For the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said: “You
will be delivered by returning and resting; your strength will lie in quiet
confidence. But you are not willing.” Isaiah
30:15
I kept fretting.
At the end of my wife’s first pregnancy, she labored hard for two
hours. Every few minutes she pushed and
pushed to no avail. Our baby’s head
surfaced but would not emerge. As the
minutes passed, I knew my wife was exhausted.
Nervous and anxious, I would leave the room and go into the bathroom
across the hall. Kneeling on the cold,
tile floor I prayed, “God, please make this baby come out now.” I was fretted and worried.
The labor eventually
ended in a Caesarean section. Weeks later at a routine check-up, my wife’s
doctor said, “You be thankful for that C-section. Because of the size of your son’s head, if he
had effaced, it would have been fatal for one of you. I could not have saved you both.”
Many
times we fret instead of trust. Faced
with difficulties, needs, or confusing circumstances, we naturally worry. As men, we want to find the quickest solution
to get from point A to B. However, we
don’t have a birds-eye-view. Like me in
the hospital, I wanted the type of delivery that would cause my wife the least
amount of difficulty. I wanted a quick,
easy delivery. But what I did not know
could have been deadly.
The
Bible tells us to not fret. When we face
situations that create fear and distress, we are wise to remember the
exhortation in Isaiah 30:15. We can
choose to turn our minds to the Lord, place ourselves in His care, and rest in
Him. Even when we can’t see our way
through, quietness and confidence can mark our lives.
“Restlessness and impatience change nothing except our
peace and joy. Peace does not dwell in outward things, but in the heart
prepared to wait trustfully and quietly on Him who has all things safely in His
hands.” ― Elisabeth Elliot
Pictures used by permission from Pixabay
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