
But he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him.
11 Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous;
And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
                             Psalm 32:7-11 

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Just when you get your head above the water,
another wave comes.
 
Financially, emotionally, ethically – every avenue of our lives are being challenged.
Fear is being broadcasted like the morning Reveille trumpet call; how do we even know where to go next? What will remain in the coming days?
 
Lately I’ve been asking the Lord a plethora of questions –
How do I even dream, God?
Where do I go from here?
What avenues do you want me to invest my resources?
What will even be left standing when this is all over?!
 
His voice in Psalm 32 is soft and gentle, like hands lightly sweeping away the hair from a child’s tiny face:
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8 “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will guide you with My eye."

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In this verse, “eye” can be translated to “spring” or “fountain”.
Remember Psalm 36:8 from my previous post?
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8 They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house,
And You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures

In this verse, "river" can be translated to “torrent” or “stream”.

He brings us to the river in the midst of all our questions to guide us in the direction we should go!
And sometimes, He answers the questions that should have been asked, not the endless questions we have on repeat.
 
I actually started this blog a week before “the storming of our American castle” (if you will), before things got this crazy. Often the Lord likes to prepare our hearts, providing a foothold, before the real​ storm comes.
 
Right now, without a shadow of doubt, I can tell you that the best thing we can all do is to shut out every voice (including our own) and wait before the “river of His pleasures”. We serve a King who will always have the last laugh, no matter what it may look like to our understanding. The world may seem like it’s falling apart around us, but His goodness and His promises never change.
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 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.”
                                                            Hebrews 13:8

So if He is unchanging, utterly unmoved by the plans of the enemy,
then why should we be?

​“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm.
Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully
to the work of the Lord, because you know that
your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
                                                                        1 Corinthians 15:58
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​This week, take the time to sit quietly before the Lord-
because “the work of the Lord” isn’t always doing.
His promise to answer our every breath is set before us, just like a dowry (see Ephesians 1:14).
Sometimes He answers with extraordinary breakthrough that comes rushing in like a “torrent” or a “stream”.  And yet, more often than not, His sweet whispers come gently like a “fountain” or a “spring”.
 
How He chooses to answer us is not dependent upon our insistent coercing with strong words or saying the most providential prayers;
This week He has shown me that sometimes His responses fully correspond with the position of our heart in that moment.
 
When we are in desperation, struggling and fighting to catch a breath through the chaos, sometimes His soft, sweet words sound something like -
 
My dear,
put down the gloves, end the warring - with yourself and everyone else.
I just want all that you are to sit with all that I Am.
 
I promise you (from my own recent, raw experience) that the moment you strip off those old, worn, tired gloves from your aching fists, the thought of sitting at His river of delight won’t make you cringe any longer.
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Soon you will see all that you are to Him, and the chaos around you will fade.  
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