Saturday's Silence

          "Be ye also patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord is at hand."
                                                           James 5:8




This Saturday is my husband, Brent's birthday. (For his sake, I will not disclose how many birthdays he has previously experienced!) Since his birthday falls on Easter weekend, it caused me to reflect on the significance of the Saturday that lies between Good Friday and Resurrection Day. Thinking back over my life, I do not recall a sermon ever being preached on the significance of the day that is sandwiched between the two most important days in history. And, since I currently seem to be in a "Saturday" mode in my own life, I was even more intrigued.

All the events leading up to Jesus' crucifixion had been tumultuous and rapid. On the day that Jesus was crucified, God showed up in many unmistakeable ways. The curtains in the Temple were tattered, an earthquake shook the ground, the sun was hidden and darkened and the Lamb of God was sacrificed to save a people who had just put Him to death. Graves of the dead were opened and the disciples and loved ones of Jesus felt like their hearts had been ripped open and laid to bare.

The women in Jesus' life anointed his body and placed it in Joseph's tomb. And, on Saturday, everything was still. Jesus' body was still. The angels were still. The actions and voice of God were muted as the earth and its inhabitants gulped in pockets of air, effectually trying to process all the events that had just taken place. After a chaotic and hair-raising Friday, the stark contrast of the silence of Saturday reverberated throughout the universe without a word.

Fear began to dominate as the disciples hid behind locked doors. Afraid of the Jewish leaders who conspired to take Jesus' life, it felt safer to be hidden and out of sight (John 20:19). Their fears were legitimate, too, because at the same time, the chief priests and Pharisees met with Pilate to seal Jesus' tomb so that the disciples would not be able to steal His body (Matthew 27:62-66).

At the same time, we are told that the women who were with Jesus during His crucifixion rested because it was the Sabbath (Luke 23:56). As they were commanded, they spent the day honoring the Lord amidst what was surely confusion and bewilderment. So many questions had to surface in their hearts with very few answers to be found.

This is the dichotomy that is found in God's silence. It is so easy to vacillate between fear bewilderment. It is the time between the prayers that are offered and the answers to those prayers. It is the lapse that is found between the problem and the solution. It is the angst we experience when our questions mount and the answers to them still seem elusive.

                                     "God, are you there?"

                                     "Are you angry at me?"

                                     "I know you are able, yet I see no progress."

                                     "Please confirm that there is a plan in this."

(My favorite yet often useless question) "WHY????"

If you can't tell, I tend to ask a lot of questions. What I have found, however, is that it is the truth of God's Word that lights my path and directs my steps. If I will open the Word and declare what the Word says, peace will inevitably flood my heart. Even when I lack full understanding, there is a solace in knowing that God is God and He's already handled my situation and circumstances.

Even still, Silent Saturdays can be long and the silence of them most certainly deafening. If we are waiting for a healing or some type of redemption or restoration, the seconds can seem like days. The higher the stakes are for what we are believing, the more intense the pressure is around us.  The only true way for the time to seem to go faster is if we are single-mindedly focused on Jesus. Worshipping in the midst of the tomb, before we witness the Resurrection, is the highest form of praise that blesses the heart of God.

As I see it, if we are in a season of waiting, we can either survive it or we can thrive in it. God's purposes are that we rest, learn, seek His face and grow as a result of it. No amount of worry or fear or doubt will expedite our process (it actually may prolong it). We can wait and nervously watch the seconds tick on the clock, or we can wait well by trusting in the Lord and having the expectation that He will bring breakthrough. Just as Jesus "rested" in the tomb, we can learn to spend our time confident that we will see the deliverance we seek.

Quiet confidence and trust are our best resources when we experience the silence of Saturday. Jesus died with such conviction when He said, "For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your Holy One to rot in the grave" (Acts 2:27). Jesus understood that God would never leave Him or forsake Him, especially in the grave.  Even during His darkest hour, Jesus knew that He could count on God. His Father would never fail Him or abandon Him.

While the enemy of our souls wants us to believe that God's silence is also God's absence, that is never the truth. That's what Silent Saturday teaches us. God is never apathetic to what we are experiencing. He cares deeply for every small thing that concerns us and will certainly answer our prayers in His timing.

Think about it this way. If God immediately rushed in and instantaneously answered every prayer, would we really respect and reverence His power in the same way we do when He shows up after an elongated battle? How would He "train our hands for war" (Psalm 18:34) and strengthen us for what lies ahead if we never had to use any spiritual muscles?

Silent Saturdays do have their purpose. They are positioned with precision to bring about God's desired results. They prepare us for the answers that are coming.  When God wants our full attention to something that He is accomplishing, He masterfully sets the stage for such to occur. It is like a dramatic pause in a theater production or opera that then heralds an unforgettable crescendo. Suddenlies occur when we place our faith in God and rest in His timing.

As we enter in to the holiest days of our faith, may we approach them with the faith that Resurrection Day is at hand and the eve of Silent Saturday must dissipate to the breaking of the dawn of Easter morning. Our God is faithful and He will complete that which He has started (Philippians 1:6). There is no story that is more redemptive or restorative than that of Jesus, Himself. In Jesus' story, as in our own, Silent Saturday is only a blip on the radar that gives way to the rolling away of a stone and the glorious appearance of our Risen King!


                                               HAVE A BLESSED EASTER!!!


          "O Lord, we wait for you; Your Name and remembrance are the desire of our soul."
                                                              Isaiah 26:8

A Surrendered Life

              "God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him."
                                                          Andrew Murray




As we are entering in to Easter week, I have been reflecting on Jesus' life and how He completely surrendered His will to His Father. Over and over again, Jesus slipped away from the crowds in order to spend time alone with His Father and to seek His heart and His will. Only one time in scripture do we see Jesus asking His Father to possibly reconsider His plans when He said, "Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from Me. Yet I want Your will to be done, not Mine" (Luke 22:42, NLT). And, this petition only happened after Jesus was distressed enough to sweat drops of blood.

Jesus exemplifies a perfect life of surrender to His Father. He was directed by God and followed His leading. He walked in faith and expected to see miracles and God's faithful provision for His life. He waited on God's timing and trusted that God's purposes would be accomplished. From the fountain of intimacy that Jesus shared with His Father, He knew that He could rely on the fact that God had His back and would never let Him down. Jesus understood the heart of His Father which enabled Him to trust His heart without doubt or insecurity.

Fast forward to today. In our culture, the word surrender seldom holds a positive connotation.  The word is actually a military term that means "to yield to the power, control, or possession of another upon compulsion or demand; to give up completely or agree to forgo; to give oneself up into the power of another especially as a prisoner; to give oneself over to something". Giving in and giving up are typically not popular messages conveyed throughout our society.

And yet, a surrendered life is exactly what God calls us to:

(Jesus said) "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow 
                     Me" (Matthew 16:24-25)

(Peter said) "Behold, we have left everything and followed You" (Mark 10:28).

(Isaiah said) "But now, O Lord, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our Potter; and all of 
                      us are the work of Your hand" (Isaiah 64:8).

(Jeremiah said) "O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to
                           direct his steps" (Jeremiah 10:23).

(Paul said) "I have been crucified with Christ [that is, in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is
                    no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith
                    [by adhering to, relying on, and completely trusting] in the Son of God, who loved me
                    and gave Himself up for me" (Galatians 2:20).


In our Christian walk, surrendering occurs at different levels. Initially, we surrender to the Holy Spirit when we receive salvation (Acts 2:21). When we let go of our own attempts to curry God's favor and rely upon the finished work of Christ, we become His children (2 Corinthians 5:21). Then there are other times in our lives where God requires a greater level of surrender that will bring greater intimacy with God and greater power for His service. The more we are yielded, the more we can be filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18).

God does not want a part of us; He wants all of us. If we compartmentalize our lives, we miss out on the abundant life that Jesus died for us to have. Surrendering to His Lordship completely brings the fruit of the Spirit, His manifest presence,  and a myriad of blessings. By surrendering our will completely to His, we settle the battle with our flesh that desires to have things its own way.

This is not to say that there will never be another battle. It is to say that we have decided to yield our will to His, and, over time the fury of this battle subsides. As we mature spiritually, we learn to war against our self-centered nature and walk in  the victory that Jesus died for us to have. This requires intentionality, denying of self, and picking up our cross daily to follow after Him.

Instead of trying harder, we learn to trust and rely on Him more. We follow God's lead, even when we don't know where He is leading. We wait on His timing without demanding to know when that will come. We expect His miracles and provision without any idea of from where it will come. We trust in His purpose without understanding the circumstances which we are experiencing.

We let go of control, manipulation, and forcing our own agenda. When Jesus said, "not my will but thy will be done", He was telling God that if it was in His best interest to take the suffering away, then by all means to do so. However, if His suffering (or pain, or sickness, or circumstances) were needed to fulfill God's purposes and glory in His life or in another's life, then please do not take it away.

Oswald Chambers said, "Physical courage is grand, moral courage is grander, but the man who trusts Jesus Christ in the face of the terrific problems of life is worth a whole crowd of heroes."

There is so much in this life that we will never understand. The day we step into eternity, however, our minds will be illumined and suddenly the things that made no sense on earth will make perfect sense. We will see without a veil and we will be like Jesus!

If we grapple with fear because of the uncertainties of this world in which we live, we need a greater revelation of God's love for us personally. When we ask God for this revelation, He will gladly give it to us. If Jesus died for us while we were yet sinners, we can trust that He will gladly give us all we need for life and godliness.

He loves us so much! He loves us in spite of ourselves. His plans for us are good. It is His will to redeem and restore every aspect of our lives and families. It is because of His obedience and yieldedness to His heavenly Father, that, we too, can live a surrendered life!


                "The Lord can do no unloving thing toward one of His children."
                                                   Charles Spurgeon