 Oh my God ministries, I am your host Reverend Anita Morris. The title of the message today is Stop. Expect God to fix things. It's inspired by the reading of a devotional that we received when I was in clinical pastoral education at the hospital at Bay State and also inspired by the Psalm 46 10 be still and know that I am God and I just want to go and pray with you initially as we always do heavenly father We thank you for another time of worship a time of devotion a time to center our hearts our mind Will and emotions to you to surrender all that to you and And I thank you Lord God you said those who are heavy-lating I will give you rest And I pray that over all those who are listening under my voice That those who are heavy-lating that God will give you rest and may the peace of God Which surpasses all human knowledge and understanding Shall guard and keep your heart and mind through Christ Jesus through the love of Christ Jesus our Lord Amen and amen Now this passage is written by Edwina Gaitley and it titles let your God love you before we get to be Implified title of stop expect God to fix things. So it all comes together It reads Let your God love you Be still Be silent alone Empty Before your God say nothing nothing Be silent Be still Let your God look upon you That is all God knows God understands God loves you With enormous love and only wants To look upon you With that love Quiet Still be Let your God Love you isn't it awesome. It's hard to do In life to be still when we got so much to do So many tasks to complete But God is asking us to be still and Know That he loves you That he hears he understands and to receive From him his enormous love And that's what was iterated in the poem In Psalm 46 It Expects it says stop to trust God. That's what it implies trust even though it doesn't Articulate the word trust in the song but it Derives the theological meaning of trust of what it is to trust God so it Iterates to the readers and to those audience Which the psalm is sung by the soprano voices of women is to? Stop and To expect God to fix things trust God to do that Psalm 46 reads God is our refuge and strength Always ready to help in times of trouble So we will not fear when earthquakes come I'm reading from the New Living Translation And it continues on verse 2 so we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea Psalm 46 3 reads Let the oceans roar and foam Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge a river brings joy to the city of our God The sacred home of the Most High God dwells in that city. It cannot be destroyed From the very break of day God will protect it the nations are in chaos and their kingdoms crumble God's voice thunders and the earth melts the Lord of Heaven's armies is here among us The God of Israel is our fortress Come see the glorious works of the Lord See how he brings destruction upon the world He causes wars to end Throughout the earth He breaks the bow and snaps the spear He burns the shields with fire And then our famous verse that all Christian readers know verbatim Is Psalm 46 10 Be still and know That I am God be still and know That I am be still and know be still Be now articulates to be still in God's presence. So stop Know That I am in Hebrew it means I Will be what I will be That's what God's name means and I am I will be who I will be and then it goes in 10 I will be honored by every nation. I Will be honored throughout the world The Lord of Heaven's armies is among us The God of Israel is our fortress even The nation of Israel still must find hope in God There's no super Power as John Golden game mentions about to have a nation Often refers to great imperial superpower even even if that has high hopes must come into Subjection of God of Heaven's armies Because God's presence his his deliverance Brings everything To fruition and it reads in Golden Gay. He mentions in the theological background Yahweh's armies is with us Suggests God's being with people not merely as a presence but also Active and bringing deliverance and in conclusion and theological implication. He writes Violence that such as natural disasters or thus that being a political chaos or that being military wars is a prominent fact of human life and One we cannot evade Prayer is not designed to make it possible For us to escape from violence into peace Even though that we want to be alone when there's turmoil all around us. Sometimes you cannot Evacuate the turmoil in your life. You have to stand up against it And that's what the scripture says be still and know that I am God and as you you're continually to Fortify your faith God will give you enough strength to stand against it And that he will not put too much on you where you cannot bear but give you a way of escape and Praying in the midst of violence. He suggests is our desperately needed Corrective to the widespread of my practice of prayer as withdrawal to not do anything and It's calling us in the midst of all what's going on in our world It's to rekindle our prayer life and To get into our prayer closet and to do battle and to do warfare Whether it's literally or Metaphorically or mythologically Sometimes people don't believe in there's a spiritual warfare. Some people don't know that They have a Physical need to pray to come back The powers that be that are causing turmoil in their world to come in harmony with the cosmos and with God and praying and this kind of Perspective Will allow us to relinquish our trust And ourselves and trust God to stop and expect God to fix things but it reads in Golden gate he goes on he said but neither do we confront violence either rather it is dealt with indirectly It is absorbed into the forms in ceremonies of prayer Indeed the subject of the psalm is not violence, but God which is in Psalm 46 It's not mentioned about violence, but to demonstrate God's awe-inspiring deeds the actions of God It says be still and know that I am God is a common invitation in Christian spirit spirituality This involves a reinterpretation of the psalm Nowhere do the psalms have an ideal of silence Their assumption is that one finds God not in silence But in noise like they mentioned in the illustration of Psalm 46 and thunder and the sea and the rage All this stuff is to pay attention and even our adopted Evangelical Christian concepts we see some things are happening sometimes people say global warming or Destruction over there to Japan or to some Sonamis etc. And we blame circumstance and or we blame their practices on their natural destruction But it's not always necessary. It's not always true That's why we have to go and Get a reflection of God's lens To give us a new way of renewal theology of how we're interpreting The cosmos how we're interpreting the earth how we're interpreting God's divine will on human life and As he mentions this involves reinterpretation of the psalm and Says their assumption was one finds God not in silence, but in noise and Oftentimes we see this and Cultural when it's thunder and lightning everybody say shut the TV off shut the lights off. God is speaking It's just the way of natural Things that's gonna happen is gonna thunder and light is the seasons are gonna change but some What do you call it wise fables out there miss That Who people who believe in that will go ahead and what do you call it be superstitious of thinking that's what's going on But God does not need to do that. He's all powerful himself. He doesn't need to speak to you through a thunder or electrocute you just to have a conversation with you and Even as Elijah when he was famished. He was running God spoke to him in a still small voice Even in silence as he generate golden games mentioned that our Western society doesn't like to be in silence too much But we find our needed reflection of contemplation of our healing of Great impact which is needed to do we can't as human beings do the groundwork in other human lives Because only they know what they've gone through as a chaplain I can't uncover anything that you are not mentioning to me to bring Hope for you to find healing and your experiences if you don't uncover those so that's something that that individual or that patient or that a member has to find in and to Desired for it to come up and expect God to fix it Not that human beings can fix it, but when God brings people in communities They can help bring healing to see God's hand upon their lives And that's when we as a people of God become Christ hands his feet his his mouth piece To do the work of ministry Okay, as we continue what Golden Gay mentions in noisy Western cultures, we may need to cultivate silence And the use of the Psalm to this end May be inspired by the Holy Spirit Even though it does make the words mean something the psalmist did not say and would not have dreamed of saying Spirit inspired Interpretation often works by making the words of scripture means something quite different from what they actually meant Because new situations make it necessary for God to say new things At the same time we have to be wary of missing what the text actually did Say Here it is the issue an important challenge to the superpower To stand still and recognize that God is God and that the superpower is not Golden Gay continues to you mention and contrast to a concurrently popular view But in keeping with the last book of the New Testament Yahweh reckons that violence can stop violence however Martin cobell suggests that it is the declaration of Psalm 46 to be still and Know that God is God that shows us the way to Integrate the idea and integrate that God is warrior into theological conceptions about God Further the challenge to stop also issues an important challenge to the people of God to give up thinking that it has a Responsibility for its destiny As we mentioned early to stop Expect God to fix things don't always interpret things in your own way of thinking and That is a task It's to bring in the kingdom of God or some Christians believe that they have to bring the kingdom of God here on earth Or further the kingdom of God Scripture does not think in such terms the psalm makes clear that the city of God is not mere heavenly community as Augustine mentions the city of God might seem to imply but an earthly reality For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink But his righteousness peace and joy and God's Holy Spirit and This city beloved it is not for us to fix things It is for us to expect God to fix things and will you be still and know that God is God as We stop and acknowledge who God is for he will be highly Exalted above the nation and he will be exalted above the earth He does break down our norms our cultural clashes our Superpowers and He is a jealous God at the same token He's jealous for you because he loves you so much and we have to take all the characteristics and the attributes of God and and take it for what it is He makes alive he creates and he also Makes people when they go into the past But a lot of people say we trust God's timing On our lives when we shall go and be with the Lord and some people have that reverence for the Lord Who can understand and who have that faith and some people don't have that faith to trust God's when their time is up? But I pray that God will continue to give you peace that surpasses all human knowledge and understanding That shall keep your heart and your mind through Christ Jesus as we read about stop and love and take the love of God for your own as One had mentioned and She wanted you to be still and she just interpreted Psalm 46 in a different way Then Psalm 46, but we were still yet inspired to read it And we'll go ahead and close with Edwina Gaetli as we had mentioned in the beginning Let your God love you Be silent be still Alone Empty before your God Say nothing ask nothing be silent be still Let your God look upon you That is all God knows God understands God loves you With enormous love and only wants to look upon you With that love quiet Steel be let your God love you Amen and amen To God be all the glory. Will you be still and? Let God love you with his enormous love be still Stop and Expect God to fix the chaos the confusion These superpowers let him Bring that all to fruition Be still and know that God is God Amen and amen