When God is at Rest During Your Storm

“The Lord said unto me, I will take my rest and will look from My  dwelling place like clear heat in the sunshine and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.” Isaiah 18:4  ( KJV)

My situation was already bad. But things just went from bad to worse.

I had prayed.  I was still showing up in church.  I had read that devotion.  I had even wrote that devotion. 

And yet, things had gotten worse.  

I had no doubt God sees me.  And he saw my situation. He even saw it get worse to the point that I didn’t know what I was going to do.

And God during the whole thing was at rest.  He chose to remain at rest. 

On purpose.

What do you do with that?

Hezekiah knew what it felt like when God sits at rest in the midst of chaos. (2 Kings 18)

God always saw his people.  So Sennacherib’s approaching army may have caught Hezekiah by surprise but not God. 

He watched from his throne as they gathered their men together to form a mighty army. He watched as they made their threats. He even watched as they marched to the very gates that separated Hezekiah and this undefeated army. They were so close that no doubt they could hear their voices at the gate door. And God even sit sat at rest when they spewed their death threats at Hezekiah and his people. 

When anxiety rose up in Hezekiah and his people trembled with fear at their enemy’s death threats.  When Hezekiah spread out before God the letters sent from the enemy’s camp threatening them to surrender or else. God saw and heard it all and yet he was at rest.  

At rest at a moment like that. At a moment like mine. 

 But….

Don’t ever confuse the word still with rest. They mean two very different things. 

Dictionary.com http://dictionary.com describes them this way. Being still means a state of being motionless or inactive.  Being at rest is freedom from anything that wearied, troubles, or disturbs. Rest is a mental or spiritual calm. 

Yes, God was completely at rest during all the chaos and life threatening trouble Hezekiah found himself in but He was never for even a second not in complete and absolute control.  

He was never still, inactive or unconcerned.  No, God was at rest and in complete control. 

When the wind blew and the storm waves crashed over the disciples boat and they feared they would surely suffer shipwreck and be destroyed, they found Jesus in a state of rest too. (Mathew 4: 38-40) After all He was God.  In the bottom of that storm as the waves tossed the boat to and fro, Jesus slept.  Jesus as God was at rest in the midst of the storm. 

But just as Jesus got up and spoke to the wind and the waves to be still at just the right time before they went down into the depths of the ocean, God did the same thing for Hezikiah and his people. Minutes before the destroying army would have marched in taking them by force to destroy them, God sent his angel to take care of the situation. The angel simply walked through the enemy’s camp killing the army as they slept. 

So what do you do with the times that God chooses to rest during your “just got worse” situations in life?  

Maybe mine is to teach me that God is never just choosing to be still during my situation but instead teaching me that he is instead at rest and in control. God is never nervous, anxious or uncertain about what he is going to do in any situation. Not mine. Not yours. 

Because God isn’t at rest and remaining silent because he doesn’t care. He is silent because he does.  

God sees my whole life from beginning to end where I only see it in snapshots. He is much more interested in what he is working in me than what is happening around me. He longs to build the kind of trust in him that will empower me to sit and be at rest in the midst of chaos and trouble while he is working things out in his timing. 

Isaiah 18:4 teaches us that, The Lord “will take his rest and will look from his dwelling place like clear heat in the sunshine and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.” 

God longs to brings stability and calm to our situations. 

Having to wait on him shouldn’t be the scary thing I sometimes make it out to be. 

Our Lord is strong and mighty and often sits as the enemy lines up his plan against us. He watches it all unfold and chooses to not act because he doesn’t care but because He does care.  He waits till just the right time to unleash his great plan of redemption and hope for his people every time.    

Sometimes he defeats the enemy before our very eyes.  Sometimes he allows the enemy to break down our defenses so he can rebuild them in him. Other times he will fill us with strength at just the right time to defeat the enemy ourselves like in the days of Queen Esther. 

When God seems silent and remains at rest, it can be hard to process when we are facing uncertainty and suffering. But wrestling with trying to understand all those whys just leave me worn out. You too? 

So instead, I choose to take God at his word. He has never lied to me nor has he ever let me down. 

One thing that I have learned that so many times in scripture his word tells me to be still and know that he is God but I haven’t been able to find where it says God was still and needed anything. 

God wants me to learn to be still and know because he longs to teach me too how to truly be at rest too.  

He has proven to me over and over again that he is an on time God. He won’t change now. I read somewhere just this week that God hasn’t let his people down in the tenth hour.  And He won’t let us down in the eleventh one either. 

I find comfort this morning in knowing that God is always in control.  I too can rest in confidence that I am never out of his sight. At peace knowing that He does have a plan to move when He feels like the time is right to work all things for my good.  

God may seem silent but I have his word that tells me he is never unconcerned. He is at rest during my storm because he is in complete control.  At rest but never still.