Time to stand still

Today's project for the afternoon was to take some sheets and cover up my adorable Bacon Avocado tree. There is a serious frost warning out for Riverside tonight, and I didn't want to run over to our local nursery and purchase a frost cover for $14.00, so I pulled a few sheets from the  linen closet upstairs.

As I kept tossing the sheets over the tree, which has branches going in assorted directions, I remembered to shoo Jada out of the garden, because the wind had blown down two two fence sections that block her egress from our property. Hopefully, I will have the entire back yard properly fenced with cedar boards soon. It's a sorry-looking patchwork now, after 24 years and various canine escapes.

One thing I kept noticing as I repeatedly put up a sheet, or section of a sheet, was that the tree didn't stand still! The branches slanted this way and that, bent over, popped back up and shifted from side-to-side. What? I was rather cold out there even with a jacket on, and needed to get this task accomplished, so this was annoying. My first thought was "the obstinacy of inanimate objects!" But that quote wasn't a good fit--a tree is alive. (just not independently mobile).

But God had a word to say to me. He has something He wants to accomplish in my life today and tomorrow--the day of Steve's memorial--but I keep moving around in agitation and busyness! With all of the wonderful members of the Body of Christ, as well as our family, doing so much to arrange for a Spirit-filled memorial service, a beautiful reception at Alice and Brent Bechtel's home, and a relaxed and more intimate family gathering and dinner, I found myself micromanaging one task, asking two different, very reliable ladies to do the same job "just in case." Of necessity, involvement and some direction on my part as Steve's widow has been called for--with the church and pastor, mortuary, life insurance, the kind of major items that only I have the authority scripturally and legally to act upon. But for me, a traditionally very strong delegater, to not let folks take their own initiative, as many of them have, even in one small area, is not of the Lord. I wasn't resting in Jesus; my trust had slipped a bit. We have heard and we have seen Psalm 46:10a,

BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD.

But do we know how important this is, not only to us for peace of mind, that "peace that passes understanding" (Philippians 4:7), but to God? Hear the rest of the verse, God speaking:

I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!

When believers stay prayerfully still, acknowledging that only God can handle any and every situation in exactly the right way, we exalt His name to everyone who hears of His work in  our lives. We exercise trust, something we humans are very reluctant to do! We're suspicious, aren't we? It's as if God were like one of us, selfish, wavering, up one day, down the next, lacking foresight and wisdom, and completely unaware of what we are capable of. God even declares His righteousness as opposed to man's actions in Psalm 50:21:

These things you have done, and I

  kept silent;

You thought I was altogether like you;

But I will rebuke you, and set them in order before

  your eyes.

Therefore, instead of rushing forward and ending up being rebuked for making a hash of things, why not TRUST Jesus and let Him work in our lives?

My dad enjoyed the book Jesus Calling that I gave him for Christmas last year, and now he's passed it back to me for 2013. I hadn't heard much about this pocket-sized book before I purchased it last year, but then began hearing it quoted, and now I understand why. Today's selection begins,

Trust Me by relinquishing control into My hands. Let go, and recognize that I am God. This is My world: I made it and I control it. Yours is a responsive part in the litany of Love. I search among my children for receptivity to me. Guard well this gift that I have planted in your heart. Nurture it with the Light of My Presence.

As I prepare for a wonderful day tomorrow, for the gatherings that will honor my husband and my Lord Jesus, I relinquish control to the One who can never be mistaken, never does wrong, and loves me more than anyone ever could, since before I was born, until the day I go to be with Him--and with Steve!