Life Ain't Like That...by Janet Perez Eckles

 

But those who suffer He delivers in their suffering;

He speaks to them in their affliction. Job 36:15

 

Why is the shower often that special place where ideas filter through, insights pop up, and solutions seem to appear?

 

That happened to me the other day. As I showered, concern and frustration rained down upon me. What should I write here? When should I speak there? Why didn't this succeed? How did that fail?

 

Then I turned off the faucet and my mind took off in a strange, wonderful direction. New thoughts rushed in to replace old ones. New plans offered themselves. And my struggles seemed to wash away.

 

How lovely it would be if we could shut off the shower of problems in life. What if we could stop the downpour of demands? What if we just pushed a knob and turned off all the hard stuff that keeps coming down on us?

 

But as a woman once told me: "Life ain't like that, honey."

 

She's right. Life is certainly not that easy. And yet, the Living God is easy on us when we are wet with worry and anxiety.

 

I found a powerful message tucked in a familiar verse in the book of Psalms: Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10). Like me, you might have read it hundreds of times. But when I heard it recently, two words leaped out and made me smile.

 

The words are: I am.

 

What a delicious notion of the present, the now, this moment. What a powerful promise of the Living God.

 

He is with us in our present situation. He is active now in our time of insecurity. He is in control of this moment's pain, grief and despair.

 

And when we're dripping with stress, He offers the soft towel of reassurance. He wraps us in the comfort of being still in His presence. He warms us in the confidence of knowing He is God of all.

 

"I am God," He says. In turn, I am believing in Him. I am trusting in His Word. I am delighting in His promise. And I am counting on His guarantee that at this very moment He is delivering us from all suffering.

 

Right now He is speaking to us in our affliction, whispering softly to our broken hearts, "Be still and know that I am God." Can you hear Him?