“Be very still right now; I am about to do something very tricky.” Since the lady speaking those words had an electric razor in her hands, and she was cutting my hair, you can bet that I was very obedient! It actually reminded me of what I had read earlier that morning in my quiet time:

Psalm 21:7 was the verse, and it read: “For the king trusts in the LORD.” I was reading the verse in Hebrew, and had to look up the word for “trust.” It was very interesting to me that the Hebrew word used there comes from a cognate verb that means “to lie on the ground before” someone. I thought that was a pretty descriptive picture, of someone just laying there, trusting.

That picture came back to mind when the barber told me to remain motionless and let her work. Any action on my part would only mess things up. I needed to just be very still, and trust her to do what she was far more skilled at than I was.

And of course, this is just how we need to respond to God sometimes as well. Sure, there are occasions when our faith requires action, but there are also times when we need to just lay before the Lord like that verb describes, and let Him do what He knows is best, and which only He can do. It is true for salvation: we can’t do anything to earn it. We must simply trust what Jesus did for us. And there are many times in life when we similarly have to realize that if we act — just like me in that barber’s chair — we are only going to mess things up. We just need to be still, and trust God.

It is reminiscent of the command in Psalm 46:10, “Cease striving (or “let go”; “relax”) and know that I am God.” Perhaps there is an area of your life today in which you need to ask God for His grace to help you do that, and like the king of Psalm 21:7 “trust in the Lord”– just quietly lay before Him and trust Him to do His work!