“The Lord Himself will fight for you, you need only be still.”

Exodus 14:14

We are inundated with voices.  Voices everywhere that shout and clamor and accuse and threaten.  Voices that remind us – never let us forget what…where…who we aren’t.  Voices that wake us – keep us from sleep.  That incite fear, drive wedges, ruin relationships, derail destinies.

But there is One voice that is still and small and gentle.  One voice that tells us who we are – and more importantly who HE IS.  One voice that makes right all that is wrong.

The headlines are ransacked with shootings and bombings and earthquakes and human trafficking and famine and sickness and we are tempted to bury our heads and close our doors and our hearts to the hurting.  Because we think it is just too much for us to bear.  And it is.

“Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.”

Psalm 68:19

There has always only ever been two choices in life.

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;  I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

John 10:10

“I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.  Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him.”

Deuteronomy 30:19-20

Two choices:  Life and death.  Blessing and curse.  Stillness and Panic.  Choosing life, gives us access to His voice.  One choice – a daily choice – has the power to drown out all those voices: the fear, the insecurity, the accusations.  One voice that calls us to “Be still and know that I am God.”  (Ps 46:10).   One voice that commands the wind and waves, “Peace, be still.”  (Mark 4:39).

After Moses said to the Israelites, “The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still.”  he heard that One voice say, “Why are you crying out to me?  Tell the Israelites to move.”   Stillness is not passive.  Stillness is intentional.  Stillness in the presence of the Most High readies for motion.

So today, let’s take time and be still.   Let’s choose life over death, blessing over curse, stillness over panic.  Let’s “listen to His voice” over all the others.