Stay in the Stay: Relying on God in Uncertain Times

I had the opportunity to record a devotional video for my church, below is the recording as well as the prepared text version of the same message:

In case you didn’t realize it yet, we are living in crazy times!

Hopefully you’ve found your groove, you’ve been able to get your remote learning for school, the office setup from home and you’re learning how to spend even MORE time together as a family then you ever thought you could.

I know that my dogs are absolutely loving me being home all the time and are in for some severe feelings of rejection when I eventually go back to work!

Our household also added one to the count on the census this year with the birth of our new son in the family, so it’s been wonderful to be home with my wife and our one-month-old, Shepherd, to be a support and encouragement to them!

Hopefully you have found some people in your life that can be an encouragement to you through these times, wither that be the family in your own home, extended family or a life-group or group of friends that you can connect with in some fashion.

I saw some of my neighbors sitting around a fire last weekend waaaay far apart from each other, only close to their spouses. What a creative way to come together in a unique way and still find that community and familiarity in a whole new way.

And hopefully you can BE an encouragement to others around you and in your communities. My wife informed me that we HAD to support a small business in the area that sells cupcakes. It was our obligation to go and get cupcakes as soon as possible! I’m not really sure where the ones that we bought ended up….

Find someone this week that you can love on, be it a family member who might be feeling lonely or a small business who is unsure how they are going to make it month to month in these uncertain times.

Uncertain Times

That’s really a good way to describe what’s going on right now. Our reality is that the normal schedules and lives that we had grown to trust in day to day have been flipped upside down had any sort of familiarity removed from them. My dad has a saying that I’ve heard a lot from him. He reminds me to “stay in the stay”

This is referencing Psalm 18.

Psalm 18 is written by David on the day that he was finally delivered from his enemies and from Saul. I would encourage you to read though the story of David in the Bible starting 1 Samuel.

David shows his character in this poem and gives us some great exhortation or encouragement for our lives that I think can apply today.

David trusted God when he was waiting for better things to come, he was going to be king but was being hunted because he was going to be king. You could say that the shepherd life, or the life of David serving as Saul’s General in the army was flipped upside down and had any sort of familiarity removed from it. In the account of David’s life, we see multiple opportunities arise where David has the ability to take control, but he doesn’t.

David waits and trusts in the Lord.

The reference that my dad is making is to Psalm 18:17-18

It says this in the NASB:

   He delivered me from my strong enemy,
   And from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.
   They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
   But the Lord was my stay.

Other versions say the Lord was my support, or the Lord supported me.

For David, when things were at its worst, upside down and hopeless. He chose to stay in the stay. To stay in the protection and confidence of the Lord through it all.

So what am I getting at?

Let’s take some encouragement from David’s chaotic life. Let’s recognize that our lives may not look the way that we want them to. We may not be able to do the things we want or go the places that we want to, but we have a support. We have an AMAZING support that we can put our trust into, we can stay in the stay through these times and lean on the most high God who delivered David from utter chaos and ushered him into the plans that the Lord already knew. Read through David’s life with someone else, dive into the Psalms that he writes during his challenges and be encouraged in our abnormal times that we have an amazing and bright future ahead of us.

Please, find the people who are feeling the chaos around them. People who are feeling that everything going around them feels so overwhelming that they need some sort of deliverance. Let’s share this good news with them, as we have open hearts to the Lord and open hearts to who He might want us to encourage. 

Stay in the Stay and be blessed!