Praise the Lord. My message today is going to begin like this: Imagine standing on the shore during a violent storm. The wind blows, waves crash, and the dark sky is heavy with clouds. Our natural human instinct is to run, to find a shelter, or to frantically do something, but then a voice speaks —steady, calm, and unshaken. It says, "Be still, and know that I am God".
This powerful verse is from Psalm 46:10. When I was meditating, God led me to this verse to speak to you today. Hallelujah! Psalm 46 was written in a time of great crisis, painting a vivid picture of chaos both in nature and in human affairs. And yet, right in the middle of tribulation, God says, "Be still".
What does it truly mean to be still? It is not just physical rest, and it is not merely about stopping our physical movement. It is a surrender of control. It means letting go of the illusion that we can fix everything ourselves. It is a posture of trust, choosing to rest on God's sovereignty even when we do not understand what is happening. God is saying, "Stop fighting a battle that belongs to Me". Sometimes God has to tell us to be quiet, to be calm, to be still, and to be patient. You know why? Because we think too much, we fear too much, we panic too much, and we talk too much.
Running to the True Refuge
If you look at the background of this Psalm, the Israelites were completely surrounded by enemies. Chaos and fear were everywhere, but God said, "I am your refuge, I am your strength". He is a very present help in trouble. Even when a storm hits our lives, God says, "I am a refuge. Come into My refuge. Don't run away in fear—run to Me".
When it is raining heavily outside and children are playing, they do not stop to check a weather report. They run straight home. You know why? Because they know that their home is safe. Likewise, we should run to God the exact same way.
Back home in India, when it rains heavily, we do not look at the weather map either. Instead, we look to see who forgot to close the windows! When the rain splashes into the balcony or through the windows, we start assigning blame, saying, "Oh, she forgot to close the window," or "He forgot to close the window". But praise God, His refuge never leaks. He covers us completely.
Today, are you worried about your life? Are you worried about your family, your children, your children's future, your finances, your status, or your immigration status? Whatever it is, God is saying, "I am your refuge. Run into My refuge. Don't run away". God is still in control even when we are not.
The Danger of Stress and the Illusion of Control
I know many of you might remember my previous message, but I am not going to ask who remembers because I do not want to take a risk like Pastor Sam Peter did. I don't want to lose my $25 because I know someone is ready to answer! My message today is a continuation of my previous message, focusing on submitting and surrendering totally to God. Like Pastor Sam Peter also shared last week, it is about surrendering to God.
In the world, people often say that surrendering is a sign of weakness. We say, "He surrendered to me," or "He asked for an excuse, forgiveness, or a pardon". We look at it as weakness, but surrendering to God is entirely different—it is totally powerful. To give you more explanation about being still, it means letting God handle what we cannot. Being still means to stop fearing, to stop fighting with our own strength, to stop trying to control everything, and to surrender the battle to God. It means leaving everything aside and being quiet in His presence.
How much time do we actually spend being quiet in God's presence? In this fast-paced world, we set time for everything. We set time for waking up, going to bed, having breakfast, going to work, coming home, exercising, going to church, and praying. We schedule everything and run around constantly, and if we don't, what happens? We get stressed. We expect things to happen a certain way, and when they don't, stress takes over.
Even at home, we expect everything to be absolutely perfect. We want everything to be placed exactly where it belongs. We expect our children's shoes to be put away where they must be. We expect our husband's towel to be hung exactly where it should be hung, and clothes to be placed right where they belong. We expect so much, and when it does not happen, we get stressed.
You all know that my wife, Uma, went on an official trip about three months ago. Before leaving, she told me, "You have to keep the house clean". I agreed. I asked her how many days she would be away, and she said four days. I said to myself, "Oh, if it had been two weeks, I would be so free"! Of course, I didn't tell her that out loud. As Brother Jose mentioned, we all depend on our wife's cooking, so I knew I would be losing my bhojanam (food) until she returned. But I did tell her, "Oh, I can be free for four days. I'll come home from work, throw one shoe here and the other shoe there, remove my clothes and throw them everywhere I want, and hang my towel wherever I want". She just laughed.
When we become stressed over what happens in our families, we become hyper. I want to tell you about six specific stages that happen to us when we are stressed:
Micromanaging: If we give a job or a task to someone at work or at home, we constantly follow them around. We say, "Oh, I asked you to keep it here, why did you keep it there? I asked you to do this, why did you do that? Why did you not complete it by this time, and why did you use this formula instead of that one?" We engage in constant micromanagement.
Task Hoarding: The next stage is that we stop giving jobs to anyone at all. We avoid delegating because we think they will just spoil the job.
Blaming Others: We put the blame on others simply to explain our stress. We say, "They are the reason for everything. Because of her I'm stressed, or because of him I'm stressed". In our house, I am always the first person to be blamed. The beauty of it is that I will not even be at home when the incident occurs, but everyone still says, "Oh, Dad would have done that"!
Passive Surrender: We fall into a state of giving up. We say, "I cannot do anything, and I'm not going to do anything. What is going to happen even if I do, or what is going to happen even if I pray?" It is a completely passive surrender.
A Pity Party: We throw ourselves a pity party. We complain, "Oh, there is no one for me. There is no one to take care of me or bother about me. There is no one to even ask whether I have had coffee or food. I wake up in the morning for this family and shed all my sweat—not blood, because blood is only for the heroes—but I shed all my sweat and no one cares". It is just like Martha grumbling to Jesus.
Procrastination: Finally, we stop doing anything on time and just keep postponing things. We throw our hands up and hide behind a spiritual excuse, saying, "Everything is going to happen according to our faith".
Active Surrender and Partnering with God
In Christianity, God is asking us to truly surrender our lives to Him. As we sang last week, "I surrender". We as believers lift both our hands and sing, "I surrender all". We sing it and we say it, but we don't actually surrender ourselves. You know why? Because we do not want to let go of our control. We want to keep everything under our own control, and that is why we don't truly surrender.
As Sister Sheeba was leading us in singing, she mentioned that we must choose to surrender our lives with our trust, our heart, our mind, and our soul. We have to make that choice. Now, I am not saying that you just surrender your life in prayer, tell everything to God, and then go home, sit in your room, and watch TV the whole day doing nothing while claiming, "Oh, I gave it to God, He is going to take care of me".
Throughout the Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation, God has always used human beings for His divine acts. Let me give you two examples. When Jesus was raising Lazarus from the dead, He did not just walk straight to the tomb and command, "Lazarus, come out". When He arrived at the tomb, He first instructed the people around him to roll the stone away. He made them roll the stone. He certainly could have raised Lazarus even while the stone was still there because He is the Son of God, and John clearly states in his Gospel that He is God. Yet, He chose to involve human effort. Furthermore, even after Lazarus came out alive, Jesus commanded the people to untie the grave clothes wrapped around his body and the linen cloth tied on his face. He made the people around there work.
The second example is the very first miracle of Jesus Christ, where He turned water into wine. He asked the people there to fill the jars with water, and then He asked them to serve it to the guests. God actively uses human involvement for His divine acts. When we are going through problems and trials, if we want to see the glory and the miracles of God, our role, our involvement, and our cooperation are equally important.
The main problem is that we don't want to let go of our control. We want our families, our lives, our children, and our spouses to be completely under our control. Let me give you a small example. Suppose a husband is a good driver, and one day his wife asks, "Let me drive today". The husband allows it and sits next to her in the passenger seat. She might be driving very smoothly and nicely, but if you watch the husband, his foot will automatically keep moving to an imaginary brake pedal! Have you noticed that? It happens because we carry an illusion that we can do things better than others, or that we can do what they cannot.
Many of us hold onto this false hope within us. We say, "Oh, I can sing better than her or him, or I can play the keyboard better than him". But when failure comes, when things go against us, when problems arrive, or when we fall sick, that illusion of self-sufficiency vanishes. We might think, "Oh, I ate good, nutritious food, I did intermittent fasting, and I exercised regularly," but suddenly our health or our job is taken away. Only then do we finally realize that it is not in our control.
As the Scripture reminds us in Proverbs 3:5:
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding."
We always try to lean on our own strength, our own knowledge, our own wisdom, and our own plans. Instead of seeking His will, we map out our own plans for our lives, our families, and our children, hand them to God, and say, "Lord, please fulfill this".
Finding Contentment in the Silence
Consider the Apostle Paul's words in Philippians 4:11–13, which he wrote while sitting in a prison cell in Rome:
"Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."
How did Paul have this kind of confidence while in prison? It was because he trusted Jesus Christ completely and surrendered his entire life to Him. He did not lean on his own strength, his own knowledge, his own wisdom, or his own plans. He totally surrendered to God and declared that he could do all things solely through Christ's strength.
Dear children of God, He does not owe us any explanation when we are walking through trials, pain, troubles, or sickness. We constantly ask, "Why was my job taken away? Why this sickness? Why is this happening to me?" We keep asking Him "Why?" but He doesn't have to give us an explanation. Everything God has provided for us—our families, our children, our jobs, and our finances—is good and perfect. As Brother Joseph said, all that we have is a pure gift from God.
We must come to a place of true contentment, because if we don't, we will start comparing. We start comparing what we have with what others have. We compare our children to other children, our husbands to other husbands, our wives to other wives, and our jobs or finances to other people's situations. We do not need to compare ourselves. From a distance, another man might always look better than your husband, and another woman might look better than your wife. But it is only when you actually live with them that you find out how good they really are! We must learn to be content.
As 1 Timothy 6:6 reminds us:
"But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment."
Sometimes when we are going through deep trials and pain, we cry out, "Lord, where are You? Why are You not answering my prayers? Why are You standing at a distance?" Let's think back to when we were in school. There was always a specific time when the entire classroom became completely silent. When was that? During an exam. When a test is going on, the teacher does not talk and the students do not talk. Whenever we are going through problems, we should realize that we are simply going through a test. When we are being tested, God will often remain silent.
When we don't hear anything from God, we should not passionately pester or keep disturbing Him. If we lose our patience, God may answer by allowing us to take a long detour, just as He did with the Israelites. He delivered them from slavery, and instead of leading them into the Promised Land in a matter of 11 to 14 days, He made them take a detour through the wilderness for 40 years because of their lack of patience. God sometimes answers this way, so whenever you face a trial, recognize it as a test and have the patience to wait and submit everything to His perfect will.
The Danger of Reclaiming the Reins
The book of James also cautions us about trying to control our futures in James 4:14–15:
"Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.'"
Nothing is truly in our control. Often, it is only when something completely opposite to our plans happens, or when circumstances go against us, that we are finally forced to let go of our control.
I remember hearing about the old days in the air force when they were hiring pilot officers. They had a very simple test where candidates had to keep their hands tightly closed for five minutes. When they opened their hands, there could not be any sweat on their palms. If there was sweat, they would lose points or be rejected. They kept this test because a pilot needs a dry, firm grip to hold the handles and controls of the aircraft during an emergency. I don't know if they still use this exact test today with all our modern technology, but that is how it was in the old days.
In the 1990s, an aircraft called the Airbus 320 was launched, and it unfortunately met with a severe accident in Bangalore. A major feature of this aircraft was its advanced auto-landing system. The captain's responsibility was to let the computer control and store everything for the landing, and then simply pull the levers to stop the aircraft once it touched down. However, a disadvantage of this aircraft was that it would wobble and shake heavily during the landing process. During the crash in Bangalore, the aircraft began to wobble and shake intensely as it was landing. The captain panicked and tried to manually take back control of the aircraft, even though it was fully programmed for auto-landing. Because he interfered with the automated system, the flight crashed directly into a nearby golf course. There were 192 passengers on board; 92 people died, and 56 passengers were severely injured.
Sometimes we get deeply tempted to step in and take control of a situation that belongs entirely to God. This aircraft was explicitly programmed for auto-control, but the pilot's attempt to force manual control resulted in disaster. It is hard for us to accept that we are not in control, but we must realize that nothing is in our hands. Only when we accept this will we truly give everything over to God.
Surviving the Test Through True Serenity
As James 1:12 promises us:
"Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him."
I want to share a word about the famous Serenity Prayer. Serenity simply means profound peace, calmness, and relaxation. The core of this prayer encourages the absolute acceptance of things that cannot be changed, and its central message is total surrender to God. It asks, "Lord, give me the wisdom to understand and accept the things we cannot change". Let's look at the words of this prayer:
"God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. Amen. Next, living one day at a time. Enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it. Trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will, so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next."
This prayer is a beautiful expression of surrendering completely to God. When we go through pain, problems, sickness, or trials, it means we are going through a testing period. And when that test is taking place, I promise you that God is right there with us. Though He may choose to remain silent and not answer immediately, His presence is always with us. That baseline assurance never leaves us.
What we must do is lift both of our hands to heaven and say, "Lord, not my will, but let Your will be done". That is exactly what Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane. He repeatedly reminded His followers, "I came down to this earth to fulfill My Father's will".
The Power of a Divine Declaration
When God speaks, absolutely everything changes. When a doctor speaks, it is just a medical report. When your boss talks, it is merely an instruction. But when God speaks, it is a divine declaration! A single word from God can instantly silence your deepest fears.
In our home, whenever Uma speaks, everyone stops and listens. We don't have any pets at home, but if we did, I am sure they would listen to Uma too! But when Almighty God speaks, demonic forces listen, sickness listens, raging storms listen, and thick darkness must listen. God's voice changes everything. Today, you might be feeling like a shaking mountain—overwhelmed by loneliness, family tension, marital pressure, children who are away from God, or immense job stress. But right in the middle of it, God is saying to you, "Be still, be still, and rely on Me". Do not lean on your own strength or your own limited wisdom.
Have you ever tried to fix something around the house, only to have it go completely wrong? Our Brother Jose knows this situation very well. One time, I tried to fix a problem in our kitchen sink. Now, I am not a plumber and I don't know anything about plumbing. Back when I was living in India, I never even went into the kitchen or did any manual labor. But after coming to the United States, I started trying to do everything myself because hiring professional labor costs so much money.
I gathered all my tools—spanners, screwdrivers, and cutting pliers—and spent about 20 to 30 minutes aggressively working under the sink. Finally, Uma walked into the kitchen, looked at me, and said, "Please stop fixing that, you're breaking it"!
We do the exact same thing spiritually. We take burdens and situations that we should be handing over to God, and we try to fix them with our own strength and tools, only to break them further. Let us choose to let God handle the things that we cannot. Let us surrender our lives completely to Him today—with all of our heart, all of our mind, and all of our soul. Thank you, and God bless you.
