11/13/2019
Do you find yourself impatiently waiting on the Lord? A car races off the road at breakneck speed, you finish a good book before you are ready, or you might come to the end of your life saying ”how did it pass so quickly!”, but when we deal with God there is a very different feeling to time. On many occasions the sense of urgency we apply to the happenings in our lives seems strangely absent with God, while at other times things happen in a flash.
“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
2 Peter 3:8 ESV
My grandfather and uncle were both farmers. They knew all of the seasons, and exactly when things needed to be done during each of them in order to make a good crop. Their bodies and minds moved in coordination with the earth. As a boy I loved to watch my uncle tie my shoes because his fingers moved with such determination, and yet never rushed. Every movement was slow, precise, and seemed so perfect... yet like everything he did it happened exactly when it needed to, and left you feeling strangely calm... at peace, and almost rested. I imagine God walking through creation in much the same manner... in perfect accord.
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”
Galatians 4:4-5 ESV
In today’s modern world we tend to approach life frantically. It seems that we race around from here to there gathering possessions, accumulating treasures, trying to do as much as we can, to see as much as possible, and experience life “in its fullest”, but in all of this we miss the real essence of life... love, peace, and resting within God’s arms. We are out of synch with creation, life, and with God. It is as if we are trying to extract ourselves, crush down the very thing that gives us life in the first place, and then sit atop it. Our fingers tie the knots too fast, and we miss the moments with the Child... our own, and Jesus Christ.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
John 14:27 ESV
This past weekend I had a scary occurrence. I lost control of my ability to think, and put words together correctly. I was unable to remember places, things, and people... my world was turned inside out, and became frustrating to me. If you had looked at me from a distance I would have looked perfectly normal physically, but all that made me who I am had been jumbled up as if were beaten with a spoon. In two separate instances on Saturday, and Sunday mornings I was totally out of synch with my surroundings, my person, and was left fighting inside to regain control. However, my adult children intervened, and took me to the hospital. Although every outward sign pointed to my having had two strokes, the barrage of tests I was subjected to determined that I had not, and my faculties returned. What was deduced from these tests was that I had one of two things, either a couple of TIAs (commonly called mini-strokes), or a reaction to a new medicine I had been prescribed to relieve some inflammation in my hip. So I was put on some new medicine for the TIAs, and told to stop taking what was thought to be the offending drug.
“"He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters. He rescued me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me.”
2 Samuel 22:17-20 ESV
The point in telling you this is first to relieve the fears of those who read a previous mention of my being in hospital, but secondly, and most of all, to say that much of our lives are spent chasing things that mean very little in God’s grand plan. We have worked all our days at what we thought was important, but in an instant we can be made to realize how far out of synch with God, and lost in ourselves, we have become. Suddenly what mattered most to me was my wife and children who insisted that I go to the Emergency Room, and my God who led me from that place of calamity back to health.
“I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.”
Psalms 34:4 ESV
I asked if you waited impatiently on God, and then I spoke of the different expressions and feelings of time we experience as God deals with us. I spoke of my farming uncle, and how he moved in coordination with the seasons, and the land... right down to his fingers that tied my shoes, and I spoke of the love, peace, and rest, that we feel when we are in synch with God in our lives. I said all of these things to reassure you that despite what you might be going through, even if your thoughts are scrambled, taken from you, or your frantic nature screams out in its pain and suffering, God moves in perfect coordination with all that He has created, and with His perfect will for it... and us. Take your rest in Him, find your peace in Him, and experience love in Him as He absolutely loves you, because He will never abandon you.
“Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Matthew 6:9-10 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your perfect timing in our lives, and for the rhythm of all creation that shows us you are here always. Help us Holy Father to conform ourselves to you, and to move through our lives as you would have us do. Give us peace, rest, and your eternal love, as we wait on your answer to our prayers. Teach us in the beautiful, the amazing, the awesome, and yes, the hardships we encounter, to trust in you, and to forever find ourselves in stride with you. I thank you for confusing my mind, and showing me the love of my family through it. I thank you also for my rescue, and the answered prayers of so many that were offered on my behalf. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who holds me tight, and walks with me through my life. Great are you who has set all of creation in motion, and given it your pulse, rhythm, and breath. I praise your name Oh Father of Peace, and Rest, for calming my spirit, and loving me so completely. I pray for guidance and understanding so that I can magnify your name as I wait on you, and I ask that you help me Father to feel your perfect will coursing about me... let me comfort myself in it. All glory is yours Lord, and in the grace that flows through Jesus you are perfected in it. Hallowed be your name forevermore!
“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,”
2 Peter 3:8-11 ESV
Rich Forbes