“…The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

Exodus 14:14 NIV

As 2024 is rapidly approaching, I have been battling within myself on what to “do next.” I know we all go through it at one point or another. Maybe you are no longer fulfilled in your job–maybe you’ve completed a season of life and are waiting to see what the “next steps” will be–maybe you are in the midst of a hard transition, where you know its time to move on from the current, but you aren’t fully certain of what is to come.

I find myself in one of these seasons, feeling a little listless, feeling a bit uncertain. My son is 16 months old, and while my parenting journey is far from over, I finally feel like I’m no longer drowning. Honestly, it’s more like treading water now–still tiring and difficult at moments, but my head is above water and I’m surviving just fine. Now, I’ll consider myself thriving when then boat pulls me out (in my mind, this hypothetical boat approaches as my child gains more and more independence), but for now, I am perfectly content kicking and splashing away.

With this adjustment in season, I am feeling more of my heart passions returning to me, and as they return, I’m feeling more and more discontent that I am not actively participating in them. Prior to having my son, I was active in prayer ministry, I was writing sporadically, and I was engaging in a bit of additional education opportunities that were coming my way. I knew that in having my son I would need to put these items to the side, and I was more than okay with doing just that, but I had a hard time stepping back from the things I loved, and simultaneously stepping back from the things I had to do that were not parenting (think dirty house, loss of productivity when I returned to work, etc.)

And as a woman, aren’t we told that this is what we are built to do? We are built to nurture–to take care of our children, our homes, our families. So when I was finding it impossible to handle a home, baby, husband, fulltime job, chores, etc., I felt like a complete failure at all of those things. I see now that those were hormonal changes, post-partum depression, and extreme sleep deprivation that was deeply affecting me, but in the moment I didn’t see those things as the cause–I saw myself as the issues.

Which is why this verse speaks so deeply to me. So often we believe that we need to have the solution–we need to be doing, planning, preparing for the next step. We need to be praying vigilantly, then pouncing on any solution that comes to mind, and working fully toward it. We need to make a change, so we identify the steps that need to be done and move into that. I want us to take this verse as a challenge–what would it look like if instead, we were still?

What would it look like for us to know that the Lord is in our corner? What would it look like for, instead of charging ahead, we stopped, waiting, depended on the Lord to open the next door?

What if instead of during the first year of my child’s life, I had stepped back from trying to be everything and instead remained still in the Lord? What blessings have I missed by trying to do it all myself? And now, as I ask myself what’s next, how can I sit back and let him “fight” for me?

I think we forget that the Lord is the God of the universe. He can change our circumstances in a second. So why do we fight? Why do we pursue? Why do we not sit back, be still in his presence, and allow him to take control? I think that’s a question we should each ask ourselves today, and in prayer and silence, allow the Lord to speak into this area of our hearts.

How can you be still today?