One Year Bible: March 19

Let all that I am wait quietly before God,
for my hope is in Him.

Psalm 62:5

To read today’s portion of scripture, you can purchase The One Year Bible (paid link) or find the following in your Bible:

Numbers 28:16-29:40
Luke 3:23-38
Psalm 62:1-12
Proverbs 11:18-19 

“All that I am.” You can’t get more all-encompassing than the word “all.”

So everything that is in me, and in you, is to be corralled in an attitude of quiet, patient, peaceful hope while we wait for deliverance, rescue, provision, guidance, encouragement, or any other need that might rise up and overshadow the bigness of God. But quiet, patient and peaceful are not our default attitudes.

Because I deal with real estate contracts all day long, I’m very familiar with defaults. In Washington state, the default time period for a buyer to put their contingent home on the market is 5 days, the default time period for that house to be under contract is 45 days, and the default bump period, should the seller accept another offer, is 5 days. The default home inspection period is 10 days. The default time a seller must wait before requesting loan information from the lender is also 10 days, and the default time that same seller must wait before issuing a “right to terminate” notice is 30 days. And on it goes.

That doesn’t mean, though, that you have to choose the default time frames written into the purchase and sale agreement. Often, when we’re in a situation where I know we’ll be up against multiple offers, I’ll sit down with my buyers and say, “Let’s look at these contingencies and see how we can tighten them up to make our offer stronger. The default inspection period is 10 days … but if we change that to 3, that will be more appealing to the seller.” Or, “Let’s reduce the time you’ll take to review the CC&Rs to 2 days from date of receipt instead of 5.”

When stress hits us, or an unexpected turn leads to an unknown end, we all have our own default reactions—which are usually not “quiet, patient and peaceful.” Usually we react in just the opposite way. We flail against the stress, or become anxious and worried. That’s our nature; that’s our habit.

But thank the God of better days and brand-new mercies; we do not have to choose our default reactions. We can yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit, who is our guide and teacher, and accept, or appropriate, the help He offers us. We can speak His words instead of our own. We can choose His peaceful patience over our default anxious impatience. We can let Him remind us of the goodness and the sovereignty of God, who is not taken aback with surprise by whatever obstacles just landed on our path. We can believe that He is powerful enough and loving enough to solve our dilemma and move us up and over the obstacle.

But it starts first with an act of our will—a choice. All that is in me will fight against this thing, or all that is in me will wait quietly before God.