Courage to Be Still | Ears to Hear #16

Peace, Be Still... but can you?

Title Song: Nothing but the Blood of Jesus by Free As a Bird

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome to this episode of Ears to Hear. By the end of today's quick episode, you should have a better idea on the courage that is required to be still. Somebody in church not too long ago was bearing a testimony and said something along these lines, and what they said really stuck out to me. They said, Sometimes God needs to see your willingness to do something, to act, but oftentimes God needs to see your willingness to stand still. It's harder to stand still and to let God prevail than it is to go and try and do something on your own. I thought that was really good. I thought that applied to me because I have a hard time being still. Verse 35. I'm reading the New International Version, just for simplicity. It says, That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, Let us go over to the other side, leaving the crowd behind. They took him along just as he was in the boat. There was also other boats with him. Verse 37. 38. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, Teacher, don't you care if we drown? I think KJV, it's do you care not if we perish? They they thought they were gonna die. Verse 39. He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the waves, Peace be still. Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? 41. They were terrified and asked each other, Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him. So good. So good. When I think in my life about times where God has told me to be still, it's because I'm feeling very anxious about something that's coming up or that I think should come up. And I want to see change. I want something to happen. So a couple years ago, I was traveling. I had taken just a hiatus from my life, and I had traveled for a few months. And I was praying about what on earth I should do when I get home from traveling because I'd quit my career. I did mortgages and I quit. I knew I didn't want to do that, and I felt the only way was to like fully sever that tie. If I kept my license active, I would maybe be tempted to go back into it. So I let my license expire. I quit, turned my back on that industry, and I was praying that summer for okay, what what do I do? What should I do when I get home? And I wanted to know like early, like I wanted to have something planned out when I got home so I could just get back into making some money and have a career that I liked. And the answer I got was you'll know when you get back. And I was like, okay, cool. Like I that's good, I'll take it. But truthfully, I wanted an answer, like I wanted to know the specific thing, the specific action I should take. And I if I remember right, I had applied to over like 50 different places, and and this was like two years ago, and funny enough, like three months ago, some gym I applied to like be a manager, they replied back like three months ago, like, thanks for your consideration. And I was like, What is this? Like, is this like spam or what? And I realized it was from my application two years ago, so that's wild. Um, but anyway, I had applied to all these places, and literally nothing, no hits, like not one, not one landed. And so I'm going and I kind of just decided like those last couple weeks, like, okay, like trust in God. I can't. He said I'll know once I get home, I'm not home yet. So I guess I'll just figure it out then. And you know, that's not what I would do, but God knows best, truly. And it again, God was just saying, just be still, enjoy your travels. You're you you're privileged and fortunate to do this, enjoy your time now, because soon you're gonna have to go and get busy. So anyway, I get home, and I remember where I lived at the time, uh, walking or I was driving down the road, and down like walking distance from where I lived, there was a restaurant that said now hiring. And I it really stood out to me, and and I was doing some part-time work for a moving company so I could like pay my bills, but I again that's not what I wanted to do, and so I just saw this restaurant was hiring, and again, not what I wanted to do. I just had like a big boy career doing mortgages as a loan officer, and now I'm working for a moving company, and now I'm gonna apply to a restaurant, and again, it wasn't like a oh, I'm above this, and I wasn't because I ended up doing it, but I just remember thinking like again, this isn't what I would choose. I want another like career to just jump into, and so it seemed to me like a step in the wrong direction, but God knows best, and I had to humble myself and realize, okay, do I now have the faith to act? I barely had the faith to just relax and be still, but now do I have the courage to take a step, even if it's a step that I'm not stoked about taking, if I feel I'm pressed to do it, will I do it? And so I applied to the restaurant, I got the job, I started the next week. I'm not joking, I think I worked a total timeline of two weeks, but I want to say it was maybe like four shifts. I think I worked at four shifts at the restaurant, and I don't need to get into all the details, but essentially, while I was working at the restaurant, a good friend of mine hit me up with a career offer um to go be a sales rep at a uh his the company he worked for. And it was salaried. I was stoked again. It wasn't what I thought I'd do for the rest of my life, but it was closer. So I left the restaurant, went there, and things weren't, it still didn't feel quite like right, but it was better, and again, salaried, and it was you know more money than the restaurant was offering, so I was stoked to do it. Well, it turns out there was some rumblings at this company that I had just joined, and things weren't looking good long term, and it just felt a little uneasy, although the experience was really, really good. I just again long term it seemed whatever. Well, somebody I had met at the restaurant reached out to me about because they had left to go work at another company in a career setting and told me to apply there. And that experience I got at the first company for three weeks. Again, I was there for three weeks. A restaurant for four shifts, new tech company doing sales for three weeks. That three weeks' experience was enough to get me the job at where the person I had met at the restaurant told me to apply. So there was just this chain of events where somebody I'd I'd met in four shifts and my friend who got me a job, the combination of those two things led me into what essentially is now my career. Funny enough, I'm not at that company that I jumped to and did sales for about a year and a half. I'm at another company, but that has directly led me to where I am now and what I'm doing now. And I know, I know this is what I should be doing right now. Maybe not for the rest of my life, but right now, this is where I want to be. I'm happy to be here. I'm very fortunate with what I do now. And you can like nobody, nobody can tell me that that wasn't divinely orchestrated by God. Like, I I refuse to the grave. I would never believe otherwise. Because where I was mentally at the time and the way things had to go, and coming off my trip, being broke, not liking the moving company I was at so much that I was willing to take a pay cut and go work at a restaurant as a host, again, was only there for a very short time. I mean, God didn't even like looking back, I feel um, I almost feel bad because I I feel like I wasn't um faithful enough to to um you know, not that I complained doing it, but I I remember my feelings inside just being like, oh, like when is something when is something gonna happen? And you know, within like a three-month span, I had switched from like four different companies, and that's that takes a mental toll. And again, I landed at that company I was at for a year and a half, and that it changed my life. It truly did. And God, God foresaw that 1000%. He knew that that would happen. He knew things would fall in place if I just took little action after a period of being still. So, what am I getting at? When Jesus tells you in life when you're praying, sometimes he's gonna say, take a little step. For me, a little step was applying to a restaurant. That's that's what that little step was. Again, not something you might want to do, but it's it's acting, it's faith, it's a principle of action and power. A lot of times God's just saying, just be still. You you literally won't be able to figure it out now. I wasn't gonna figure out that I needed to leave the moving company to go work at a restaurant until I got home. God knew that, and God just said, just you'll know when you get back. You you can't you can't possibly know that now. How would I have ever known that I needed to work at that restaurant by my house? I needed to be home to know that. And it's so simple looking back, but that's how it goes for us, and that's how it goes for God, where God sees the picture. He not only does he see the picture, he knows the intricacies in your head and what you're thinking, and what you need to hear, and to just like let go and trust him. Because how was God going to explain that to me? What was what was the most efficient and best way to get through to me? What what message did I need? I needed, you will know when you get home. What? When I got that, it was like that's not what I wanted to hear. I wanted to hear and and imagine this. Imagine God said, imagine somehow in a dream or whatever, I heard a voice from the heavens and it said, You will need to apply at the restaurant next to your house when you get home. I would if I heard that while I was traveling, I would have been like, psh, obviously not doing that. I didn't apply to that restaurant, I didn't look in the restaurant industry. Do you know what I'm saying? It wasn't until I was home, living back in the swing of things, that God was able to just nudge me that direction. And so it's so important when God says to be still that you have the courage to do it. And that's where I think we grow often some like more. Like it's it's very difficult to wait upon the Lord, but he asks us to do that often. I have a couple other verses here where stillness is the the message from God. Psalm, I love the book of Psalms, Psalm 46, 10, New International Version, be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. God's God, He He's got a plan, and it doesn't always seem like He might. Like it doesn't seem like there's a plan for you. It's it's not that maybe you don't believe He does, but it's for you personally. It's easy to see, okay, in other people's lives, yeah, God clearly is leading them, guiding, guiding, and directing them. But I for me, like I don't know why God would really like plan something for me. Like I just I'm different or whatever. We feel we're so special that God doesn't care about us. It's a very twisted thought process. Um, be still, know that I am God. And how how does that look like? Well, I think what it looks like is our generation, if you're in your 20s, 30s, it's easy to be very anxious about the next steps, about what's to come, about the longings of your heart, whether that is career, relationships, um, love, friendships, hobbies. I mean, usually those are the main things that pang us. Um, loss, maybe it's it's loss that you've experienced, hardship. And so what what do I do next? When you feel the like overthinking, like for me, overthinking is a is a probably the number one problem in my life. When I feel that it's so hard to not just try and evaluate and thread out every possible answer right here, right now. It's it's extremely difficult. And that's the moment you have to try and like hit pause on the flood of thoughts you're feeling, the flood of emotions, and physically, spiritually turn to God and ask for that strength to calm down. Because what's going on is we have this storm, Sea of Galilee, whatever. We're on our fishing boat, and it's inside of us. We're the vessel, and the storm is inside of us, and it comes from external forces, it comes from being on social media, it comes from Satan ultimately. But the goal is can you like have a trigger where you recognize that you're spiraling, you're going down this thought process of being anxious, being scared scared, having fear. And there's there's a commonality between those themes of Christ saying, fear not, be still, right? That that's it's it's important that Christ feels the need to tell us that often throughout the scriptures. And, you know, even before people are being forgiven of their sins, you know, be not afraid. Your sins are forgiven. And what are we afraid of? Are we afraid of change? Are we afraid of letting go? Control? You know, are we control freaks and we we can't just give over our problems to God because we think we're better at solving them when clearly we're not? There's there's a lot to go go on there, but again, can you have a trigger point where you realize your your threshold is being stretched of managing your emotions and and everything that you're dealing with in life and the load you're bearing, that you snap out of it and you go, okay, I'm experiencing I'm experiencing this now. Let me turn to God, let me pray. Let me let me take a deep breath. Let me reassess what can I actually control about this situation. I couldn't control anything about when God said you'll know when you get home. At that point, it didn't make sense to, you know, I think I might have applied to a couple more places on a whim, but I kind of just pulled back. It was like, okay, well, if I won't know when I'm home anyway, I've put in, you know, and I remember thinking at the time, okay, maybe one of my applications will get accepted once I'm home, and I'll know because it'll be the only one. Again, that didn't happen. Not a single one got back to me. So, but that even that was a step in the right thought process of like, okay, I don't need to spend a lot more time worrying about it right now. God's given me an answer, and how selfish are we to get an answer and still not like take that at face value sometimes? God tells us what we need at the time, again, what we need, not what we want, what we need, and we're like, well, it's not what I wanted, so I'm still gonna like trip out about this. That's gotta be very frustrating for him, but he's all loving, all patient. And so recognize in those moments, be still, and then be not afraid. So, what's causing you why are you tripping? What's causing you stress? Be still. Know that he's God, and can you in those moments reflect on a list of evidences that you have in your personal life where God has delivered you from something similar? And if you don't have that, I encourage you to dig deep because I'm sure you could find something, but start logging it now. God is a God of miracles, God of faith. So start logging these experiences. I'm fortunate I have a lot of times I can look back and realize God not only answered my prayer, but it was better than I could have ever asked. Even if in the moment I was tripping, it ended up for my best benefit. Exodus 14, 14. The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still. So we gotta just we just gotta wait on God and really learn to not worry and have that courage to be still. I have a friend named Jared, he started a business, and I've worn a like a bolo tie in a previous video. That's his company, squarenot.com. Check it out. I've watched him build this business and put his heart and soul into it, and he felt inspired to do it, and all these wonderful things, and it's an incredible product, incredible idea, but it just quite hasn't gotten the traction that he's maybe wanted or deserved, or you name it. He felt God in his life. Well, I saw him recently, and it seemed like things it slowed down a little, so I just remember asking him, and he said, God told me to put it on hold. But he said it not in any like form of discouragement, which I feel like I may have had have after building something for so long. He just was like, Yeah, God, God told me to put put this on pause, like be still, and you know, things will work out when they need to. I don't know. He's and he he was just telling me he's like, I don't know what that means, like what the next steps are, but I'm you know, everything's been good so far, even if it's not what I wanted, like I'm grateful. So it's just kind of on the back burner. And I I remember like going home being like, No, like, dude, this I want this to take off for you. I remember like having those thoughts, like, dang, like that's gotta be frustrating. Like, does he feel like a sunk cost? Like he's wasted all this time on this. And I could just tell he was so confident in that answer he got from God that it didn't like those fears I was having on his behalf was just me projecting my own fears in my life because he had none of those. I mean, maybe internally, but like he's a very awesome, very faithful guy. And uh it was cool, it was cool that God told him to do something to put a passion of his on hold, and he just was like, Okay, all right, like, oh I mean, I feel like I'd be like, oh no, what do you mean? Like, can't you just make this 10x overnight? Um, and he could, God could, but that's not that's not it. And you know, I'm sure looking back at my you know, my friend looking back at his own life, he will clearly see why this is a time he needed to put it on pause. What does that look like in your life? What waves and storms are you in? And when God tells you, peace, be still, do you have the courage to do it? That's what matters. Thanks for watching. Tune in next week. See ya.