“Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalms 46:10 NASB).

Are you abiding or striving?  In seeking the Lord to meet our needs, it is not difficult to go from abiding to striving.

Recently I had a serious medical event.  I developed a massive blood clot affecting blood flow into my lungs.  We caught it just in time, and with medication, I am recuperating nicely.  I will have medical bills in relation to the hospital stay, coupled with the loss of income from several weeks I have been off work.  During my recuperation, the compressor on our heat pump died, and we have a significant repair bill.  At the same time, the recent nor’easter came through the east coast of the US, and we had damage to our roof, which may make it necessary to replace the roof.  On top of that, we have had to hire the clean-up of our wooded lot that I usually would have done myself.   For a while, I was afraid to get up in the morning for fear of what else might come down the pike. 

I started to nervously pray.  I thought about calling some people and asking them to pray.  Then, the Lord gave me the Scripture above.  The Lord was giving me a gentle rebuke.  It is always good to get people praying, yet due to our unbelief, we can major on exercising faith rather than resting in it.  The former leads to striving and the latter to abiding. Peace is always the by-product of abiding faith.

Are you striving or abiding over your needs today?  The absence or the presence of peace will answer this question for you.

I worked for seventeen years as a missionary with Youth With A Mission.  My missionary work has taken me to Mexico, Canada, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Spain, and Ukraine.  I hold a Masters of Education in curriculum and instruction from Virginia Commonwealth University.  [email protected]