Quiet Moments

The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 2 Kings 19:11 & 12

This has to be one of my favorite stories. I remember one fall morning praying pleading before God for one of my friends who had been trying to get pregnant and was facing her 3rd pregnancy with no baby to bring home. It was the weekend and she was bleeding and "knew" it was a miscarriage. I opened my Bible directly to this story and started reading. Tears welling up inside as God pointed out the similarities between Elijah's story & my friends. So clearly I remember God impressing upon my heart..."in the quietness of her pain is when I will show her how big I (God)really am." He did just that Monday morning when she finally went in to the Dr. to find out if she was going to have to have a D&C instead of seeing an empty ultrasound screen she saw the flickering heartbeat of her baby girl.

This is the devotional today I received from Sarah's Laughter that I wanted to share with you.

One of the heartbreaking aspects of infertility is the deafening silence of our homes. Others may complain of being awakened in the night by the sounds of a baby’s crying, but you could imagine no more beautiful symphony. You long for the day when a child’s laughter peals through the halls of your home and you have to remind playing children to use “inside voices”. The quietness of a childless home is so very loud.

What do you do in those quiet times? Those times when your spouse is not home, the television is not on, and the phone doesn’t ring? You have fought your infertility as hard as you can for so many months and it seems that nothing is working. You’ve tried every remedy you’ve heard about, but it’s not getting you anywhere. You’re still not pregnant. You’ve watched your diet, you’ve taken vitamins and eaten the right foods, you’ve tried every treatment that every doctor has suggested. You’ve followed every suggestion you’ve been given and now you’re just tired. Sometimes you just want to run away and quit. You just wish God would speak to you in this big, booming voice and reveal to you all that you need to know, but the big, booming voice hasn’t appeared. May I suggest to you that you may feel much like the prophet Elijah may have felt one day at Horeb?

Elijah has been through quite an adrenaline filled battle of his own! He has faced down hundreds of prophets of Baal, and challenged them and their false god to a stand-off. Elijah mocked them, scorned them, even accused their god of being asleep or on vacation before praying to our one true and living God and showcasing the glory of God before hundreds of people! After calling fire down from heaven and proving that God was God and Baal was not, Elijah seized and killed all the false prophets right then and there! There was nothing half-way about Elijah! He loved God with amazing zeal, and proved it with his life. But now he was tired. He had given his all in trying to show people that God really was who He said He was, and now there were those who wanted to take his life. Elijah was afraid and hiding. The same guy who just days before was mocking hundreds of false prophets to their faces was now in hiding, asking God to end his life before someone else killed him. The very same God he had so adamantly represented only days before was about to intervene in his life in a powerful-but unexpected way.

God told Elijah to stand on the mountain and what a sight he must have seen! Scripture says “a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord;” The power and presence of the Lord was so mighty that the mountains were literally breaking in pieces before Him! But notice this...but the Lord was not in the wind. I probably would have thought God was in the wind, but no! He wasn’t in the power of the wind!

What happened next? An earthquake shook the very ground Elijah stood on! If you’re from California, perhaps you understand the power it takes to shake the earth itself, but look what Scripture tells us: “but the Lord was not in the earthquake”. Wind strong enough to tear apart mountains, earthquakes? What’s next? Fire! Elijah must have thought he was having a really bad day, especially since Scripture tells us the Lord was not in the fire! Where was God in the midst of all this chaos?

We finally see where God was in 1 Kings 19:12: and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing. Elijah finally heard the voice of God in a gentle breeze. Not in a powerful wind or a huge earthquake, but a quiet breeze. In the stillness of the easy breeze that blew across his face, the voice of God came to Elijah and changed him. God talked to Elijah and told him what to do. Elijah’s life was changed because he heard God in the stillness of a quiet moment.

In those still, quiet moments, when it’s just you and God, listen for His voice. You’ve gone through a difficult round of treatment or a hard month when you thought you had finally conceived, only to get another negative test. Now you’re sitting in the silence in your living room and it’s down to you and God. Listen for His voice in this silence. Listen for His voice in the silent moments of your life. Step away from the chaos of infertility, even if only for a few hours, and focus on God. Listen for His voice in the stillness, in the quietness. Take advantage of the silence, even if the silence hurts right now. Tell Him how it hurts and listen for His voice. Perhaps like Elijah, you’ll find Him in the stillness of a gentle blowing.

It's always exciting to see how BIG our God can be if we are just still in His presence.