In Repentance & Rest You Shall Be Saved!
“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.” (Isa. 30 NIV)
For a long time, this scripture has kind of haunted me.
Have you ever read the Bible and – suddenly – a verse jumps out at you like it’s alive & you realize God is speaking directly to you?
This was one such verse for me… but what made it a lot freakier was that I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT IT MEANT.
Clearly, God is not one to waste our time (or His). If there’s anything I’ve learned in my years of following Him, it’s that God doesn’t mince words – so when He speaks something, I sit up taller & listen.
So tonight when I read an “assignment” on Beth Moore’s blog (an adorable & wildly popular Christian teacher), I did what any good teacher’s pet would do: my homework!
Her assignment?
1) Read Isaiah 30:15-18 (in 3 versions).
2) Write which one spoke most to you & why!
3) Look up Webster’s definition of a “threat” [which pertains to the Scripture].
4) Reflect on what’s threatening you most in your life lately.
5) Then consider how you’re “fleeing” said threats you’ve been faced with.
So, guess what her assigned passage was? Yup, the scary one that’s been following me around for years.
After reading each version, my favorite was this one (New Living Translation):
“This is what the Sovereign Lord,
the Holy One of Israel, says:
‘Only in returning to Me
and resting in Me will you be saved.
In quietness and confidence is your strength.
But you would have none of it.
You said, ‘No, we will get our help from Egypt.
They will give us swift horses for riding into battle.’
But the only swiftness you are going to see
is the swiftness of your enemies chasing you!
One of them will chase a thousand of you.
Five of them will make all of you flee.
You will be left like a lonely flagpole on a hill
or a tattered banner on a distant mountaintop.’Blessings for the Lord’s People
So the Lord must wait for you to come to Him
so He can show you His love and compassion.
For the Lord is a faithful God.
Blessed are those who wait for His help.”
My friends… do you realize what God’s seemingly been saying to me all along?
Come to Me for help. Quit running to those you think can help you or the solutions you THINK are the answer – because they will only turn out to be your enemies!
If there’s a word I can delicately use to describe me, it might be the word “stubborn”. Those who know me well might agree (and then we may throw down in fisticuffs 🙂
When I think I have something figured out, I HAVE IT FIGURED OUT GUYS!! So you can get outta my way now! (I think Solomon had a few choice words – or chapters – for know-it-alls).
But for reals, stubbornness is NOT a beautiful or godly trait [though it’s served me well at times!].
Maybe, just maybe, God has been longing to be gracious to me for many years… but I’ve tied His hands. Maybe my own stubborn streak – me thinking I had it all together (which a casual observer of my life could challenge) & that I had the solution figured out – is what’s kept me from finding the rest & peace I’ve been seeking.
I have to honestly ask myself this question ~ & maybe you can, too:
Have I really been chasing my own solutions, convinced they’d bring me peace & rest, when I only needed to wait for GOD to help me & give me HIS solution to find the peace I’ve been desperately seeking?
“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.”
And that’s the part that’s haunted me most: But you would have none of it.
I’ve rejected His help, so I didn’t receive it. I forged ahead, sure of my stubborn self, and chased away any semblance of peace & rest I could’ve received!
I can’t count how many times I’ve struggled over an issue & continued to diligently peck at it, push & press against it, trying to whittle it away to nothingness – equivalent to me spinning my wheels or jogging in place.
Yes, I had plenty of activity going on & appeared to be moving forward – but I was staying put. I haven’t actually been going anywhere, but I’ve been exhausting myself trying so hard.
It’s me flipping out on the bow of the boat, trying to keep from capsizing, when I’ve forgotten Jesus is on board peacefully sleeping through the tempest without a care. It’s me forgetting He’s there until the crisis is so acute that I’m spent on my own – and I remember to go WAKE HIM UP. Jesus climbs up to the bow with me and says peace be still. And only then does my storm cease.
God’s solution is for us to REST & let Him handle the problem. We still work hard, but we must cease trying to make life happen on our own terms, or without His hand to guide & lead.
My favorite part of the Isaiah passage, one that I never noticed in connection to the first part until tonight, is the ending… it’s soooo SWEET! And so like our loving God! (In NKJV):
“Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you;
And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
Blessed are all those who wait for Him.”
God is WAITING to be gracious to me.
He’s WAITING with His solution to every problem you & I have.
He’s WAITING to take that burden off our shoulders & replace it with a lovely, much-needed vacation from the stress of carrying it.
Rest simply means we trust Him to handle it – we don’t fret, worry, push, pull or drive it forward when it’s the wrong answer, or the wrong timing, or the wrong everything.
We are blessed people when we wait on God’s help, not conjure up the answer to our problem ourselves. STRIVING is the opposite of rest.
Beth Moore’s whole point of this exercise was for us to identify what THREATENS us in our lives to take action apart from God? What tempts us to “take matters into our own hands” (and how’s that workin out for ya, haha)?
I know what mine are. Do you?
And now our biggest question is – God, what does it look like to wait on You with this?
I’m curious what your thoughts & ideas are! How do we wait on the Lord for His answers, instead of chasing after our own?
What does ‘waiting on the Lord’ look like? I pray He shows us how.
xoxoxox
~Summer