For those of you who have read any of my other writings, it is quite obvious that I have an overactive, very visual and literal mind. This is especially evident in my humorous Christian writing. I am never irreverent, do not misunderstand! It is just that my finite, little, sheep-sized mind starts from what I already understand and the Holy Spirit takes it from there using a simple concept to teach me spiritual matters. For example, when He used this story of Abraham and Sarah to teach me about how He operates in respect to faith, I instantly (as I always do!) put myself in their place. Visually, I am right there in the desert with them in that big, spacious tent. It is going to be another "scorcher," so they are enjoying the coolness of the dawn, sitting under the upraised tent flap, sipping their one cup of coffee for the day, watching another of God's spectacular sunrises. Since it has now been 3 years since God promised them a child and nothing has happened except for God's continued, repetitive admonishments to "wait on the Lord," they are having another conversation about that. These two were just mortals, like you and me, so if you have any imagination at all you can guess for yourself how that conversation might have sounded. But, that's another story which I have yet to publish so I won't go into it further now and spoil all the fun. I only mention it here because in God's beautiful Word are pictures of ordinary people who went through every imaginable trial in life just as we do. He thoughtfully included their stories to give us a "how to" for our own spiritual walk. |
"For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him." Psalm 12:5 |
How big is God? Look at this picture. Is your concept of God this big??? The first thing we do while we are "waiting on the Lord" is know that He is bigger and mightier than whatever it was we prayed about. We already know He has a powerful, long arm and perfect hearing, He tells us so. (Isaiah 59:1) He also tells us there is nothing that He cannot and will not do for us as long as it glorifies Jesus Christ and His and Our Father. (John 14:13) So, we need to get rid of all doubt first. James says if we doubt, then we may as well not ask in prayer in the first place. (James 1:6-8) God Himself gives us faith. (Romans 12:3) He also allows situations in our lives that test that faith, sometimes mightily, in order for that faith to be strengthened and increase. (James1:3). Let your heart be comforted in this: "God never forsakes us in the waiting." "There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." (Proverbs18:24) That one is our beautiful Savior Jesus Christ. He never leaves us alone in the midst of the waiting, especially when the answer to our prayer appears, from our perspective, far into the future since He did not answer instantly. More than ever at those times, He is there comforting us in our spirit, overriding all our fears and doubts, if we let Him, reassuring us, promising His everlasting protection and providing. How close is He? |
#1 Don't Doubt |
#2 Don't Fear |
"Fear thou not, for I am with you; be not dismayed; for I am your God: I will strengthen you; yes, I will help you; yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness. For I the Lord your God will hold your right hand, saying unto you, Fear not; I will help you." Isaiah 41:10&13 |
Fear Not This runs a close second to "Wait on the Lord" for the number of times God repeats it. (Don't quote me on that, I am speaking from my own Bible-reading experience), but He tells us that a lot. And it always appears to me to carry the weight of a commandment. He really does not want us living in fear. In fact, we cannot have fear and faith at the same time. Personally, I still struggle a lot with overcoming fears. One of my overcoming verses for this is "What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee." Psalm 56:3 |
God loves holding hands! What a wonderful father, what a wonderful friend! If you notice in the Isaiah verses below, God says twice He is going to hold us by the hand. Hold our hand! I am in awe whenever I read one of those verses!!! I remember the absolute security of holding my earthly father's had when I was a little child. It was the most secure feeling in the world then. Holding hands with God would be far beyond that experience! One day I was working mentally on how to overcome fear in any situation. How could I learn to not fear the way God wants me to? One of His hand-holding verses came to mind, and it occurred to me to visualize myself holding tightly to God's mighty, all-powerful hand. Instantly I realized that if I actually was holding onto God's hand spiritually, I would not be afraid of anything. No matter what desperate situation I had prayed about, no matter how long I had been waiting for His help or His answer, if I was holding on to His hand, I would not be doubting or afraid. It would be impossible! I found a verse where it actually says that God held Jesus' hand. (He will lead me to it again so I can include it here; He is marvelous about doing that!) How precious to know that God cares so much, He will take us by the hand to give us His security in every situtation big and small. Often times for years on end, the Holy Spirit overwhelms our hearts with perfect, fantastic promises just as He did Abraham. We live in an "instant" world these days and too often expect "instant answers" to prayer too. Just as in the beautifully written piece on page 1, we would miss the wonder of really knowing Him if we just asked and He answered in a holy second. It astounded me one day to figure out that between the promise to Abraham that he would have a son until the birth of Isaac it was 25 years! Think about that! 25 long years!!! No wonder Abraham is called the father of our faith! Abraham was an old man when that promise was given and no doubt expected to see the reality of that promise within months, probably 9 months at the most. And, don't you know Abraham and Sarah had "some moments" in the next 9125 days and nights pondering that awesome promise, questioning their own sanity, wondering if God had gone on a long vacation and forgotten about it!!! The stories in the Bible are about real people and a real God. They are given for our edification and instruction. Read Hebrews chapter 11 often. That corrects our perspective about God's timetable for answering prayers and promises. There is power and absolute clarity in verse 6: "But without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he that comes to God must believe that He is, AND that He is a rewarder of them that DILIGENTLY seek him." There are two very distinct and separate pieces to this statement. It is critical that we not miss this. Maybe the use of the word "diligence" should be our first clue. The word means tenaciously and relentlessly. It wouldn't take much diligence to be faithfully believing God for a day or a week. It would take tremendous diligence to maintain that level of faith and seeking day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year! Abraham was promised his seed would be "as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which by the sea shore is unnumerable." (Hebrews 11:12). In order for that to be true, he had to have the first one, and that took 25 years! And, this same verse states bluntly that Abraham "was as good as dead" when he received the promise! Does this give you a better perspective on what God might mean when He keeps telling your own heart to "Wait on the Lord" about a matter? Do you see that He wants you to just trust Him, to believe that His word is true, and you can absolutely count on it? Our problem is, He never says when. From Abraham and Sarah's story you can see why. It would devastate us, crushing what little faith we did have especially if He wasn't going to answer for 25 years! |
Interlude . . . |
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The world, the flesh and the devil can "puff" at us as in the beautifully worded verse at the top, but God has not given us, nor does He want us to have, a spirit of fear about anything in life. |
