Confessions of an Analyzer

I find it hard to turn my mind off sometimes.  Some days it's so busy thinking and analyzing and pulling things apart and trying to put them back together that I drive myself to exhaustion.  I figure that if I try and rationalize things enough I'll eventually come to some sort of conclusion but I only get more confused and frustrated.  And then I wonder where God is and why He's not producing results.  Does that mean that He's waiting for me to make the move?  If so, why can't I figure out what He's saying?  Am I not listening hard enough?  Have I missed the "clues"?  What am I supposed to do??

I was talking with a friend the other day and we were discussing what it meant to be still before the Lord.  Psalm 37:7 tells us to "rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him."  My friend's definition of being still was to "hold your peace, stop talking, stand still."  STOP TALKING!  Stop trying to rationalize and analyze and figure everything out because chances are you can't.  "In quietness and trust is your strength..." (Isaiah 30:15)  Trust means placing our faith in God when we don't get it.  And trying to "get it" only ruins the peace that comes from resting in His perfect ability to work out our situation in ways that we could never imagine.  Nothing is impossible for our God.  And what He does is good.  

""I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD...Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage." (Psalm 27:13-14) 

Do not despair! 

Oh, how great the temptation is to despair at times!  Our soul becomes depressed and disheartened, and our faith staggers under the severe trials and testing that come into our lives, especially during times of bereavement and suffering.  We may come to the place where we say, "I cannot bear this any longer.  I am close to despair under these circumstances God has allowed.  He tells me not to despair, but what am I supposed to do when I am at this point?"
     What have you done in the past when you felt weak physically?  You could not do anything.  You ceased from doing.  In your weakness, you leaned on the shoulder of a strong loved one.  You leaned completely on someone else and rested, becoming still, and trusting in another's strength.
     It is the same when you are tempted to despair under spiritual afflictions.  He knows that your strength and courage have run away [and] He says sweetly, "Be still, and know that I am God." (Ps. 46:10)
     Hudson Taylor was so weak and feeble in the last few months of his life that he told a friend, "I am so weak I cannot write.  I cannot read my Bible.  I cannot even pray. All I can do is lie still in the arms of God as a little child, trusting Him."  This wonderful man of God, who had great spiritual power, came to the point of physical suffering and weakness where all he could do was lie still and trust.
     That is all God asks of you as His dear child.  When you become weak through the fierce fires of affliction, do not try to "be strong." Just "be still, and know that [He is] God."  And know that He will sustain you and bring you through the fire." (from Streams in the Desert, May 10) 

"It is good that one should hope and wait quietly."  (Lamentations 3:26)