In quietness and confidence

Isaiah 30:15 “…In quietness and confidence is your strength…” 
 
We live in a busy world, in an era of fast food, microwaves, and instant downloads. Patience, said to be a virtue, is becoming a lost, seemingly unnecessary virtue. We have the world at our fingertips and can accomplish many things, instantly.

The fast pace of our lives causes us to forget that God and His schedule don’t always follow our timetable. Because we are unaccustomed to waiting, when God follows His own schedule rather than ours, we get impatient and try to speed up processes or make things happen ourselves. But the fact is, God doesn’t want us to try forcing things to happen before His timing. He wants us to rest in Him, and trust that even if He doesn’t heed our instantaneous lifestyle, He still has a plan. In our impatience, we may attempt to work things out on our own, but God is calling us to rest in quietness and confidence.

Someone who doesn’t know how to swim may have the natural reaction to flail around when they are in deep water. By doing so, they not only exhaust themselves, but it also makes staying above water even more difficult. It is best for the person to relax and just float.

There are times that God closes doors, it may be permanently, it may be for a season. Yes, it is frustrating, but we have to trust that as He sees the bigger picture it is best left shut.

A few years ago, I worked at a church daycare. It was awful and I knew it was not the job I was best suited to. I quit and started applying for bank teller jobs.While I was applying for other jobs my former manager at my first job asked me to work seasonally. I received interviews for nearly every job I applied for, but after numerous interviews and 5 months, I still did not get hired by any of the places I applied. It was very discouraging and I did not understand what God was doing or why He was allowing me to go though such a long ordeal. As discouraging and confusing as it was, I believe that God did have a purpose in closing all of those doors. One of the biggest lessons He taught me is a lesson I am continually being taught: trust. After all of my interviews at banks, I finally got a part time job as a teller in addition to my very part time job. I was ecstatic. Within a month of working there, a former manager at another job had called and asked me to apply to be her assistant manger. As I was walking into the interview with her, my mom told me about a job opening at her friend’s company. I was offered both the job with my former manager and at my mom’s friend’s company. As I was going through the rejection, I didn’t understand, and yes it hurt. But God had a plan and a purpose and He stretched me through that season. 

 Isaiah 55:9 says, “For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” Even though we can’t make sense of closed doors and delays, God knows what He is doing. God doesn’t want us to wear ourselves out by trying to open doors that He may have closed for. Instead, He wants us to rest quietly and confidently in Him, for that is where our strength lies.