Worth the Wait

Worth the Wait

Psalm 40:1-21 (NIV) “I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.“

“Are we there yet?” “What’s taking her so long?” “How long will I continue to struggle with …?” “Why doesn’t God seem to be listening to my prayers and answering them?” Let’s face it … waiting is difficult. It’s not easy. It requires self-discipline and in many, if not all, cases an understanding of why we should exercise patience. You’ve no doubt had the experience of waiting for someone and wondered what was causing their delay – like when you’re waiting outside of a grocery store for someone you love, but they seem like they’re taking forever and you’re wondering if the are just trying to torture you or forgot you were outside and you somehow think that each minute that passes is an hour and the game comes on in 15 minutes and you can’t believe you may miss the beginning and your schedule for the day will have to be thrown out … (deep breath) … not that I’ve ever experienced that myself :) Waiting is so hard for us, in part, because we live in a culture that promotes immediate gratification – why wait when you can have it (or something somewhat like it or at least a little bit like it or maybe not at all like it, but a reasonable substitute) right now.

Willing and Able

Willing and Able

Whether he can’t get his shirt on right, the puzzle pieces just won’t go together or his Thomas train tracks won’t line up, “Help please!” is the response of choice for my 2 year old son Luke. And since he has experienced me come to his rescue time and time again in the past, he is well aware of my ability to fix the situation. What he is really asking and sometimes pleading is, “Daddy are you WILLING to help?” Though I sometimes give him opportunity to figure it out on his own there are other times when my lack of action is due to my unwillingness. I put my needs above his.

In Mark 1:40 we see the account of a leper that kneels before Jesus and says, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” I love that here was never a question about Jesus ability to perform the act. The only uncertainty was Jesus’ willingness. As I read this story I can kind of see the fate of us all hanging in that brief moment before Jesus responds. Is God’s son willing to respond with compassion? Is he willing to heal? Is He willing to fix that which is broken? Will God get involved in the messiness of this world and our lives? My heart leaps when I read Jesus’ response, “I am willing: be cleansed.”

Wow, the God of the universe is willing to help. And not only in this one account but as we read, every time he is asked. And this willingness to heal the leper, or the blind and cripples is a foreshadowing of Christ’s willingness to make right the ultimate example of brokenness in the world, our separation from Him. Our sin has left us in the desperate position of crying out “Help please!” I am so thankful that my cry does not fall on deaf ears, but rather on ones full of compassion, ability, and readiness.

God is able as the Psalmist declares in Psalm 33:6-7,
“’By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.
He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap
He lays us the deep in storehouses.”

And just as importantly, He is willing.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matt 7:7

-SH

Devotional Passages for the Week of February 12-19

Sunday: Exodus 34:1-35:9, Matthew 27:15-31, Psalm 33:12-22, Proverbs 9:1-6

Monday: Exodus 35:10-36:38, Matthew 27:32-66, Psalm 34:1-10, Proverbs 9:7-8

Tuesday: Exodus 37:1-38:31, Matthew 28:1-20, Psalm 34:11-22, Proverbs 9:9-10

The Power of Your Words

You probably remember the commercial from Sprint advertising the efficiency of their Nextel “Direct Connect” where you can communicate instantaneously with groups of Nextel users.  In the ad, you see a legislative hall full of firefighters with their leader standing up front; phone in hand and the text reads, “What if firefighters ran the world?”

Speaker: “Anyone want better roads?”

Firemen in unison: “We do”

Speaker: “All in favor?”

Firemen in unison: “Aye”

Speaker: “Opposed?”

Silence

Gavel strikes…”Done”

The idea is that you can “Get more done Now” if you communicate using Nextel’s phones.  That’s the imagery that came into my mind as I read Psalm 29…

Dependence

Yesterday was a rough day.  I woke up in the middle of the night, and I just couldn’t get warm.  It doesn’t happen often, but I was most definitely sick and needed to be taken care of.  I needed blankets to be brought, medicine to be purchased, and food (but not too much food) to be prepared.  My reliance on others got me thinking about the concept of dependence.

Encouragement To Eat Your Daily Bread

Read Your Bible More and More
by John Piper  posted on Desiring God Blog  January 30, 2011

Don’t rest on past reading. Read your Bible more and more every year. Read it whether you feel like reading it or not. And pray without ceasing that the joy return and pleasures increase...

(to see skipped portion see Piper's blog)...So lets give heed to Mr. Ryle and never grow weary of the slow, steady, growth that comes from the daily, disciplined, increasing, love affair with reading the Bible.

Do not think you are getting no good from the Bible, merely because you do not see that good day by day. The greatest effects are by no means those which make the most noise, and are most easily observed. The greatest effects are often silent, quiet, and hard to detect at the time they are being produced.

Think of the influence of the moon upon the earth, and of the air upon the human lungs. Remember how silently the dew falls, and how imperceptibly the grass grows. There may be far more doing than you think in your soul by your Bible-reading. (J. C. Ryle, Practical Religion, 136)


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