“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” (Psalm 46:10 NIV)

“Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” (Psalm 46:10 NASB)

I’ve been learning a lesson lately.  Okay, well it’s been a lesson for a few years now.  I’m learning.

I can be a very ambitious and driven person, but my expectations can be unrealistic.  Often these expectations lead to frustration, disappointment, and sometimes even discontent and despair.  This ambitiousness can be great.  I get a lot of things done.  However, I have to watch myself and am asking the Lord to continually help me realize I’m on a slippery slope while I am still at the top of it.  That way I can, by His grace, get off of said slope before I slide all the way to the bottom.

And I’ve seen growth here.  This last year has especially been a year of great growth, and I praise the Lord for this.  He’s calling me to simplify.  I don’t have to try and accomplish every idea that comes to me right away.  Perhaps some of these ideas will be for later.  It’s a matter of discernment that can only be realized through prayer.  I’m learning.

Agh, but I get so impatient!  I want things to come together.  I wonder what I should do.  I grow restless.  I grow irritated.  I grow frustrated.

Simplify.  I hear this call to scale back.  Maybe this is all too much.  Maybe there is still a more simple way.  What if I didn’t care about crossing off everything on my to-do list?  I’m learning this.

It’s taken years, but I am learning this.

The Hebrew word for still from Psalm 46:10 means to relax, to sink down, to let drop.  The Hebrew word for know here involves knowing by experience and to recognize.

When I chill out and recognize that He is God (and I am not), He is exalted.  I can exalt Him because I know that He is in control, He is good, and He’s faithful and true.  All of the details are not overwhelming when placed in His loving hands.  I have seen this time and time again.  He keeps showing me, and I’m so thankful.

When I stop striving and pressing and forcing things to go the way my ambitions would prefer, I am able to again recognize Him as God and move forward again in His joy and peace.  He can be trusted, I remember.

“All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

He can be trusted with it all.  And maybe, just maybe, I’ll go to bed at a decent time.