Zephaniah 3:17

It amazes me how I can one day be so at peace with life and then all of a sudden, it seems that I can't stop stressing out. I had been having a great week. Then college started piling up. I am two weeks away from finals, and in a few days of classes, I realized that I have at least 5 full days of studying ahead of me. My weeks are packed with ministry stuff. Every night of the week I have been at a worship practice or ministry event. So my next 2 weekends are going to consist of me sitting a table in a coffee shop, studying all day. After having a great thanksgiving break, the last five days have seemed incredibly stressful. Then, today, I get a call telling me a good friend of mine was in a serious ski accident and is in a hospital. Life seems to be concaving in all on sides right now. I don't really know where my emotions are, so that is probably why I am writing this.

I realized a few minutes ago how I am almost always the cause of any stress in my life. Yes, I have a lot of responsibility and work to do in the next three weeks. But it is nothing I can't handle if I just take deep breathes and stay in the present. Every day, my mind tends to make a list of all the things I need to get done. When I dwell and constantly think about what I have to do in the future, then I tend to get stressed.

Zephaniah 3:17. It is a verse that I tend to read to quickly over. It is a verse that needs to be mediated on slowly. It says:


The Lord your God is with you
He is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you
He will quiet you by His love and
He will rejoice over you with singing.


I love that God takes all the action in this verse. All that we are to do is sit there, and know there He is with us. Know that He is mighty to save. Be delighted in. Be quieted by his love. And listen as He sings over us. Our action is simply being. God does all the work.

That is so comforting to me, to know that I don't have to do anything except be. Even in the midst of doing math problems and writing English essays, I can be still and know that my God takes great delight in me and rejoices over me with singing.

Hallelujah.