I came to. the Red Sea place in my life where I could see no way through, and to go back looked like defeat. I was afraid (Ps. 56:3), like Israel of old. With the Red Sea hi front of them, and Pharaoh and his host behind them, they feared. Moses told them, "Fear not; stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord." They could do nothing else but stand still, and we can do nothing else. "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him" (Is. 59:19). The Lord tells me, "Fear not, for I have redeemed thee" (Is. 43:1). That is the standard the Lord will lift up against the enemy. He has redeemed me with His precious blood, which He shed for me on Calvary's cross. In Ps. 4:4 we read, "Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still." Sometimes we hinder God from working for us by not being still, and then sometimes God has to cause something to happen to make us "be still," in order that we may be able to hear His voice speaking to us. Or we may make ourselves sick in trying to make things right ourselves. The quiet waiting upon God is the hardest lesson the child of God has to learn. But it is not in a careless way that God wants us in quietness, for we read in Ps. 46:10, "Be still, and know that I am God." Why need I be afraid of Satan and his host when God tells me, "The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge?" Satan is mighty, but God is Almighty. The Psalmist could say, "What time I am afraid I will trust in thee" (Ps. 56:3). "He leadeth me beside still waters," or, waters of quietness (Ps. 23:2, marg.). This all shows that I must be quiet to hear God's still small Voice speaking to me.

We read in 1 Kings 19:11,12 there was "a great strong wind that rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire, a still small voice." How hard it is for the Lord to get some of us quiet enough to hear His Voice, but He who said, "Peace, be still" (Mark 4:39), to the troubled waters is the same One who can say to the troubled burdened one, "Peace, be still," and there will be a calm stillness in our hearts which nothing can disturb. "When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble?" In Is. 30:7 we read, "Their strength is to sit still." Only the Lord knows how to quiet each one of us, and "He maketh the storm a calm" (Ps. 107:29). Lillian A. Byford