Freeze!
Rather listen to this blog? Listen to “Freeze!”.
So, there I was…minding my own business, enjoying the natural beauty of God’s country, on one of many family adventures, when my husband commanded in his deep, authoritative voice, “Freeze!”
I am not a super squeamish, hysterical-by-nature kind of woman, but when my husband gives that command, I immediately start panicking to volume 11 on the inside. My heart rate shoots up, my legs start to shake, and my breathing starts to border on hyperventilation because I know what that command is really telling me.
What my husband can see, and what I don’t WANT to see, is that there is something either on me or in my immediate vicinity that does not belong: a creepy-crawly, slithering amphibian or reptile usually, and my husband knows what will happen if I DO see it. So he commands me to freeze, and I freeze. And I wait. I wait (all the while screaming in my head, “get it off me! Get it off me!”) for him to remove whatever does not belong so I can continue on my oblivious way.
When my husband says, “okay,” I exhale all of the anxiety that has been bubbling inside of me like lava, I can move again, and I thank him. Crisis averted.
“He says, ‘Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.’” Psalm 46:10
I’ve always thought this verse meant to be calm and trust God, and while during most times that’s easy for me to do when I am seriously riled up, or unreasonably fearful, telling me to calm down does not have the intended effect - it triggers me even more. So, I wondered how God could tell me to calm down in a crisis of everything going wrong or overwhelming terror.
Simple - He isn’t telling me to calm down. God is commanding me to freeze in the same way my husband gives that command. God sees what I don’t - He ALWAYS sees - and He knows me even better than I know myself. He knows what will harm me, and how I will react (negatively) to whatever is in my vicinity that shouldn’t be there.
This is the same command Jesus gives the storm in Mark 4:39, when the disciples are in a boat on the lake and unreasonably fearful of a storm. “He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.” Be still - STOP! FREEZE!
A simple, straightforward command.
But then Psalm 46 continues with, “[A]nd know that I am God.” What does it mean to KNOW that he is God? Who is He?
God is the original. Isaiah 46:9 - “Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.”
God always was, always is, always will be, because time, a human concept and measurement, does not exist in heavenly realms. Exodus 3:14 - “God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
God is always with us giving us strength and support. Joshua 1:9 - “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”; Isaiah 41:10 - “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
God is the creator who spoke existence into existence. Colossians 1:16 - “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.”
God is a protector. Psalm 27:1 - “The Lord is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?
God is:
Spirit - John 4:24
Faithful - Deuteronomy 7:9
Merciful - Deuteronomy 4:31
Alpha and Omega - Revelation 22:13
Eternal - Isaiah 40:28-29
Good - Psalm 119:68
God is all of these, and he will always be all of these because, “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed,” (Malachi 3:6).
When our daughter was born, the freeze command extended to her, especially in parking lots, and she learned to obey just like I do. She has never once hesitated to stop moving when she hears me or her dad say, “Freeze!” She trusts us completely, that we are giving her the command to keep her safe just as I trust my husband for the same reason. Just as I am learning to trust God.
“He says, ‘Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.’” Psalm 46:10.
God gives us the command to freeze because he sees what we do not; he knows everything, and he wants us to stop moving. Stop moving and remember all the things that He is. He gives us the command to freeze and expects us to do so with the total trust of a child - HIS child.
God will not move in our lives while we are moving in opposition to him, and ANY movement without God is a movement against him.
If we would only freeze and wait for his instructions, we would avoid so much harm and allow God to move for us in ways we cannot possibly imagine.
Because God is also the God of covenants, sacred promises, and he says, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still,” (Exodus 14:14).
AMEN
