Surrender your anxiety! Be silent and stop your striving and you will see that I am God Ps 46:11 (TPT)

There Is Strength – Going Through Hell Series – Part 3

Go to PART 1  |  PART 2  |  PART 3  |  PART 4  |  PART 5  |  PART 6  |  PART 7

If you’re going through hell, don’t stop. Keep going. Don’t pitch a tent, don’t camp, don’t stand still. Get the hell out of there.

OR

Maybe you should stop…

Picture a scene in a film where someone is running through a treacherous forest, falling over rocks, getting tangled in vines and bushes, looking frantically for danger through poor visibility, light fading, darkness flooding: it’s not a comforting scene.

When I’ve received bad news, or I’m in the middle of a situation I can’t control, my imagination becomes unruly. It runs down rabbit holes, it takes me to scary and dark places before I even have a chance to talk reason to it. I’ve made poor decisions while on the run from hopelessness. I’ve stumbled through heartache, I’ve been knocked around by anger, I’ve been bludgeoned by fear, all because when things went wrong, my heart took off. I wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. Fight or flight kicked in, and I flew without thought, care or common sense.

Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God.”

We tend to quote this regarding worship. But I think this Psalm, this directive from the Divine, is most pertinent to seasons of darkness. The command to “be still” comes from the word “rapha” which means to be weak, to let go, and to release. It might be more accurate to read Psalm 46:10 as saying “cause yourselves to let go, become weak.” In Hebrew literature, the poetic use of the noun form of ‘rapha’ – rephai’im – was used as a synonym for “the place of the dead…”

Sometimes, when you’re walking through deep darkness, under a shadow of death, the best thing for you to do is to let go, become weak, still the panic in your heart, put to the death the erratic tension within you that wants to run and run and run, and embrace the hardship around you. Face it head on, eyes open, lungs breathing, spirit surrendered.

Do not mistake this for giving up. We’re not talking about the kind of surrender that gives in, then lays down and dies. We’re talking about the kind of surrender that leads to presence, faith, clarity, and rest. Peace in the midst of chaos.

Paul wrote to his friends in Corinth and said:

“It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness.” ( 2 Cor 12:9 MSG).

I don’t want to get all cheesy about this verse, but there is strength in knowing your limitations, there is strength in the awareness of where you are and what is before you, there is strength in the humble and vulnerable admission and embrace of the season you’re in.

If you can be still enough to take stock, catch your breath, take in your surroundings, check your bearings, PRAY, surrender, inhale and exhale, then the very situation the seeks to take you out, could be the very place where you experience the first rays of hope and freedom.

Going through hell? Take a moment. Sit down. Try and relax. Slow your heart rate down. Allow your vision to clear. Surrender your fear, worry, anxiety, sheer terror, lack of certainty, anger, rage, whatever it is that is causing you to flail through this desolate time, over to the Divine.

There is strength in the exchange.

We want to hear your thoughts to you! Leave us a comment below.

Go to Part 4 – Seasons of Darkness »

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