01/18/2018
Are you waiting on the Lord today? Is there a challenge or need in your life that you are nearly overwhelmed by, and have brought before God in prayer? Are you about to give up on His provision or rescue because you can’t see Him moving? Well take heart, because our God is good and He has never abandoned you.
“I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living. Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!”Psalms 27:13-14 NKJV
The greatest hardship before many who pray is waiting on God. It is not the challenge they have brought to Him, but trusting in Him to move on it. Our impatience is our greatest enemy, and causes us to lose confidence in God, and in that desperate moment we take back what we have given Him in prayer, and attempt to fix it or acquire it ourselves. To put it another way... we lose faith.
God is spiritual, and His movements, even the monumental ones, are not visible to us. He deals in things unseen; His are the thoughts of men, and the quiet unfolding of nature itself, but on the other hand we are accustomed to looking for physically real happenings. Andrew Murray wrote about the hardship of waiting on God. He wrote of waiting on a Spiritual God to move in our physical world.
“The deliverance we often wait for is from our enemies, in whose presence we are powerless. The blessings we plead for are spiritual and unseen, things impossible with men. Our heart may well faint and fail. Our souls are unaccustomed to holding intimate fellowship with God. The God we wait on often appears to hide.” - Andrew Murray
Does God appear to be hiding from you today? Are you looking for a real happening, and not seeing the progress that is being made? Well, what seems simple to us is not. We see a little pebble in our hand, and want to throw it into the pond... but when we do the ripples reach every shore, and our pebble displaces water and creatures as it falls to the bottom... where once it comes to rest that bottom is changed forever, and will never be the same again.
God’s will for us, and indeed the world around us, is like a pond... and our request in prayer is like the pebble. When we ask, that God throw the little pebble of our desire into the pond, our simple request changes everything that follows, and must be folded into eternity... into God’s will.
So much preparation must be made for what seems to us to be a simple request. When we ask God to intercede we are asking Him to change the natural flow of life, and eternity. What should impress you the most isn’t how quickly, or slowly God appears to move, but that He is willing to do this for us at all... that He would change the universe to give you a single bite of food when you are hungry... or a sip of water when you are thirsty.
“Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.”Psalms 37:4-5 NKJV
We take little heed to the repercussions of our actions as we bull our way through life, but to God it is an intricate and beautifully woven tapestry. Every action, every reaction, even the happenings within a sun that exists millions of light years away, produces ripples of energy that touch us... the light of a billion stars in the sky. They seem unchanging but they are not, and ultimately they change us... all at the will of God.
So we trust in the goodness of God, and we wait for the movement of untold millions of events so that the answer to our one simple prayer can be made possible. We have faith in Him, and praise Him even when we can’t see the true glory of His provision. We say a simple thank you to a God who just changed all of eternity so that we could go to a child’s play at school, or have a cool drink of water on a hot day.
“But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.””Matthew 19:26 NKJV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the enormity of what you do for me each day. Thank you Lord for hearing my prayers and answering them faithfully. Forgive me Father for the impatience I show while waiting on your provision, and the lack of faith I often portray. Help me to understand your majesty, your love, your goodness, and let me never take it for granted. In my naive nature I can not comprehend the factors that are represented in my requests of you each day, but I am overwhelmed by your generosity, and ability to provide... even though it means that you must change the flow of creation. I find my worthiness hard to fathom Father, and yet you are faithful to your promise to provide. I thank you for my belief, and I thank you in the name of your Son Jesus Christ for every answered prayer.
“Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.””Mark 9:23 NKJV
“And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”John 14:13-14 NKJV
Praised be your name Father, and great are you above all things... greater yet is your love.
Rich Forbes