Psalm 37: 7-9
Thoughts from Dayna Spaulding
Dive Deeper
“Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land.”
Psalm 37: 7-9
Behind the Scenes
I love the Message version of this scripture:
Quiet down before God,
be prayerful before him.
Don’t bother with those who climb the ladder,
who elbow their way to the top.
Bridle your anger, trash your wrath,
cool your pipes—it only makes things worse.
Before long the crooks will be bankrupt;
God-investors will soon own the store.
“Quiet down before God” – this gives me the feeling of just chilling my heart, my thoughts, my actions. My kids used to tell me to “chillax”. Just stop the spin cycle and refocus. Then there’s, “Cool your pipes”, like when a boiler starts to overheat, and you need to cool it down before it blows. This imagery has me thinking of the cartoons where one of the characters literally blows his top – I have felt this way before.
Make it Real
This passage tells us that God wants something different for us than lives filled with anxiousness and anger. And the way we get to the better life that God has for us all depends on what we are focusing on. If we focus on self, comparing ourselves to others and their situation, then our anger can get the best of us.
Anger it doesn’t just stay under the surface, it gets directed at those around us. Maybe you get angry at the woman who just told you she was pregnant when you’ve been trying for years. Or you get angry at the co-worker who got the promotion you wanted. You get angry at those “bad people” who seem to just keep getting ahead. And, in the end, angry at God for the whole lot of it.
But when you read on, you see that when we respond in anger, we just make things worse. Have you noticed this? How your spirit is in total disarray and nothing seems to go right? How the smallest thing can just set you off into an emotional tailspin?
However, if we keep our focus on God, knowing that He has already won the war, we can move through whatever situation we find ourselves in. We can find joy and be happy for the friend who just found out she was pregnant or the coworker who got the promotion, and love those “bad people” as God loves them. We can be thankful and joyful in the midst of our “waiting”.
Because “those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land.” You see, when we wait on the Lord, there is no room for anxiousness. This kind of waiting is the opposite of being anxious, stressed-out, angry, or amped up. It’s about being quiet, still, and restful before the Lord. And the only way that we can do this is to fully surrender to the sufficiency of Christ.
When we wait anxiously, instead of waiting on the Lord, really what we are waiting on is ourselves, the world around us, or others- But not God. When we get angry, fret, or get worried, what we are essentially saying is that God is not enough, that He is not faithful. We are calling God a liar. So, waiting anxiously cannot co-exist with waiting on the Lord.
Where do you need to trade your anger in for joyful waiting and thankfulness? Where have you let your longing for somebody’s else’s life bankrupt you? Is there a place that your life has been essentially be calling God a liar? How an you rest in His faithfulness this week? I pray you can give it over to God, refocus on Him and all He has done, and live a joyful, abundant life.
Colleen McGeorge
ACF Devo Team
End in Prayer
Lord,
Thank You for always being faithful even when I am not. Thank You for always being enough when my life feels out of control. Lord, please help me to rest in You this week, trusting You instead of myself or this broken world. Help me to see where my anxiousness and anger is stealing the abundant life You have for me.
In Jesus name,
Amen