06/02/2018
Even before you waited on the LORD He was waiting on you. I know a man who would like to think that God’s mercy and grace is bestowed cart blanch to even those who do not believe in Him... the one true God of Abraham, Moses, and Isaac. This man would like to think that he can obtain the grace and forgiveness associated with Jesus without believing in Him as the Son of God, or obeying His commandments and teaching. This is not so, and yet God waits on this man with open arms.
“Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.”
Isaiah 30:18 ESV
I love this verse because it tells us that God not only waits on us to come to Him, but when we finally do, and He is able to forgive us, and show us mercy, that He exalts in that moment; in the very instant of our acceptance of Him as our God He exalts at His being able to do so. It makes Him feel grand, and lifted up. Yet this verse also tells us that He is a God of justice, and can’t do so until we come to Him in confession, repentance, and contrition... calling out to Him as our God, and His Son Jesus as our Redeemer, and savior. He waits on us until we know Him, and begin to wait upon Him.
Waiting and waiting... this sounds a great deal like a conundrum of logic that I am familiar with. I am trained in writing computer programs, and this required a mastery of logic. One of the things you learn about is something called a “deadly embrace.” This is a condition in which one process (or in our case person) asks if something has been done, and if it hasn’t then it loops back, and keeps checking until it has. The deadly embrace comes when the second person is waiting on something the first must do before it can continue and satisfy the condition that the first is waiting on, yet it can’t accomplish this task because it is waiting on the first to complete a similar task. So both persons (or processes) wait indefinitely on the other.
Many people get into this vicious loop in their faith... they ask God to have mercy and show them grace, but either don’t believe in His Son Jesus Christ, or don’t approach Him with a fullness of belief and contrition. So they loop their way through much of their life waiting on grace, and forgiveness, while God waits on their true belief in Him, and Jesus Christ. This continues on until something supernatural happens that breaks the embrace.
As men we are basically intransigent in nature... stubborn beyond belief, so God creates a situation that forces us to confront Him, and to call out to Him. It might be a situation of health, the impending loss of a loved one, or some other dire circumstance that breaks our inbred stubbornness. You have probably heard the saying “there are no atheists in a foxhole” which means that when faced with impending doom and death on the battlefield soldiers come to God. This is an example of a way that the deadly embrace is broken, and the relationship is allowed to continue on. It is not God’s first choice; He would much rather have us read His Word, and believe, but sometimes Satan leads us astray, and the loop is entered. Have you ever been there? Are you there now?
When we convince ourselves that any god is good enough, or that they are all the same we enter the loop of deadly embrace. When we convince ourselves that sin is forgiven by grace without belief in the God of Abraham, or contrition, we have entered into the loop. When we convince ourselves that God doesn’t exist at all then we enter the loop. Anything, including disobedience, that can bring us to a point in which we are waiting for God to act, but He can’t because of our flawed belief, can initiate a deadly embrace. To break out of this condition is not hard... what makes it hard is convincing ourselves that we are wrong. What makes it hard is our own pride and obstinance.
So God waits, and He does so with great anticipation because even in our fallen state He loves us... and man waits on God because he confuses God’s love for him with with His acceptance of his sin. In this way, the deadly embrace is initiated. How long has your disbelief kept you from Jesus Christ? How long has your inability to accept God’s will in your life kept your faith from growing further? How long have your misguided feelings of unworthiness kept you locked up within yourself while God waits?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for my belief in you, and your Son Jesus Christ. Thank you Gracious Father for your Word, and for teaching me to obey you through it. Thank you Holy Father for those times when you confront me with life itself in order to break an impasse of faith that I find myself in. You are merciful LORD, and wait upon me in my unbelief. You love me enough to continue asking “Who am I?” until at last I respond “You are I Am!” and the deadly embrace is broken. You are exalted in that moment Father, and I lift you up in praise and worship as my one true God. Great are you, and great is your grace which awaits me, and flows from the side of your Son Jesus. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who waits upon all mankind, and loves us unto yourself. I pray Father that your waiting on those I love so much is not in vain, and that all conclude that you are sufficient, and worthy of their eternal faith and praise. Hear my prayers, and let every saint pray for their children.
“Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”
Mark 9:23-24 KJV
Rich Forbes