My soul waits in silence for God only;
From Him is my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
My stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken.
– Psalm 62:1-2
One striking aspect of Christ’s time on earth is how little He revealed of His own struggles.
We know little of His sorrows and disappointments. Fully divine and fully human, He surely felt the full range of human emotions. But He chose to spend his days serving others, his nights talking to His Father in heaven. He surrendered His life to God’s will for Him and trusted Him completely.
When trials fall upon us, our human response is to find an escape. The bigger the emotional storm, the more frantically we search for something or someone to rescue us.
And yet, the example Christ set for us is to wait in silence for God alone.
As the beautiful words of the old hymn remind us, all other ground is sinking sand. If we put our hope in teachers, friends, or even loved ones, we are likely to be disappointed. All these things, although they are good, are not perfect. Science and human love have limits, and our deliverance takes a power beyond the natural realm.
It is not fair to expect others to meet all our needs. A long illness, continuing financial struggles, or some other devastating heartache can suck the life out of our relationships. Sometimes we just have nothing left to give each other. Sometimes, there is just no path ahead out of our circumstances. When we have exhausted all other avenues of relief, we come to the door called Surrender, beyond which lies the empty room of the soul. There, in a place devoid of schemes and strategies, we find a chair and a Bible.
In this place, we wait.
It is not until we silence the voices in our heads that we can listen for the voice of God.
It is not until we have stopped talking that we can hear what He wants to say. It is not until we have taken our eyes off the storm and lifted them heavenward that we can see His face.
Ironically, this emptiness is where we can finally find safety, where the Holy Spirit has room to fill the vacuum left by our own devices. He wants to be the one to whom we run when we are in pain.
If others have let you down, remember that they are just frail humans going through their own struggles. If you are hurting today, know that God hears your cries. He wants to comfort you and heal you. He is waiting for you in the quiet place beyond the veil of tears.
‘Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy,
Now I will arise,’ says the LORD; ‘I will set him in the safety for which he longs.’
– Psalms 12:5
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