by David Brenneman
The Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion
ISAIAH 30:18
The greenest grass is found wherever the most rain falls. So
I suppose it is the fog and mist of Ireland that makes it "the Emerald Isle." And wherever you find the widespread fog of trouble and the mist of sorrow, you always find emerald green hearts that are full of the most beautiful foliage of comfort and love of God.
Dear Christian, do not say, "Where are all the swallows? They are all gone--they are dead." No. they are not dead. They have simply skimmed across the deep, blue sea, flying to a faraway land; but they will be back again soon.
Child of God, do not say, "All the flowers are dead-the winter has
killed them, so they are gone.' No! Although the winter has covered them with a white coat of snow, they will push up their heads again and will be alive very soon.
O believer, do not say that the sun has burned out, just because a cloud has hidden it. No, it is still there, planning a summer for you; for when it shines again, it will have caused those clouds to have dropped their April showers, each of them a mother to a sweet May flower.
Above all, remember-when God hides His face from you, do not say
that He has forgotten you. He is simply waiting for a little while to make you love Him more. And once He comes, you will rejoice with the inexpressible "joy of the LORD"
(Nehemiah 8:10). Waiting on Him exercises your gift of grace and tests your faith. Therefore continue to wait in hope, for although the promise may linger, it will never come too late. CHARLES
H. SPURGEON
Waiting. Oh as the generations come each successive one that's come has even less patience than the one before it.
Daily we see people spending gobs of money due to impatience in obtaining a simple cup of coffee. Rather than the 3 to 5 minutes to get a pot made at home, they spend gas money or electricity money to drive somewhere for an overpriced cup of coffee...and yes all coffee establishments are seriously overpriced with their so-called gourmet coffees.
Waiting has never been the forte of anyone really. Impatience marks or heralds a probable bad choice or decision. We both do and or live with those who get maybe 50 percent of the facts and see no reason to be careful...they learn the hard way that maybe they still should have waited. Just because sometimes things sound really good doesn't mean that it's the right thing.
We're told to wait on the Lord.
Daniel didn't panic when the answer to His prayers wasn't coming right away. Daniel continued as he had been praying...as we read...as was his custom.
What's your custom when it comes to honoring Jesus in your own prayers? You do realize that your views on how you look at praying to God is a reflection on how you are honoring the work of God through the Spirit of God in your life?
But back to patience...it's not easy to being made to wait. We keep thinking that there's SOMETHING we must be doing or something that must be done.
But what if that which must be done is just to do as Martha was encouraged to do as being the right thing? Pray and wait on the Lord, at the feet of Jesus.
Even after what Jesus told her it probably took some doing to settle down and join Mary, which my guess is that's what she did.
It's been a very long stretch since I was let go from my last employer and my prayers have been simple concerning our needs and what I'd prefer in a new job.
I know that God will provide me a new job. He always has and has always provided. It's the waiting that can gnaw at your patience. It can wear on you because we are people of perceptions. We perceive that nothing is happening therefore we conclude nothing is and that we must do something more. Our impatience can get the best of us.
As in the case of Job even those whom we believe to be good people whom look like they have their lives right before God...can give errant advice as his did.
It's always important to keep ourselves where Jesus wants us to be until He moves in a new direction and bids us to join Him.
He may say nothing, He may explain Himself. The responsibility is on us to follow where He leads.
It's on us to honor Him with what we do have. It's on us to weed out the things in our lives that are not growing us in Christ. Oh my Dear Reader do NOT believe for a moment that you don't have weeds in your Spiritual garden that is your life. When we take any time that could be spent learning how to be more like Jesus and give it to other things...then we have a weed that needs pulled.
We can also not see that our impatience is bccause we DID keep something in our lives in a different area that shouldn't be there because we were shown by the Spirit to get rid of it.
A situation could be brewing to our right and we focus on that but the Spirit is tapping us on the shoulder and pointing to our left at a thing that He's saying is more important to deal with first.
Why do you think there's so many warnings about idolatry in the New Testament? Idolatry wasn't just an Old Testament problem. It was very much alive and well in the early days of the church and certainly is far more a problem today with the limitless temptations offered in today's world.
Our impatience often leads us to a place of feeling very alone. We don't understand why we're alone but we perceive it. The Scriptures tell us that we're not alone in Christ. The Spirit is with us 24/7 365. We're a prayer away from whatever help we need. Daniel did what was required of his job but he never neglected his prayer relationship with his Lord.
We have jobs to do but both while doing them and afterwards we DO have the time to be growing in Christ. We DO have the time to spend time in meaningful prayer. We DO have it if we would just let go of what doesn't matter. Our growing in Christ fortifies our relationship with Jesus more today than it was yesterday.
Being alone is only good for the short term but never the long haul.
Jesus got away but never to be alone He was always meeting with His Father.
Jesus taught His Disciples to do the same. They were to teach the world to do the same.
Re-read Daniel. Daniel was technically alone in his position but he never viewed himself as being alone in the city of Babylon.
We may not hear from the Lord with regards to our prayers due to the spiritual battles that ARE being waged even today. But they will come. Have both patience and persistance in praying as Daniel did.
All NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission.
New American Standard Bible
(C) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation.
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