Be still… acknowledge God in your trials!

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

Philippians 4:5-7
Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;
do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

If we were to look at the above verses, we understand they are both saying the same thing. Very often people are misunderstood, which affects the actions of their peers in that given environment. For people who believe their identity is grounded in what people generally perceive of them, this is an impossible situation to deal with. The world in their unbelief are blind to God and so the approval they seek, is of the people around them in everything they do but you know the expression of what it is to be at the mercy of people. It is very different from being at mercy of God, availed in the saving love of Jesus Christ.

1Peter 5:6-7
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

If we were to look at 1Peter 5:9 in the light of Psalm 119:71, 75; we would see that there is such a thing as righteous suffering, which God brings upon us for two main reasons. The first reason being that these afflictions serve as furnace experiences in the lives on the believer, burning out the godless dross in his/her mind and heart. The second reason is: God is worth every righteous striving because that earnest striving in lives of believers is the worship God seeks of those whom He has redeemed in Christ. For those who receive this new birth in the Spirit of Jesus (John 3:3), go through an ennobling process (James 2:5) under the mighty hand of the Triune God. Knowing that all creation glorifies God, if we take a look at how noble metals are purified, we understand how affliction burns out the dross from our hearts and minds in refining us in His own image.

Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Romans 8:1, 28, 31
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
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What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

We ought to remember that Salvation is God saving us from himself; Satan may be an agent of death but that is only because he has fathered our sin from the fall (Gen3:1-6). The wages of sin is death but as much as justice is a perfect attribute of God, so is His love, and it is in His perfect love that God offered us His own Son as an atonement for our sins. In doing so, God sent His Son to be born of virgin and take on the complete nature of man and thus become that unblemished sacrifice which substituted us in receiving the full onslaught of His Father’s wrath poured out for all sin, thus paying the full wages of sins for all of His sheep. To view Almighty God and Satan as two opponents in a boxing ring, is a lie which Satan has only succeeded in infiltrating the minds of those who are indifferent to God and those who are a standard to themselves (Proverbs 26:12). The fall has made such a worldview natural for every son/daughter of Adam, it is no wonder that the Salvation God presents us in Jesus Christ, is a twofold propitiation; the first being, the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus fully satisfies/propitiates the wrath of God poured out for all our sins, & the second being, the Spirit of Christ propitiates/overcomes the ungodly rebellion in hearts and mind of those God has called to Himself according to His will.

Isaiah 40:30-31
Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

John 14: 1, 6 (Jesus says)
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
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Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

So, the next time you are troubled remember: the first thing you must have in place is how you stand in that moment before God. If you erred in the sight of God, set that straight from the knowledge of God revealed to you in scripture and wait on Him then to deliver you from that trial, which He shall do so only in His time and from the mercy you have availed before Him in Jesus Christ alone. Remember once you are set right in the sight of God, there is no need for any anxious striving to justify yourself in the sight of self-righteous men. Instead you ought to wait on God silently, to deliver you in that trying moment, which you are given to do while persevering in the righteousness of God as revealed in the Holy Bible. As you do this, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding shall guard your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ.