Christian Living

In Times of Stillness

by Dr. Timothy Hoflund 
04/12/13
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God is so very awesome! It is easy to say that when we see God moving and using us, bringing about things that perhaps long ago He gave us a glimpse of what was to come or simply intervening in a situation that required His favor!

But do we recognize that the same God, our very same Abba, is truly awesome in the times of stillness? Do we proclaim His awesomeness when we are in a holding pattern, standing still and waiting on the Lord?

Whether we are in a flurry of activity, an abundance of blessings or we find ourselves sitting by the river bank wondering "what in the world is going on" we need to recognize that God is AWESOME all the time!

You know, God is sooooo awesome that times of stillness reveal His wisdom and wonders! During times of stillness God is either - -

• Preparing us for what He intends to do in us and WITH us
  or


• Giving us Rest & Recuperation from a time of being busy!

When you're in a time of stillness and you know that it is not a time of being corrected by God, you know a "time out" for doing something wrong or "being bad" ...

... but you don't know the purpose for the time of stillness, stop and think of either what you may have recently come through; ESPECIALLY a time of great accomplishment and God sees what we do not - that we need R&R!

Or, if you know that you are not in a "time out" and you know that you are not being given a time of R&R - - then realize that you are in a time meant to renew your strength for a work that lies somewhere ahead!

"They that wait upon the Lord renew their strength!" And the longer the time of stillness, the greater the strength that is being built up within you!

Thus if you have been in a time of stillness for a very long time, rejoice!

It may be that God is preparing you for an explosion of ministry that may only last but a moment in time but that is so important that you will need so much strength, so much focus, so much faith, so much boldness, so much confidence, so much intensity that even if what God has planned may only be for a few weeks, or a few days, or a few hours, or a few brief moments of ministry - - but that what God is going to do through you will have everlasting consequences and affect all men everywhere!

Just think if you will for a moment - - the Sunday School teacher that ministered the Gospel to Billy Graham and led him in that prayer of calling upon the name of the Lord!

Chances are that he may have often wondered if God was ever going to use him in a significant way, in a way that really mattered, in something really BIG!

That man was faithful in the times of stillness and how many millions of souls are now in heaven or living in Christ still on earth because he was faithful to wait upon the Lord!

Which brings me to my last point - - sometimes those times of stillness ARE THE MIGHTY MINISTRY OF GOD THROUGH YOUR LIFE!

God may be keeping us in times of seeming stillness while He is really using us in magnificent ways but disguised in times of stillness to protect us from our own pride and vanity!

Can you imagine the struggle with pride and ego that young Billy Graham's Sunday School Teacher would have had to contend with had he known what he had just done when he prayed with Billy Graham for salvation?

Can you imagine if that man had known that because of his ministry to one young man he had just secured the ministry of salvation into millions of lives?

Think of the temptations of pride that he would have had to deal with! Think of the boasting he would have had to choke down to keep quiet!

But God is soooo awesome that he used that man in a HUGELY magnificent manner but did so in the disguise of stillness for the man's own spiritual well being!

I wonder how many times that Sunday School teacher asked God, "Lord, when are You going to really use me in Your ministry in a way that really means something?" When all the while, God already had already done so!

Think on these things the next time you are in a time of stillness and wondering just why it is so!

Many Blessings!