Be still and know...

Psalm 46
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
Selah
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The LORD of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah
Come, behold the works of the LORD,
how he has brought desolations on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the chariots with fire.
"Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!"
The LORD of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah

Be still and know that I am God...The Lord of hosts is with us...

As a single woman, I get a lot of advice on how to change that. The people around me have a lot of opinions as to why I am still single...and what I need to do to go about gettin' me a man. They are all well-meaning and prompted by a love and care for me, and I appreciate it. And though, in the natural, some of their observations and counsel might be good and right...there is another - greater - force at work than my refusal to club-hop or put myself out there via the internet or actual pursuit of a man...greater, also, than the passivity of the men around me or my size or my refusal to consider anything other than a godly man. And that something is a good and purposeful and sovereign God.

What that God is saying to me is: You are being kept. Wait only on me. (And as you wait) Your maker is your husband. Be still and know that I am God...and I am drawing lines for you in pleasant places. Pursue me...delight in me...and I will give you the desires of your heart.

For me to step outside of this counsel and accept that of my well-meaning friends and family (who I sometimes think want to see me married with children more than I do)...would not only be disobedience but it would actually hinder the process, not help it, for conviction and correction and repentance takes time.

So I wait. But this waiting is not inactivity or lanquishing. It is purposeful, prayerful, frought with activity in the unseen, and sanctifying.

Is it easy? Um...NO. It's not. But its a good kind of hard...and I know the fruit of this (at times) arduous waiting will be wonderful and well worth the wait.