The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.
Lamentations 3:25 HCSB
It just occurred to me that maybe when the Lord goes silent, calling me to wait for God – His Voice, His Word, His move – it’s because He’d like me to get quiet, too. My tendency has been to panic and try to figure out what I’ve done wrong so I can repent and He’ll speak to me again. But that fearful response to the hush of God is overridden more quickly these days because I’m just too tired for the full meltdown. It’s actually a relief to get quiet and wait for Him, almost as if that quiet is planned by a sovereign Father—which it always is.
Wait for Him in Green Pastures
Martha and John and the rest of us talk about what it means to be a sheep pretty regularly on this blog, but today I’m meditating on the optimum environment for raising sheep: the pasture. Given the skittish nature of sheep, asking them to thrive in a noisy, hectic, demanding environment seems like the height of folly. Yet in the last hundred years, more and more of us find ourselves in just that kind of place.
God made humans marvelously adaptable. We are capable of normalizing extremes of all kinds, but not with impunity. We are no less marked by our ‘pastures’ than actual sheep. So when God goes quiet and asks me to stop and wait for Him, then I believe it is absolutely necessary—and not just spiritually. My whole being cries for quiet because I’m a sheep, and the Spirit comes to lay me down in green pastures for rest I don’t even know that I need.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul…
Psalm 23:1-3
This Psalm is so rich and so instructive! First, God tells me who He is (the Lord) and who He is to me (my shepherd). Then He obliterates my fear and anxiety on every ground with a HUGE promise: ‘I shall not want.’ These three things cover my entire life, but He doesn’t stop there. And it is fascinating to me what God, our Good Shepherd, has prioritized next. Rest under His Hand comes first, quiet and tranquility in following His lead come next, and then healing and LIFE are third. There is purpose in this because God does nothing haphazardly.
Wait for Him in tranquility
Quiet, for the body, mind and spirit, was never intended to be an occasional gift; it is a necessity. When I am forced to wait for Him, I am forced to be quiet. I must exercise restraint and discipline to simplify my environment as much as I’m able as I listen for Him. I view so much of the noisy din of my life as normal when it absolutely is not.
This isn’t law, of course. Our Lord is as capable of reaching and shepherding those of His sheep who live soaked in noise and hurry and demand as those who don’t. But there are things that I do to usher noise into my life – internet, TV, music, books, company, going out and about, etc. – and I doubt I’m alone in that. There are always ways that I can turn off incoming noise and demand in my life. And when He asks me to wait for Him, that’s part of how He lays me down.
The world is full of hysterical people whose every word is a frenzied vibration of fear. But as a born-again believer, I am called out of that hysteria – and so are you. We have a Lord and Shepherd who prioritizes quiet. To fight that is to fight Him, and you can’t wait for Him and resist Him at the same time.
May each of us let our Shepherd lay us down in green pastures and lead us beside still waters this weekend, in whatever way He chooses and however that works out!
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
2 Timothy 1:7
Good word Jennifer! You have really grown in Jesus! I see you more and more dependent on Him! And the words coming from your mouth are no longer your words. You are speaking His words by His Spirit.
Good word, Jennifer! This may speak of this topic in a very little way — nothing spiritual, just practical — but recently, I unsubscribed to at least 95% of my incoming emails. In a way, it brought some unwanted anxiety . . . to come home from work, finally able to relax, turn on the computer to check email and be bombarded with a ton of stuff I usually just deleted: “buy this,” “donate to this,” “read this,” etc., it unsuspectingly and subtly created a lot of ‘noise.’ Since having done this, there are only 4 or 5 emails, that… Read more »
This is a balm. Confirmation of the need for quiet and rest, and confirmation that my Father is leading me in love, not condemnation. Thank you!
His anointing never ceases to amaze me.
Reading through this post…just the reading of it, brings in itself an actual sense of calm and peaceful rest.
Bless you Jennifer. And may God add His peace and tranquility to each of you in the days ahead.
Love to everyone.
Oh Jennifer, bless your passion for “waiting for HIM and lying down in green pastures” This post reveals my sheepness……hysterical, fearful, yet also my need for quiet and rest. Your revealing that I am fighting HIM when I resist the quiet and rest. “You can’t wait for Him and resist Him at the same time.” The buzzer went off. Yes, I am guilty of ushering in the TV and internet of noise, that blast out my need for quiet. “Noisy din” is truly a word fitly spoken to my spirit . Thank you for this “gift” of rest and freedom… Read more »