HEALTHY CHURCH: Turn Loose of Your Grip
Taking a closer look at the word “still” in the scriptures, you get the word picture of a calmness in God’s presence regardless of life’s circumstances. Psalm 4:4 (HCSB) says, “Be angry and do not sin; on your bed, reflect in your heart and be still. Selah” Psalm 23:2 reminds us that He leads us beside “still” waters. The word still appears several places in the Old Testament, and one Hebrew translation means “to turn loose of your grip.” In God’s presence, we do not have to scurry around for answers and strategies. We would rather trust in systems, steps, plans, strategies, processes and past experiences than allow the Shepherd to handle it.
In His presence, there is a calmness and a peace that cannot be discovered or experienced any other way. Instead of waiting on the Lord, though, we prefer to tell Him, “Wait, let me do this for you. I can fix this. Here is what we need to do.” God is saying to us, “Wait! I’ve got this if you will get into my presence and trust me!” Psalm 27:14 reminds us to “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” God calls us to turn loose of our grip and trust Him. By the way, no one is completely sure exactly what “Selah” in the Bible means, but most likely, it is something like “stop and ponder.”
God refreshes us with His quiet voice and with His gentle touch. God does not want us to do what we think is best; He wants us to do what He knows is best. Our task is to faithfully seek His face. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.” That is truth, but the reality is, what do you do when the path you are on takes an unexpected turn for the worst? You basically have two choices. You can take matters into your own hands, or you can do the hardest thing in the Bible — you can obey the scriptures and trust God and wait on His timing.
Maybe your career hit a snag, and you never saw it coming. Maybe the church asked you to leave, and the calling on your life led you to a very difficult ending of a ministry. Maybe you have a prodigal child who has decided to go their own path, either rejecting the truth you taught them or living in opposition to that truth. Maybe you are not married, and you thought you surely would be by this time and wonder what is wrong with you. Maybe you are married but it is a far cry from what you envisioned marriage to be. All of us must answer this question at some point — what do you do when life takes a negative turn you were not expecting?
Psalm 46:10 reminds you not to try to control the things God does not want you to control. Be still and turn loose of your grip by trusting Him to handle the situation. Psalm 23:3 reminds us that the Lord, our Shepherd, restores our soul and leads us in “the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” So, what is the path of righteousness? It is the path of dependence on the Shepherd. It is the path of accepting His directions over ours. It is the path of obedience to His commands over our preferences. It is being in tune with His will for our lives, individually and together as a church.
In Life Without Lack, Dallas Willard compares the language of Psalm 23 with the experience of Job. He explains that Job had to learn three different kinds of faith — the faith of propriety, the faith of desperation and the faith of sufficiency. It is quite a brilliant and profound truth spoken about a man, Job, the most righteous person on earth at the time. He was so godly that the Lord took pleasure in pointing him out to Satan. Yet, despite his love for God and diligent obedience to His commands, Job still had not fully come to know God. The blessings God had given to Job did not reveal everything about God’s character.
There are characteristics of the nature of God you can only begin to realize through adversity. So, the Lord allowed Satan to test Job through suffering. The pain was unfathomable, but Job discovered that even when he lost everything, including his 10 children, the Lord was “still” with him. Job not only discovered His presence, but he saw how infinitely wiser God was than him and that even when he had to endure the insensitivity of his friends, he learned that God is absolutely trustworthy. Job confesses that at first, he had only heard about God, but now, through his suffering, he had come to see God!
Job learned much more about God through his anguish and suffering than through God’s blessing and abundance. During your trials, the Lord will reveal His character to you in ways you never knew or imagined. You may wonder what you could possibly learn and experience, but it is His strong and comforting presence. The Lord will remain, even when everyone else abandons you, and it seems that everything is falling apart. You learn as Job did, that you can trust God 100%. Take time to “be still” by turning loose of your grip in His presence and learn that He truly is God.
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Larry Barker
Director of Church Planting and Church Health Larry Barker submits a weekly column titled, Healthy Church Solutions, designed to strengthen and encourage the local church.
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