As human beings, you and I sin. We mess up. In fact, you’ve probably already messed up today!
But the Scripture contains an amazing promise for you and me. It’s found in today’s verse.
Do you know what “grace upon grace” means? It means that as believers, God’s grace keeps flowing into our lives like the waves of the sea that just keep coming again and again and again. It’s grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace!
It’s not as though we received God’s grace five years ago and we’re still trying to hang on to that grace. No. We keep receiving grace, grace, grace, grace and more grace… His marvelous grace. We never run out of the grace of God because His grace is infinite!
God gives us His grace the moment we’re saved… and He continues to give us His grace each day… for daily strength and endurance to face the trials and temptations of life.
Lamentations 3:21-23 promises us, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
God’s grace is new every morning! And it’s my prayer today that you’d be encouraged to know you have this daily grace as a follower of Jesus Christ. Walk in this light today… and every day… as you faithfully follow Him!
God gives us his grace to face the trials and temptations we face each day.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
A Vision of Heaven
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.
?Revelation 21:4
Have you ever tried to explain something to someone and could not quite find the words? Have you ever tried to describe something complex to a child? For God to describe heaven to us in a way we could understand would be like trying to describe the beauty of Hawaii to a three-month-old child. We are not going to be able to comprehend, in our human bodies, all the glories of heaven.
In fact, the apostle Paul, who had the unique experience of dying and going to heaven, said that he heard things so astounding that they could not be told (see 2 Corinthians 12:2–4). Paul was essentially saying that he couldn’t put his experience into words.
Heaven is beyond our comprehension. It is difficult to describe. While there are not many verses in the Bible that tell us about it, the Bible does tell us a few things. It says that in heaven there will be no night. There will be no fear. There will be no suffering or death. All of the pain and disabilities that we face in this life will be gone in heaven.
But the glory of heaven is even more than having new bodies, even more than the absence of darkness and sorrow and pain and death. The fact that Jesus Christ will be there is better than all the beauty and all the answers to our questions.
?Revelation 21:4
Have you ever tried to explain something to someone and could not quite find the words? Have you ever tried to describe something complex to a child? For God to describe heaven to us in a way we could understand would be like trying to describe the beauty of Hawaii to a three-month-old child. We are not going to be able to comprehend, in our human bodies, all the glories of heaven.
In fact, the apostle Paul, who had the unique experience of dying and going to heaven, said that he heard things so astounding that they could not be told (see 2 Corinthians 12:2–4). Paul was essentially saying that he couldn’t put his experience into words.
Heaven is beyond our comprehension. It is difficult to describe. While there are not many verses in the Bible that tell us about it, the Bible does tell us a few things. It says that in heaven there will be no night. There will be no fear. There will be no suffering or death. All of the pain and disabilities that we face in this life will be gone in heaven.
But the glory of heaven is even more than having new bodies, even more than the absence of darkness and sorrow and pain and death. The fact that Jesus Christ will be there is better than all the beauty and all the answers to our questions.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
The Black Hole
2 Corinthians 12:9
..."My grace is sufficient for you..."
If you are older than 35, you may recall the early days of the space program. I remember the early spacecraft launch with John Glenn. One of the most exciting and tense moments of his return to earth was his reentry to the earth's atmosphere. I recall the diagram on television of the heat shield on the capsule that had to withstand incredible temperatures to avoid complete destruction. There was a blackout period for several minutes in which mission control had no radio contact. He was in the "black hole." It was a tense time. Either he would make it through, or the spacecraft would burn up in the atmosphere. There were several minutes of silence that seemed like an eternity. Then, mission control shouted with joy when they reestablished contact with the spacecraft. It was a time of rejoicing.
Have you ever had a time when you were in a spiritual black hole in your life? I have. The pressure was unbearable. No sense of God's presence. No sense of anything going on around me. God was about as far away as the man in the moon-at least from my perspective. I think every Christian who is called to make a significant difference in his world experiences times like these. These are the times when we question the reality of God, the love of God, the personal care of God. And He demonstrates to us that He was there all the time. These are "faith experiences" that God does in every person who is called to a higher level of relationship with Him. These times are needful in order to know that we have the "heat shield" that can withstand the incredible heat that comes when we follow Him with a whole heart-a heart that is radical in a commitment to fully follow His ways. Elisha had that spirit. He slaughtered his 12 oxen and burned his plowing equipment so that he would not have the opportunity to return to anything if God didn't come through (see 1 Kings 19:21).
The apostle Paul asked God to remove the heat from his own life one time. God's answer was not what he wanted to hear.
But He said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me! (2 Corinthians 12:9 AMP)
How's your heat shield today? Can it withstand the heat that would want to burn up everything in your life not based in Him? Christ said, "My grace is sufficient." Is that really true in your life? Let His grace be your shield today.
2 Corinthians 12:9
..."My grace is sufficient for you..."
If you are older than 35, you may recall the early days of the space program. I remember the early spacecraft launch with John Glenn. One of the most exciting and tense moments of his return to earth was his reentry to the earth's atmosphere. I recall the diagram on television of the heat shield on the capsule that had to withstand incredible temperatures to avoid complete destruction. There was a blackout period for several minutes in which mission control had no radio contact. He was in the "black hole." It was a tense time. Either he would make it through, or the spacecraft would burn up in the atmosphere. There were several minutes of silence that seemed like an eternity. Then, mission control shouted with joy when they reestablished contact with the spacecraft. It was a time of rejoicing.
Have you ever had a time when you were in a spiritual black hole in your life? I have. The pressure was unbearable. No sense of God's presence. No sense of anything going on around me. God was about as far away as the man in the moon-at least from my perspective. I think every Christian who is called to make a significant difference in his world experiences times like these. These are the times when we question the reality of God, the love of God, the personal care of God. And He demonstrates to us that He was there all the time. These are "faith experiences" that God does in every person who is called to a higher level of relationship with Him. These times are needful in order to know that we have the "heat shield" that can withstand the incredible heat that comes when we follow Him with a whole heart-a heart that is radical in a commitment to fully follow His ways. Elisha had that spirit. He slaughtered his 12 oxen and burned his plowing equipment so that he would not have the opportunity to return to anything if God didn't come through (see 1 Kings 19:21).
The apostle Paul asked God to remove the heat from his own life one time. God's answer was not what he wanted to hear.
But He said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me! (2 Corinthians 12:9 AMP)
How's your heat shield today? Can it withstand the heat that would want to burn up everything in your life not based in Him? Christ said, "My grace is sufficient." Is that really true in your life? Let His grace be your shield today.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Today's Thoughts: Thanks be to God
Psalm 100-102; 1 Corinthians 1
Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!
Serve the LORD with gladness;
Come before His presence with singing.
Know that the LORD, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
For the LORD is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations. Psalm 100
Let us all be thankful for our freedom and for our founding fathers who laid the God-fearing foundation for this great nation. But above everything else, let us not forget the One who made us. We are God's people---we are His sheep and this nation is still His pasture. Take time today to give Him praise and thanksgiving for the true freedom that we have in His Son Jesus Christ. Make a joyful noise to the Lord! Pray for our nation today. As Christians, we should all be greatly concerned at how our lawmakers are turning away from God in their choices and decisions. God's mercy is everlasting but there is a day of judgment coming. Pray that our nation will turn back to the Lord. One by one, as Christians, we can make a difference. Let's start today.
Our mission is to evangelize the lost and awaken the saved to live empowered lives by the Work of God and His Holy Spirit. Daily Disciples Ministries makes a difference for the kingdom of God by teaching and training believers how to be in God's Word, how to pray and how to walk with Jesus every day, as His daily disciple.
Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!
Serve the LORD with gladness;
Come before His presence with singing.
Know that the LORD, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
For the LORD is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations. Psalm 100
Let us all be thankful for our freedom and for our founding fathers who laid the God-fearing foundation for this great nation. But above everything else, let us not forget the One who made us. We are God's people---we are His sheep and this nation is still His pasture. Take time today to give Him praise and thanksgiving for the true freedom that we have in His Son Jesus Christ. Make a joyful noise to the Lord! Pray for our nation today. As Christians, we should all be greatly concerned at how our lawmakers are turning away from God in their choices and decisions. God's mercy is everlasting but there is a day of judgment coming. Pray that our nation will turn back to the Lord. One by one, as Christians, we can make a difference. Let's start today.
Our mission is to evangelize the lost and awaken the saved to live empowered lives by the Work of God and His Holy Spirit. Daily Disciples Ministries makes a difference for the kingdom of God by teaching and training believers how to be in God's Word, how to pray and how to walk with Jesus every day, as His daily disciple.
Homesick for Heaven
He has planted eternity in the human heart . . . - Ecclesiastes 3:11
Have you ever really been homesick? Even in a beautiful place, surrounded by people you really like, you want to return home as quickly as possible. As they say, there is no place like home. No matter what your actual home on earth is like, there is one home that all of us should be very homesick for. That place is called heaven. Deep inside of us there is a homesickness for heaven, almost as though we have a homing instinct guiding us there.
It's amazing how God has built the homing instinct into animals. Against all odds, salmon come home from the sea to spawn in the rivers of their birth. In San Juan Capistrano, year after year, the swallows return to their nests at the mission. There is something built into those fish, those birds, that brings them home.
God has built that into each of us, too: an instinct, a desire, a homesickness for heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, "He has planted eternity in the human heart." And because of that, we will never be fully satisfied with this life. Nothing will ever measure up to heaven.
You were created to know God. You were created to go to heaven. God has put this homing instinct in you, and it will only be satisfied when you see Him face to face. Are you ready to do that? Are you ready to go home?
Have you ever really been homesick? Even in a beautiful place, surrounded by people you really like, you want to return home as quickly as possible. As they say, there is no place like home. No matter what your actual home on earth is like, there is one home that all of us should be very homesick for. That place is called heaven. Deep inside of us there is a homesickness for heaven, almost as though we have a homing instinct guiding us there.
It's amazing how God has built the homing instinct into animals. Against all odds, salmon come home from the sea to spawn in the rivers of their birth. In San Juan Capistrano, year after year, the swallows return to their nests at the mission. There is something built into those fish, those birds, that brings them home.
God has built that into each of us, too: an instinct, a desire, a homesickness for heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, "He has planted eternity in the human heart." And because of that, we will never be fully satisfied with this life. Nothing will ever measure up to heaven.
You were created to know God. You were created to go to heaven. God has put this homing instinct in you, and it will only be satisfied when you see Him face to face. Are you ready to do that? Are you ready to go home?
Hebrews 11:6
Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Thoughts on today's verse
I believe! I believe that God not only knows me, but cares about me. I believe that God not only created the universe, but he knows the number of hairs on my head. I believe that God not only sent his Son to save the world, but that he's sending him back to bring me home. What's more, I believe that God is pleased by my belief.
Prayer:
Almighty, Most Holy Lord, I thank you for your steadfast love and enduring faithfulness. I thank you for your grace and mercy. I thank you for your might and power. I thank you for your awesome holiness. I thank you... for being you and choosing to reveal yourself to mortals like me. Through Jesus, your final Word, I pray. Amen.'
Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Thoughts on today's verse
I believe! I believe that God not only knows me, but cares about me. I believe that God not only created the universe, but he knows the number of hairs on my head. I believe that God not only sent his Son to save the world, but that he's sending him back to bring me home. What's more, I believe that God is pleased by my belief.
Prayer:
Almighty, Most Holy Lord, I thank you for your steadfast love and enduring faithfulness. I thank you for your grace and mercy. I thank you for your might and power. I thank you for your awesome holiness. I thank you... for being you and choosing to reveal yourself to mortals like me. Through Jesus, your final Word, I pray. Amen.'
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Truth and Love
Education and Relation:
Think with me for a moment about education and relationships. Some of you care deeply that education not ignore or marginalize relationships of love. They are essential in real, lasting, life-changing education. Amen.
So I turn to the Bible. I find in place of the words, "education" and "relationship," the words, "truth" and "love." So what does the Bible say about how truth and love relate to each other? There are at least four ways of talking about this relationship.
1. Truth aims at love.
"The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith" (1 Timothy 1:5). Note: instruction is not the goal, love is. Instruction is the means. It is subordinate. Truth serves love. Education serves relationships - mainly the relationship between us and God, but also between Christian and Christian, and between us and unbelievers. The "goal" of all our education is love.
"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider one another how to stir up to love and good deeds, . . . encouraging one another" (Hebrews 10:23-25, literal translation). The aim of our "considering one another" and "encouraging one another" is that we stir up love. We mingle insight into "the confession of our hope" with insight into "each other," and the effect is stirring each other to love. The truth of doctrine and truth of people-watching unite to aim at love.
2. Love aims at truth.
"Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth" (1 Corinthians 13:6). Love is glad when truth is spoken. Therefore love aims at truth. It supports truth.
"Out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you" (2 Corinthians 2:4). Here is an example of how love aims at truth. Paul is filled with love and it compels him to write a letter that was hard, and caused sorrow in him and in the Corinthians. But it needed to be said. So love said it. Love speaks the truth personally and doctrinally.
3. Love shapes how to speak the truth.
"Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ" (Ephesians 4:15). There is an unloving way to speak the truth. That kind of truth-speaking we should repudiate. But there is a way to speak the truth in love, and that we should seek. It is not always a soft way to speak, or Jesus would have to be accused of lack of love in dealing with some folks in the Gospels.
But it does ask about what is the most helpful thing to say when everything is considered. Sometimes what would have been a hard word to one group is a needed act of love to another group, and not a wrong to the group addressed. But in general, love shapes truth into words and ways that are patient and gentle (2 Timothy 2:24-25).
4. Truth shapes how to show love.
"By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome" (1 John 5:2). It is not always obvious which acts are loving. So John tells us some truth will help us know if our acts are loving.
One truth test for our love is whether we are keeping the commandments of God toward people. In other words, love cannot be cut loose from the truth of God's will. Truth shapes how to show love.
Let us pray that God will cause his love and truth to abound and mingle in us in all these ways for the glory of his truth-filled love and love-filled truth.
Think with me for a moment about education and relationships. Some of you care deeply that education not ignore or marginalize relationships of love. They are essential in real, lasting, life-changing education. Amen.
So I turn to the Bible. I find in place of the words, "education" and "relationship," the words, "truth" and "love." So what does the Bible say about how truth and love relate to each other? There are at least four ways of talking about this relationship.
1. Truth aims at love.
"The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith" (1 Timothy 1:5). Note: instruction is not the goal, love is. Instruction is the means. It is subordinate. Truth serves love. Education serves relationships - mainly the relationship between us and God, but also between Christian and Christian, and between us and unbelievers. The "goal" of all our education is love.
"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider one another how to stir up to love and good deeds, . . . encouraging one another" (Hebrews 10:23-25, literal translation). The aim of our "considering one another" and "encouraging one another" is that we stir up love. We mingle insight into "the confession of our hope" with insight into "each other," and the effect is stirring each other to love. The truth of doctrine and truth of people-watching unite to aim at love.
2. Love aims at truth.
"Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth" (1 Corinthians 13:6). Love is glad when truth is spoken. Therefore love aims at truth. It supports truth.
"Out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you" (2 Corinthians 2:4). Here is an example of how love aims at truth. Paul is filled with love and it compels him to write a letter that was hard, and caused sorrow in him and in the Corinthians. But it needed to be said. So love said it. Love speaks the truth personally and doctrinally.
3. Love shapes how to speak the truth.
"Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ" (Ephesians 4:15). There is an unloving way to speak the truth. That kind of truth-speaking we should repudiate. But there is a way to speak the truth in love, and that we should seek. It is not always a soft way to speak, or Jesus would have to be accused of lack of love in dealing with some folks in the Gospels.
But it does ask about what is the most helpful thing to say when everything is considered. Sometimes what would have been a hard word to one group is a needed act of love to another group, and not a wrong to the group addressed. But in general, love shapes truth into words and ways that are patient and gentle (2 Timothy 2:24-25).
4. Truth shapes how to show love.
"By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome" (1 John 5:2). It is not always obvious which acts are loving. So John tells us some truth will help us know if our acts are loving.
One truth test for our love is whether we are keeping the commandments of God toward people. In other words, love cannot be cut loose from the truth of God's will. Truth shapes how to show love.
Let us pray that God will cause his love and truth to abound and mingle in us in all these ways for the glory of his truth-filled love and love-filled truth.
Monday, November 3, 2008
God is Love
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God for God is love.
1 John 4:7-8
There’s this Far Side comic that I find fascinating.
It’s a picture of God, with a full grey beard, sitting on a high-tech throne gazing intently into a computer screen in front of him. As He observes the world below, the screen focuses on a single person, and God’s finger hovers over a button with a single word etched onto it... smite.
It’s odd, is it not, these images that we’ve come to associate with God?
Yet if we were truly honest with ourselves, we would have to admit that this is exactly how many people in our world see God: a vengeful god, looking upon his creation with disgust, safely tucked away far from the wretchedness of this world, peering and looking for someone doing something “wrong.”
Judgment. Wrath. Anger. Condemnation. Here’s something worth pondering: When we present God to an unbelieving world, are these characteristics the hallmarks of how describe Him? Do we primarily point the finger, in order to expose “evil” and “darkness”? If that’s all we do, it’s no wonder that the unbelieving world views God in these terms. But, there’s so much more we ought to say to paint a fuller picture of the God we serve!
I find it remarkable that when John speaks of God, he simply says, “God is love.” I think we can easily forget the revolutionary nature of that statement. Though God is seen in the Scriptures employing wrath, anger and judgment, when it comes to defining God they never describe Him in terms such as “God is judgment,” or “God is wrath.” Rather, they proclaim, “God is love.” God’s essential character is, first and foremost, love. Everything God does, He does through the lens of love. He does nothing outside of love.
Because God is love.
And if we are to believe what John wrote, those who know God ought to make it their priority to do and be the same.
Very few times do the Scriptures make this kind of amazing statement – do you want to know what it means to know God, to be born of God? One single word: Love. Those who love know and are born of God. Those who do not love do not know God. In short, it is inconceivable to John that a follower of God would not do and be what is the most essential character of Him whom they claim to follow, namely, love.
So we say God is love, but do we actually love? Do people in your life feel a deep sense of being loved, or being condemned? Only one of those is the way of God.
Love. Just love. .
1 John 4:7-8
There’s this Far Side comic that I find fascinating.
It’s a picture of God, with a full grey beard, sitting on a high-tech throne gazing intently into a computer screen in front of him. As He observes the world below, the screen focuses on a single person, and God’s finger hovers over a button with a single word etched onto it... smite.
It’s odd, is it not, these images that we’ve come to associate with God?
Yet if we were truly honest with ourselves, we would have to admit that this is exactly how many people in our world see God: a vengeful god, looking upon his creation with disgust, safely tucked away far from the wretchedness of this world, peering and looking for someone doing something “wrong.”
Judgment. Wrath. Anger. Condemnation. Here’s something worth pondering: When we present God to an unbelieving world, are these characteristics the hallmarks of how describe Him? Do we primarily point the finger, in order to expose “evil” and “darkness”? If that’s all we do, it’s no wonder that the unbelieving world views God in these terms. But, there’s so much more we ought to say to paint a fuller picture of the God we serve!
I find it remarkable that when John speaks of God, he simply says, “God is love.” I think we can easily forget the revolutionary nature of that statement. Though God is seen in the Scriptures employing wrath, anger and judgment, when it comes to defining God they never describe Him in terms such as “God is judgment,” or “God is wrath.” Rather, they proclaim, “God is love.” God’s essential character is, first and foremost, love. Everything God does, He does through the lens of love. He does nothing outside of love.
Because God is love.
And if we are to believe what John wrote, those who know God ought to make it their priority to do and be the same.
Very few times do the Scriptures make this kind of amazing statement – do you want to know what it means to know God, to be born of God? One single word: Love. Those who love know and are born of God. Those who do not love do not know God. In short, it is inconceivable to John that a follower of God would not do and be what is the most essential character of Him whom they claim to follow, namely, love.
So we say God is love, but do we actually love? Do people in your life feel a deep sense of being loved, or being condemned? Only one of those is the way of God.
Love. Just love. .
Sunday, November 2, 2008
How To Wait
"Blessed is he that waiteth" It may seem an easy thing to wait, but it is one of the postures which a Christian soldier learns not without years of teaching. Marching and quick-marching are much easier to God's warriors than standing still.
There are hours of perplexity when the most willing spirit, anxiously desirous to serve the Lord, knows not what part to take. Then what shall it do? Vex itself by despair? Fly back in cowardice, turn to the right hand in fear, or rush forward in presumption?
No, but simply wait. Wait in prayer, however. Call upon God and spread the case before Him; tell Him your difficulty, and plead His promise of aid.
Wait in faith. Express your unstaggering confidence in Him. Believe that if He keep you tarrying even till midnight, yet He will come at the right time; the vision shall come, and shall not tarry.
Wait in quiet patience. Never murmur against the second cause, as the children of Israel did against Moses. Accept the case as it is, and put it as it stands, simply and with your whole heart, without any self-will, into the hand of your covenant God, saying, "Now, Lord, not my will, but Thine be done. I know not what to do; I am brought to extremities; but I will wait until Thou shalt cleave the floods, or drive back my foes. I will wait, if Thou keep me many a day, for my heart is fixed upon Thee alone, O God, and my spirit waiteth for Thee in full conviction that Thou wilt yet be my joy and my salvation, my refuge and my strong tower." --Morning by Morning
Wait patiently wait,
God never is late;
Thy budding plans are in Thy Father's holding,
And only wait His grand divine unfolding.
Then wait, wait,
Patiently wait.
Trust, hopefully trust,
That God will adjust
Thy tangled life; and from its dark concealings,
Will bring His will, in all its bright revealings.
Then trust, trust,
Hopefully trust.
Rest, peacefully rest
On thy Saviour's breast;
Breathe in His ear thy sacred high ambition,
And He will bring it forth in blest fruition.
Then rest, rest,
Peacefully rest!
There are hours of perplexity when the most willing spirit, anxiously desirous to serve the Lord, knows not what part to take. Then what shall it do? Vex itself by despair? Fly back in cowardice, turn to the right hand in fear, or rush forward in presumption?
No, but simply wait. Wait in prayer, however. Call upon God and spread the case before Him; tell Him your difficulty, and plead His promise of aid.
Wait in faith. Express your unstaggering confidence in Him. Believe that if He keep you tarrying even till midnight, yet He will come at the right time; the vision shall come, and shall not tarry.
Wait in quiet patience. Never murmur against the second cause, as the children of Israel did against Moses. Accept the case as it is, and put it as it stands, simply and with your whole heart, without any self-will, into the hand of your covenant God, saying, "Now, Lord, not my will, but Thine be done. I know not what to do; I am brought to extremities; but I will wait until Thou shalt cleave the floods, or drive back my foes. I will wait, if Thou keep me many a day, for my heart is fixed upon Thee alone, O God, and my spirit waiteth for Thee in full conviction that Thou wilt yet be my joy and my salvation, my refuge and my strong tower." --Morning by Morning
Wait patiently wait,
God never is late;
Thy budding plans are in Thy Father's holding,
And only wait His grand divine unfolding.
Then wait, wait,
Patiently wait.
Trust, hopefully trust,
That God will adjust
Thy tangled life; and from its dark concealings,
Will bring His will, in all its bright revealings.
Then trust, trust,
Hopefully trust.
Rest, peacefully rest
On thy Saviour's breast;
Breathe in His ear thy sacred high ambition,
And He will bring it forth in blest fruition.
Then rest, rest,
Peacefully rest!
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