Stand Still and Consider

 

The Silence That Leads You to The Saviour

Job 37:14 Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.

Job's Invitation to Spiritual
Contemplation

"Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God." This profound exhortation—spoken from the whirlwind itself calls us to interrupt the noise of complaint, justification, and desperate questioning, and instead to stand still.

“Stand still”

To stand still is to surrender the frantic need to have an immediate answer. There are moments when faith does not begin with doing more, speaking more, or figuring everything out. It begins with becoming still before God.

Stillness creates space for you to remember that God is working even when you cannot see the end. You may see confusion; God sees the whole story. You may see the present moment; God sees the beginning and the end. You may feel surrounded by unanswered questions, yet the absence of an answer is not the absence of God.

When you stop moving, you stop trying to escape. You stop trying to fix. You stop performing. In that stillness, you are finally present enough to see. The constant motion of fear, anger, and self-justification no longer obscures the view. Standing still is the posture of humility the acknowledgment that your way is not working, and that you must become quiet enough to receive something beyond yourself.

The Work of Consider

To consider is to turn your full mind and heart toward something. It is not mere glancing observation; it is deliberate, sustained attention. You are invited to contemplate the wondrous works of God not the comfortable, expected parts, but the entire tapestry of the actions of Jesus Christ: creation's majesty, providence's mystery, judgment's severity, grace's inexplicability.

Consider the snow and rain that feed the earth. Consider the eagle's nest and the doe in labor. Consider the leviathan and the hawk. In Job's context, these are not gentle nature scenes they are reminders of a reality vaster and more complex than human suffering. When you consider God's works honestly, you encounter something that resists easy explanation. You are confronted with a God who is neither bound by your logic nor indifferent to your pain.

So when you are tempted to believe that everything depends upon your strength, stand still and consider.

Consider Christ.

Consider the cross.

Consider the empty tomb.

The Truth Found in Silence

But here is what I must say to you now...

Sometimes the stillness feels terrifying, because in silence, you might finally hear the truth that all your striving to justify yourself, to earn your way, to prove your worth has left you exhausted and alone. So stop now. Stand still before the Jesus Christ who knows every fracture in your heart.

And as you quiet yourself, consider this: the greatest work of God the one that transcends all creation, all providence, all the bewildering mysteries of your suffering is salvation itself. He is not distant. He is not theoretical. He is the divine answer written in blood and resurrection.

Jesus Christ entered your condition. He bore the weight of every failure, every shame, every ache that has bent your back. Through the death of Jesus Christ brutally real, scandalously human  Jesus Christ absorbed the full cost of your brokenness.  And then, in the resurrection, He split reality open. He declared that death has no final word, that suffering need not have the last say, that you broken as you are can be remade.

This is not a rescue that avoids your pain or explains it away. This is redemption that enters the pain, transforms it, and opens a door to a restoration you cannot yet fully imagine. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is God's ultimate work, His masterpiece of love, His final and sufficient answer to the human condition.

So stand still. Consider. And know this: you are not required to understand everything to receive everything. Salvation is your restoration, your reconciliation, your rebirth is God's work, not yours. It is offered to you now, in this very moment, by a God who loves you not because you have earned it, but because you are infinitely worth dying for.

The Eternal Perspective of the Born Again Believer

New Life, New Direction, New Vision

Colossians 3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

The Resurrection Connection

"If ye then be risen with Christ," refers to more than a historical event of the empty tomb. It speaks to a spiritual resurrection, your acceptance and belief of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ- the believer's identification with Christ's death, burial, and resurrection through faith. This means:

• You have been spiritually reborn
• You have died to your old self
• Your identity is now in Christ

The apostle Paul is urging believers who have been “risen with Christ”—that is, Christ in you and you in Christ—to have a consistent view of eternity. As believers, we are no longer bound by our old sinful nature, but have been given new life in Christ.

Waiting in the Redemption of Our Bodies

While we await the full redemption of our bodies, we labour and patiently wait:

• Hopeful anticipation fuels eager optimism; we look forward to the day when “the mortal shall put on immortality” (1 Cor 15:53)

In summary, now that we are risen with Christ, we must be heavenly minded seeking heavenly things and wait expectantly for the day when our bodies share in His glory.

Jesus Christ vs. Halloween

 The Maniac of Gadara and Halloween

Mark 5:1 And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.

2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,

3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:

4 Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.

5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.

6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,

7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.

8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.

9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.

10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.

11 Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.

12 And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.

13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.

14 And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done.

15 And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.

The story of the Maniac of Gadara, found in the Gospels (Mark 5:1–15, Matthew 8:28–34, Luke 8:26–39 Jesus meets this man possessed by a legion of devils in the region of the Gadarenes/Gerasenes), the narrative of transformation and redemption through Jesus Christ is evident by the Maniacs humility. In stark contrast, Halloween, often associated with horror and darkness. 

• Background: The Maniac of Gadara, was a man possessed by numerous devils, also known as Legion. The Maniac lived among the tombs, where he mutilated himself and exhibited extreme supernatural behaviour.

• Encounter with Jesus: Upon meeting Jesus, he fell at His feet, showing a recognition of Jesus’s authority. Jesus commanded the devils to leave the man, restoring him to sanity and sobriety.

• Chaos vs. order: The devil embodies chaos, fragmentation, and destruction; Jesus brings order, healing, and restoration.

• Isolation vs. fellowship: The possessed man lives among the tombs cut off from people; Jesus restores fellowship—he returns the man to consciousness and gives him a mission to testify.

• Fear vs. peace: Demonic presence provokes terror and instability; Jesus imparts peace, calm, and security.

• Destruction vs. life: Devils seek harm and death; Jesus gives life and purpose.

• Darkness vs. light: Demonic forces are associated with spiritual darkness and bondage; Jesus brings light, truth, and liberty.

• Power to harm vs. authority to heal: The demons exert coercive power; Jesus exercises authority that overcomes and liberates.

• Superficial mimicry vs. authoritative deliverance: Halloween impersonates demonic or frightening figures for amusement; Jesus exercises authoritative power over actual evil and removes it.

• Glamorizing darkness vs. dispelling darkness: Halloween often glamorizes or normalizes darkness and the grotesque; Jesus exposes darkness and brings healing light and spiritual renewal.

The Maniac of Gadara

Before the Maniac of Gadara's encounter with Jesus Christ, he exemplified everything nasty and despicable about Halloween--living among tombs, self-mutilation, resisting the only saviour that can help.  Jesus Christ's intervention, exemplifies hope, healing, and redemption. Jesus embodies restoration, forgiveness, and the victory of light over darkness. This stands in stark contrast to the spirit of Halloween, which embraces fear, darkness, and celebrates death.

Sin: Disruption of Human Wellness

John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Mark 5:5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.

Physical effects

• Severe bodily injury from repeated cutting: lacerations, blood loss, scarring.

• Exhaustion and weakened health due to constant crying and lack of rest or proper nourishment.

Spiritual effects

• Deep separation from God, or biblical order—symbolized by retreating into the tombs and mountains.

• Loss of hope or spiritual desolation, where suffering becomes an identity and replaces prior spiritual life.

Emotional and psychological effects

• Entrenchment of shame and self-loathing; self-injury as an attempt to cope with unbearable inner pain.

• Impaired ability to form healthy attachments or seek help, increasing isolation and worsening mental health (depression, anxiety, possible dissociation).

Illustrated is how sin is not just a moral failing, but a comprehensive disruption of human wellness. Sin fractures the entire human experience - breaking physical integrity, spiritual connection, and emotional stability. The physical acts are both symptom and perpetuator of inner brokenness: bodily pain temporarily externalizes inner anguish, but also deepens spiritual estrangement and emotional despair, creating a destructive feedback loop.