#330: Mentoring Moment: Be Still

Welcome to Kingdom Writers, where we help equip and empower Christian writers of all genres to share your unique gifts with the world. We're your hosts, C.J. and Shelli Hitz.

This podcast is filled with spiritual encouragement as well as prayers to help you overcome the resistance you face as a writer. Your story matters.

Our theme today is be still, and CJ has some encouragement for you to share to you on this topic.

Yeah, so whenever we mention the words be still, we would be remiss not to go to Psalm 46.

Right.

And so I am going to read from there, but I also have a couple other little references that will want to look at as well. But let me just read Psalm 46 and I'm going to read the whole thing. It's just 10 verses. God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge. A river brings joy to the city of our God. The sacred home of the most high God dwells in that city. It cannot be destroyed. From the very break of day, God will protect it. The nations are in chaos and their kingdoms crumble. God's voice thunders and the earth melts. The Lord of heaven's armies is here among us. The God of Israel is our fortress. Come see the glorious works of the Lord. See how he brings destruction upon the world. He causes wars to end throughout the earth. He breaks the bow and snaps the spear. He burns the shields with fire. And now here's that iconic verse that we're all familiar with, verse 10. Be still and know that I am God. I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world. The Lord of heaven's armies is here among us. The God of Israel is our fortress. And so when you look at this psalm, in this particular verse 10, many commentators have looked at it as something that can actually be spoken to both parties here in the first instance, right before that, in our context, we see that the Lord ultimately has the final say. He ends wars.

Nations that come against him or rage against him. He simply snaps their bows, their spears. He always has the final word. And so it could be that right after all of that, it's almost like a call to lay down arms. Lay down your arms. Stop. Have you ever told a little kid, now be still. Right?

Your teacher, elementary teacher, you've probably done that.

You almost get this sense of, okay, all of this has happened.

He breaks the Bow snaps the spear. He burns the shields with fire. He causes wars to end throughout the year. All this blah, you know, we're kind of building up. And all of a sudden you just take a deep breath and he says, now, be still.

Now be still and know that I am God. You're not God. I am God. So you will be still. Ultimately, I'm going to be honored throughout the earth. And how many know that there is going to come a day when King Jesus is going to be honored throughout the earth by every nation, every knee is going to bow to King Jesus. That day is coming. But Jesus himself even sits next to God the Father now in honor. So in a sense, he is being honored throughout the world and the universe. But be still now. We can also look at this as if he's talking to the church. He's talking to the Israelite people. Here he is. He's talking to his very own children by saying, okay, all of this stuff is happening now. All you need to do is be still and watch me work. All you need to do is. Is. Is situation and know that you're serving a God that is much bigger than you can even imagine. He's able to do more than you can even think or imagine. I believe Paul mentioned something like that, maybe in Ephesians. And so, with this in mind, I want to quickly turn over to a passage in Exodus, and it's chapter 14.

And I think we'll start in verse 10. But just to paint a picture here, the Israelite people have just been freed. They've just escaped Egypt after 400 years of slavery, and they're on the run. And Pharaoh basically wants to come after them again. He realizes, oh, my goodness, I let all this labor go. I need to go back and get them. And so picking up in 1410, Exodus 1410, as Pharaoh approached, the people of Israel looked up and panicked when they saw the Egyptians overtaking them.

How many of us have panicked when we see something beginning to overtake us? They cried out to the Lord and they said to Moses, why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren't there enough graves for us in Egypt? You can just sense that, that sarcasm, that cynical nature. What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt? Didn't we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? We said, leave us alone. Leave. Let us be slaves to the Egyptians. It's better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness. But Moses told the people, listen to this now, don't be afraid. Just stand still, okay? Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. And I love this. In verse 14, the Lord himself will fight for you. And he finishes by just saying, just be calm, Just be calm. Just stand still. How many know there are times in our lives when we've, we've done just about all we can do. We've spun our wheels, we've strived, we've certainly worked hard in that whole process. We've, we've done our part or at least what we feel like we're supposed to do. There's a certain point where we have to keep coming back to the Lord and watching him do the rest. There is an element here among us kingdom writers that we all share. We share.

Being warriors in a battle. There is a very real battle going on. There is a very real resistance by an enemy, a spiritual enemy that does not want to see your book published. He does not want it to get into the hands of somebody that could Perhaps do a 180 degree turn in life because they read your book. The enemy will fight. But I want to encourage all of you to realize that the resistance is actually a good sign. If you're feeling resistance this morning to your writing, you're in good company because you're doing something that is endeavoring to damage the kingdom of darkness. And in the hands of the Lord, you will be victorious. Now I want to say this. We win. Whether we are killed in this physical body or whether we live, we win. Either way, the Lord will be glorified. He will be honored throughout the earth. He will be honored in our lives as we endeavor to put him first. Now I want to look at one more quick little passage, and it's in Isaiah and it has to do with the Israelite people when they were faced facing down a.

Very intimidating enemy in the Assyrians. And King Sennacherib and.

I just love Hezekiah, King Hezekiah, basically his only response was, I'm going to bring this before the Lord. We're doomed. Unless the Lord shows up, we are absolutely doomed. We have heard stories about what's going to happen based on how this Sennacherib has, has defeated others.

And so I won't read much here. I want to just essentially say that King Sennacherib was very arrogant. He basically sneered at the Israelites. He says, do you think your God's gonna stop? You know, I, I've defeated all these other armies and I just basically threw their gods in the fire, I did this and that, and I had my way, and I'm going to have my way with you. Do you think your God's any different? And that's when Hezekiah, Isaiah, they all went before the Lord. They. They didn't know what to do.

And they essentially.

Were waiting for the Lord's response.

And in verse 33 of chapter 37, he says, and this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria. He's already mentioned several things he's going to do, so don't worry. But he says his armies will not enter Jerusalem. They will not even shoot an arrow at it. They will not march outside its gates with their shields.

Think about shields, spears. Didn't we just read that in Psalm 46?

Nor build banks of earth against his walls. The king will return to his own country by the same road on which he came. He will not enter this city, says the Lord. For my own honor. Notice this. Now, for my own honor, we write as kingdom writers for God's honor. We write with that motive in mind.

He will not enter. For my own honor, for the. The sake of my servant David, I will defend this city and protect it. And I want you just to think about this now.

In verse 36, that night, the angel of the Lord went out to the Assyrian camp, and get this. Now he killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. We don't even know the angel's name, folks. It was just a. An angel. One angel. It doesn't say it was Gabriel, doesn't say it was. Michael.

Doesn'T say it was, you know, the third in command. It just is an angel. An angel. It's as if the Lord says, hey, I need you to go do something for me.

This is going to show my honor throughout all of the neighboring nations. And the angel did it. And it was over, just like that. And I want to tell you, here you are in the safest place you could ever be. When you're a kingdom writer, when you endeavor to write for the Lord, nothing can harm you in physical body unless the Lord allows it. And nothing can harm you spiritually.

You are a kingdom writer, endeavoring to write words that outlast you, impact others. And I want to say the Lord tells you today, be still. Whatever's going on in your life, just be still and watch the Lord work. He says, stand still and be calm and watch the Lord open up a red sea for you. Where there. There didn't seem to be any dry ground to walk on. The Lord will help you with your book. These virtual writing retreats are part of that, where you're sitting down, you're being intentional, you're endeavoring to make progress on your book. And I'm telling you today, when you've got the Lord behind you, you're going to succeed, and we're behind you. And that's the kind of community that you newcomers have entered into. We realize, like, Hezekiah, what do we do? We can't defeat this enemy by ourselves. I mean, it's just too intimidating. We've heard what he's done to other people. Yes, but with the Lord. And all the Lord needs to do is send one nameless angel to move all of the obstacles out of your way so that you continue to move forward with your book. So, again, be still. You're in a good place today.

Yeah, that's so good. And I think in our culture, it's not easy, right, to be still. And it's just so easy to be distracted, especially by this little thing right here or cell phones and, you know, all the distractions that we have. And yet it's just a good reminder, like, who we have on our side. Like, it is not up to you Kingdom writers. It is not up to me. I have to constantly be reminding myself of that the enemy will whisper lies to me. Of, like, you need to. You need to do this, you know, now, now, now. And it's like an urgent voice. And the Lord has shown me years ago when I start having that, that it's almost like a taskmaster, you know, you gotta do this, you gotta do it now. Hurry, hurry, hurry. That's not the Lord. Lord's never in a hurry, right? When you start hearing those voices of, like, you're not going fast enough. You're not selling enough books. Hurry, hurry, hurry. You got to do more, do more, do more. It's like, whoa, that's a red flag. Say, okay, let me just stop. Let me just pause. Whose voice is that? Most likely, it is not the Lord. He does not push. He does not hurry. He is not, you know, he is not this taskmaster. He. He invites you to join him, you know, to look where he's already working and join him. It's not about us having to strive and do it in our own strength. And so I really believe, like, even just the gift that God's given us in our breath helps us to be still. So right now, I just want you to take a few deep breaths through your diaphragm if possible. You're going to let your stomach Expand and just breathe in for like three seconds and then exhale, breathe out for like five to seven seconds, however long you can do it. Take three deep breaths.

As you breathe out longer than you're breathing in, you're actually calming your nervous system. It is a built in gift that God has given you to help you to be still. Amen. So breathe in.

And breathe out.

And then just stop right now. And we're just going to give you a chance to be still and practice this. I'm going to play some music and I want you just to for one minute, just to not write, not to do anything else. If a thought comes through your mind, just see it as a bird flying in and flying out. And then just keep refocusing on your breath and on what God has for you today. Just sitting in his presence and being still. I'm going to start the timer for you.

What does God want to say to you today as you still mind fill your body.

Sat.

Practice that when you need it. Just practice three deep breaths through your diaphragm. Three seconds in, five seconds out, and just being still for one minute. Did you feel a peace descend over you? Did you feel the Lord say something to you? I just felt like I could have cried if I would have let myself. We just finished a triple launch, A lot of stuff going on. I have some other issues going on with our team and just other things. And I just felt like the Lord said, shelly, it is all going to work out. It's all going to work out. And you know, all we have to do sometimes is just be still. Just set your timer for one minute and be still. So, Lord, we thank you today for this reminder that you are the one that fights for us. All it takes is one angel, one nameless angel that you can say, hey, you know, Marianne needs you for this, or Edwina needs you, or Peggy or Carol or Lynn or whoever. You have the resources that we don't have right now. You have the ideas that we don't have right now. You have the ways to market our books that we can't even fathom right now. And yet it's all in your timing, Lord. We want to rush, hurry, hurry, get it done, accomplish, achieve, you know, see those results. And yet, Lord, you may have different plans. And so we just want to go at the pace of your grace and keep in step with your spirit. For some of us, that means, you know, we've been stuck, we've been kind of paralyzed. And so that means kind of, let's get going, let's go. For some of us, we may have been striving, trying in our own strength. And so it's like, okay, I need to spend more time just being still and listening. Lord, what do you have? And so Lord, we just pray whatever we need today you would give it to us abundantly above what we can even think or imagine. And we ask, Lord, that you pour out your spirit upon each Kingdom writer listening right now. And we pray this in Jesus powerful name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Kingdom Writers. We believe that you as a Christian writer have a specific role to play in the Kingdom of Heaven to impact lives for eternity.

And because of this, we choose to pour out our lives into encouraging writers like you to not only tell your stories, but to take the courageous step of self publishing your stories in books that will outlive you and leave behind a powerful legacy. This podcast is sponsored by Christian Book Academy where we help you give birth to your books. We invite you to join our community of Kingdom Writers.