September is a busy month: schools start back, businesses pick up pace following the summer break and Strictly Come Dancing is around the corner! The temptation with busy months is to jump on the treadmill like everyone around us and start running faster ourselves to keep up. However, wisdom would suggest otherwise.

Jeremiah 6:16 is a wonderful verse for us to all reflect on together. The context is one of desperation. Jerusalem is under siege by the Babylonian superpower, God's people are in despair and the prophet Jeremiah is no doubt feeling overwhelmed. Adrenalin would have been surging. How would you have responded if you were Jeremiah? Most of us would either give up or choose to jump into action to fix the mess. This may seem wise but as the treadmill speeds up, it won't be long before you or I get thrown off and collapse to the ground in a painful mess. Yet what does God call his people to do?

This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.

When life is overwhelming, we all need to stand still, look to our great God who is in total control and ask him for wisdom. What does HE wants us to do? How does HE call us to respond? What is HE teaching us? What truths is HE seeking to speak into our lives? Being still before God and asking for his spirit to still our hearts and guide our thinking and actions is not an easy discipline, but it is an essential one.

Let us commit as a church family to standing still, looking to God and asking him to lead and direct us. For as the verse ends, the promise for those who find God's good way and walk is that we will find rest.

Mark Herbert

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