Isaiah 30:15, 18 “For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, 'In returning [repentance] and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.'But you were unwilling...Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore He exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.”

Bad days happen. You know what I mean when I write about a bad day. I mean a day in which nothing went right, when nothing happened as planned, when everything I did just went wrong. Bad days happen, and they happen to all of us. Sometimes these bad days happen after having an amazing day when everything went right and sometimes bad days just pile up on each other. From my experience, when I have a bad day, I dwell on it and think about it. I can't get it out of my head. I go over and over the events during the day and wonder what went wrong, what would have happened if I had done something different, how could I have been so stupid (also how the ubiquitous “they” could have been so stupid). I fume about the day and just get upset.

I recently had a bad day and while I won't give details (I have had worse) I will say that things just went from bad to worse. When I finally got around to reading my Bible after having this horrible day, I read the above chapter and these verses popped out at me.

I have noticed something. I have these bad days when I am not paying as much attention to God as I should be. I have these horrible times when I am just coasting in my daily walk with Christ. Please do not misunderstand me, I have unpleasant days when I am paying attention and pursuing Christ daily, hourly, and even minutely but I don't notice it. God takes care of things and I am paying more attention to Him than to what is happening and things are not so bad to me. God does not mind waiting. He waited for who knows how long to create our world and then after the fall He waited for several thousand years before He sent Christ. He can wait a couple days or weeks or months or even years for me or you to realize that we need more of Him. When we return to Him, we need to spend the time beneficially in quietness trusting completely in Him with everything. This means not complaining or whining, not talking about it to our friends, but instead telling Him what we need and then letting Him take care of it in His timing.

We fail in complete and utter dependence on God. We fail in even trying to be completely dependent on Him. Often, we are so set in our own ways and ideas that we have no time to return and center ourselves in the word, and in quietness learning to trust Him. He can wait though. He can wait. We are the most precious thing in the world to Him, but He will wait for us to learn (the hard way usually) that we need to return and rest in His arms and to rely on Him for even the smallest of needs.

So, where are we in our need for Him? Where are we in relationship to God? Are we taking a nap in the lap of Papa God or are we striding away fuming at the stuck-in-the-muddness of “that senile old man in the sky.” Let us return and repent, let us rest and relax full in the knowledge that He has everything taken care of.

Be not dismayed whate'er betide,
God will take care of you;
beneath his wings of love abide,
God will take care of you.