Lie Still and Trust

Lie Still and Trust

"I had fainted unless…!(Ps. 27:13).

"FAINT NOT!"

How great is the temptation at this point! How the soul sinks, the heart grows sick, and the faith staggers under the keen trials and testings which come into our lives in times of special bereavement and suffering.

"I cannot bear up any longer, I am fainting under this providence. What shall I do? God tells me not to faint. But what can one do when he is fainting?"

What do you do when you are about to faint physically? You cannot do anything. You cease from your own doings. In your faintness, you fall upon the shoulder of some strong loved one. You lean hard. You rest. You lie still and trust.

It is so when we are tempted to faint under affliction. God's message to us is not, "Be strong and of good courage," for He knows our strength and courage have fled away. But it is that sweet word, "Be still, and know that I am God."

Hudson Taylor was so feeble in the closing months of his life that he wrote a dear friend: "I am so weak I cannot write; I cannot read my Bible; I cannot even pray. I can only lie still in God's arms like a little child, and trust."

This wondrous man of God with all his spiritual power came to a place of physical suffering and weakness where he could only lie still and trust.

And that is all God asks of you, His dear child, when you grow faint in the fierce fires of affliction. Do not try to be strong. Just be still and know that He is God, and will sustain you, and bring you through.

***

David said, "I would have fainted". This means he didn't faint. His soul called on him to faint, but the command "faint not" would not allow him to faint. His understanding that there was something better ahead would not allow him to lay down in the middle of the journey. He refused to faint.

When one is weary from the battle, how does he restrain from fainting? When there is no energy left in him, what keeps Him from letting go? Faith! David said, "I would have fainted if I had not believed..." It is faith that sustains the weary soul when in and of itself, it would have fainted. Faith believes the promises of God and validates the hope of a brighter tomorrow. When the soul grows weary, faith is all that we have left. At that moment when giving up seems the only course of action, we must simply lay our faith on top of our weariness and trust God to do the rest. It is in the moment of weariness that God's command to be of good courage is transformed into His imploration to "be still".

Dr. Rick Wallace

Be still and trust God. Besides faith, what more must be added to the weariness to resist fainting. Simply be still. You simply provide the faith and God will do the rest.

This faith that kept David from fainting was not centered on the afterlife. Many Christians have become fatalist, believing that life here on earth is doomed to defeat and the victory does not come until heaven. Yet, David said, "I would have fainted unless I believed that I would see the goodness of God in the land of the living." David believed that he would see the goodness of God while living. God has promised you victory in every situation here on earth. Keep believing and faint not.~ Dr. Rick Wallace