THE PATIENCE TO WAIT FOR THE VISION

THE PATIENCE TO WAIT FOR THE VISION

Though it tarries, wait for it . . . —Habakkuk 2:3

Patience is not the same as indifference; patience conveys the idea of someone who is tremendously strong and able to withstand all assaults. Having the vision of God is the source of patience because it gives us God’s true and proper inspiration. Moses endured, not because of his devotion to his principles of what was right, nor because of his sense of duty to God, but because he had a vision of God. “. . . He endured as seeing Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27).

A person who has the vision of God is not devoted to a cause or to any particular issue— he is devoted to God Himself. You always know when the vision is of God because of the inspiration that comes with it. Things come to you with greatness and add vitality to your life because everything is energized by God. He may give you a time spiritually, with no word from Himself at all, just as His Son experienced during His time of temptation in the wilderness. When God does that, simply endure, and the power to endure will be there because you see God.

“Though it tarries, wait for it . . . .” 

The proof that we have the vision is that we are reaching out for more than we have already grasped. It is a bad thing to be satisfied spiritually. The psalmist said, “What shall I render to the Lord . . . ? I will take up the cup of salvation . . .” (Psalm 116:12-13). We are apt to look for satisfaction within ourselves and say, “Now I’ve got it! Now I am completely sanctified. Now I can endure.” Instantly we are on the road to ruin. Our reach must exceed our grasp. Paul said, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on . . .” (Philippians 3:12). If we have only what we have experienced, we have nothing. But if we have the inspiration of the vision of God, we have more than we can experience. Beware of the danger of spiritual relaxation.

-       OSWALD CHAMBERS (My Utmost for His Highest)

WITHOUT DOUBTING

August 22, 2011

10:10pm

WITHOUT DOUBTING

1 Timothy 2:8

King James Version (KJV)

 ⁸I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

Doubting may express itself in many different ways. It may be doubt with respect to the very being of God with respect to what we call the power on the possibility of prayer, as to whether anything can happen or even happen, in a word whether there is any point in our praying at all.

As a result of this doubts, it often comes to pass that prayer is nothing but some desperate, adventure or doubtful experiment in which we engage. We find ourselves in a difficult position or face to face with some dire need. We more or less “cry out in the dark”, on the possible chance that it may succeed and we may be delivered.

Unless we observe this third condition, PRAYER IS USELESS.

We must approach God believing that “He is, and that He is a rewarded of them that diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6).

The men whose prayers have been answered have always been those who knew God, those who have trusted Him most thoroughly, those who have been most ready to say at all times and in all circumstances, “THY WILL BE DONE”. Assured as they were of His Holy and loving purpose.

There must be NO DOUBT, NO DISPUTING, NO DESPERATE EXPERIMENTS, but rather a calm, unhurried resting upon and in God and His perfect will.

-       Martin Lloyd-Jones (Walking with God Day by Day)

MERE CHRISTIANITY

August 20, 2011

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

– C.S. LEWIS (Mere Christianity, pages 40-41.)

Those of us in modern times have lived under the new intimacy for so long that we take it for granted. We sing choruses to God and converse in casual prayers. To us, the notion of sacrifice seems primitive. Too easily we forget what it cost Jesus to win for us all—--ordinary people, not just priests—--immediate access to God’s presence. We know God as Abba, the loving Father, only because of Jesus.

-   Philip Yancey ( The Jesus I never Knew)

WHILE IM WAITING

August 20, 2011

9:15 pm

WHILE I'M WAITING 

John Waller

I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am hopeful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it is painful
But patiently, I will wait

I will move ahead, bold and confident
Taking every step in obedience
While I'm waiting
I will serve You
While I'm waiting
I will worship
While I'm waiting
I will not faint
I'll be running the race
Even while I wait

I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am peaceful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it's not easy
But faithfully, I will wait
Yes, I will wait
I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting
I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting
I will serve you while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting on You, Lord

A PRAYER

August 17, 2011

11:02 am

A PRAYER

O Father, how I need mercy. I sin everyday. I fall short of Your command to love You with all my heart and soul and mind and strength. I am Luke-warm in my affections. All my motives, even at their best are mixed. I murmur. I am anxious about tomorrow. I get angry too quickly. I desire what ought not be desired. I get irritated at the very attitudes in others that I myself displayed 5 minutes before.

If You do not show me mercy to me, I am undone. O God let me see the mercy of Christ and savor it for what it is. Grant me the power to comprehend His love. Incline me to read and ponder the stories of the mercy of Jesus in the Gospels. Let me so admire what He did that I imitate Him.

But let it much more than external imitation. Let it come from the heart where I have been broken for my sin and where I have come to cherish mercy and live by mercy and hope in mercy and love for mercy.

Make the mercy of Jesus the greatest beauty of the Saviour in my eyes. Let me behold, and beholding, become like Him. And bend this taste for mercy outward so that I show it.

Make me full of His mercy that I might show mercy. Fulfill in me the command to d justice and love mercy. Let me love showing mercy. Make it so much a part of me that it is who I am.

So unite me to Christ that His mercy is my mercy, and my mercy is a presenting of Christ. He is all I have to give in the end. Glorify His mercy, Father is my faith, and in my patience.

Thank You, Oh, thank You, for Christ and Your mercy to me in Him. In His Name I pray.

Amen

-       -JOHN PIPER (Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ)

ALL ALONG

August 15, 2011

9:54 pm

ALL ALONG

Remedy Drive

It’s not everything it seems - the world and its dreams
Slipping like water through my hands tonight
All the things I thought would fill me up inside
Left me empty here - and now I know why

All along I was looking for something else 
You’re something else
All along I was looking for something more 
You’re so much more
I finally found what I could never see before 
You’ve always been the one that I was looking for 

All of my castles in the sand - washed away again
And I’m left back where I began tonight
The only thing that can ever fill me up 
Has been right in front of me all the time

bridge:
I won’t miss you - I won’t miss you this time
I say I want you - yeah I want you in my life

Behind the Song:

“It is very easy to get comfortable in a place that’s not permanent home. We validate our existence with all types of material possessions. But there has to be something more important than the card we drive, i-pods and cellphones, careers and goals. Earthly things aren’t going to fill us up.The rock of Christ Jesus is what gives us ultimate hope and satisfaction. We need security that has nothing to do with out health insurance plan. We need to live for a kingdom that doesn’t run on foreign oil. We need to depend on grace.It’s easy for us to get caught up in the idea that “things” can make us happy or even that happiness is the point.But everything “slips like water through our hands” and we should realize that these are not the answer. There is something bigger to breathe for.May times, we all pursue our careers and “build our castles in the sand.” Rather than striving for money, success, the world and its dreams, we have what we are looking for, right in front of us. Just look to the cross and know that JESUS is with us “all along.”-          David Zach (Remedy Drive)

'Our human existence isn't validated by the cars we drive, cards we carry, or jobs we have. Is there anything in the universe that can sustain the need of my human heart? We spend our lives looking for something substantial - something valuable and permanent. But we end up with normalcy, marginalized again, consumed by our own consumerism. This song, written with Jason Ingram, sings in unison with every heart crying out for something more - something bigger.' - David Zach (Remedy Drive)

I WAIT

August 04, 2011

9:32 pm

I wait

Dear Lord, Thy ways

Are past finding out,

Thy love too high.

O hold me still

Beneath Thy shadow.

It is enough that Thou

Lift up the light

Of Thy countenance.

I wait-

Because I am commanded

So to do. My mind

Is filled with wonderings

My soul asks “Why?”

But then the quiet word,

“Wait thou only upon God.”

And so, not even for the light

To show a step ahead,

But for Thee, dear Lord,

I wait.

-       Elisabeth Elliot (Passion and Purity)

 

WAITING

Psalm 40:1

New International Version (NIV)

 ¹ I waited patiently for the LORD; 

   he turned to me and heard my cry.

Psalm 27:14

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁴ Wait for the LORD; 

   be strong and take heart 

   and wait for the LORD.

Waiting requires patience- a willingness calmly to accept what we have or have not, where we are or where we wish we were, whomever we live or work with.

To what we don’t have is impatience, for one thing, and it is to mistrust God. Is He not complete control of all circumstances, events and conditions? If some are beyond His control, He is not God.

Restless and impatience change nothing except our peace and joy. Peace does not dwell in outward things, but in the heart prepared to wait trustfully and quietly on Him who has ALL THINGS SAFELY IN HIS HANDS.

John 14:27

New International Version (NIV)

²⁷ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives

Can I not wait patiently? He will show the way.

If I am willing to be still in my Master’s hand, can I not then be still in EVERYTHING? He’s got the whole world in HIS HANDS! Everything comes by His ORDINATION or PERMISSION. If I mean to be obedient and submissive to the Lord because HE IS MY LORD, I must not forget that whatever He allows to happen becomes, for me, His will  at that moment.

WAIT, BE STILL, TRUST AND OBEY.