Text: Psalm 46

Topic: How to respond when "life takes you all the way to the ragged edge of reality."

• Illustration: Stowell tells of a good friend who went to Haiti as a missionary. One night, the friend's wife called to say her husband had died in an accident, making her a widow in her 20s — alone, no family, no friends.
• What do you do when life takes you to the ragged edge of reality?

• Psalm 46:10 says to "Be still," which literally means relax. It means to "let your arms down to your side"—to be vulnerable to God.
• God also says to "know that I am God." He calls for a cognitive response.

Illustration: Stowell recounts the 1980 Olympics, when the U.S. hockey team beat Russia for the gold medal. He nervously watched the game live on TV. But when the networks replayed it, he watched calmly, relaxed — because he knew the outcome.

• We cease striving not because we know how it's going to work out, but because we know the God who will work it out.

• God is actively busy as our protector, providing strength and help. He never lets anything into our lives that he can't turn to glory and our good.
• God won't leave you in the ditch. He stayed with Joseph even when Potiphar sentenced him to prison.
• God's reputation rides on our problems; he'll resolve our problems to his glory.

Illustration: King Jehoshaphat faced the military threat of three nations, and turned to God for help. God's answer to him through the prophet Jahaziel: "The battle is not yours. It is the Lord's."

 

• Instead of being consumed by the problem, we should turn our face to the Lord.
• We should embrace God, believing he'll be our refuge, that he'll be exalted.
• Like Job, we should be able to say, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him."

• Will we be faithful at the edge?