Waiting on the Lord

Isaiah 40:28-31

Have you not known?
      Have you not heard?
      The everlasting God, the LORD,
      The Creator of the ends of the earth,
      Neither faints nor is weary.
      His understanding is unsearchable.
        He gives power to the weak,
      And to those who have no might He increases strength.
       Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
      And the young men shall utterly fall,
       But those who wait on the LORD
      Shall renew their strength;
      They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
      They shall run and not be weary,
      They shall walk and not faint.

To My Precious Daughters...

I so needed to read these verses tonight.  Sometimes I forget who dwells inside me.  Have you not known, Isaiah begins....Have you not heard??? The everlasting God, the LORD,  The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.  God has got me and my problems covered...He doesn't get tired and His understanding is unsearchable.  He knows what I am going through and He knows the state of my heart.  Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

Isaiah goes on to remind us (me) that He gives power to the weak and to those who have no might he increases their strength.  I am without strength and weak....BUT that is a good thing because His strength is made perfect in weakness.  He will uphold me. He will hedge me behind and before.  Colossians 1:11 says, "He will strengthen me with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy." At my weakest I can cry out to Him with gladness knowing He has enough for both of us.  And as I cry out, my eyes fill with His goodness and mercy and love toward me.  I am poor and needy and yet the Lord thinks on me!

My strength will be renewed as I wait on the Lord.  I like to see the phrase  "wait on the Lord" as Jon Courson explains it.  I am the Lord's waiter.  I am serving Him here on earth and doing those things that He has prepared beforehand for me to do.  My job is to please Him and honor Him here as I journey through this vale of tears.   I am to spend time with Him in worship, in thanksgiving, in prayer and in the study and meditation of His word.  I am to look for ways to love those He has placed in my path with the love that He Himself has shed abroad in my heart.  I am here for Him...my life is about Him...not me.  Whatever He sends me is good and is for my good and His glory.  And as I go through this life there will be times like tonight when my strength is spent and my heart is weak.  Here is what I know: He will be gracious to me...He will incline His ear to me and hear my cry...He will strengthen my heart...He will be good to me...He will renew my strength...He will not leave me nor forsake me and in Him I have everything I need.

Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, Whose heart is set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, They make it a spring; The rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; Each one appears before God in Zion.--Psalm 84:5-7

Love

Mom

Valley of Baca...

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace.... For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.--Jeremiah 29:4-7,11


To My Beloved Daughters...

This one is so important!  What do you do when you find yourself in a very unpleasant and distressful situation.  A situation that brings on feelings of fear, uncertainty, discontentment, grief, or a longing for the past and how things used to be?  A situation that may or may not be permanent.  What do you do? How do you react?  

Now I hate not to have things go the way I want them to or the way I think that they should.  I just hate it!  I complain and kick against the goad...sometimes for a very long time.  I even think I might be surrendering to the situation, but..you know...really I am not.  Focusing on what you are not getting and  what you don't have will ALWAYS make you miserable.  You will be miserable to be around and you yourself will be miserable because you will be thinking of yourself rather than the Lord and those around you. Complaining is sin...you are telling the Lord that the situation He has lovingly prepared for your good is not good.


Do you see what God told His people to do in the very distressing situation they found themselves in...He tells them to accept it and move ahead.  He tells them to adjust, pray and keep moving.  Wait Lord...accept it...but I haven't finished complaining about it yet. Give me some time.  I just want to sit here and be miserable.

Don't allow your life to grind to a halt because you find yourself in a situation in which you never expected and never wanted. Life, more often than not, brings terrible tragedy.  Job loss, betrayals, family problems, marriage issues, sickness, chronic illness, debilitating pain, and death. We do grieve...but we do not grieve as those who have no hope.  If you are a believer whatever situation you find yourself in is from Him.  He will use it for good in your life. This is what we want...we want His plan for our lives.  His plan for us is from His heart of love.  It is always for His glory and our good.  Don't miss out on any of the blessings by complaining about what He has decided was not in your best interest.  Surrender to Him.  Do those works that He has put in front of you today.  Adjust and keep moving.  Plant seeds...follow His leading. Stay close to Him and above all immerse yourself in His word.  Let sitting at His feet and worshiping Him be your highest priority...give Him all the pre-eminence.

The Lord allows us to be in very hard places sometimes because He wants to accomplish His will in us and through us.  Our Lord is faithful, girls. He never leaves us nor forsakes us.  He is always there....if you don't think so it is because you have drawn back and moved away from Him.  Abide and surrender.  The Lord will be your rear guard...The Lord will hedge you behind and before and will keep His hand on you.  He will provide you a way of escape...seek Him...He IS your way of escape, your strong tower and your refuge.  Revel in His goodness.  Don't look back...press on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  Be blessed and comforted in His love, grace and kindness toward you in His Son. 

Psalm 84:6-7 says this: As they pass through the Valley of Baca, They make it a spring; The rain also covers it with pools.  They go from strength to strength; Each one appears before God in Zion. 

Girls...this is what I want as I go through my Valley of Tears here on my earthly pilgrimage.  I want to make it a spring...I want to surrender to His Spirit inside and trust the All Sufficient One in my time of trouble. I want my journey to encourage others in their own walk with the Lord. We all need times of barrenness and trouble to grow strong in Him. Strengthen your inner man by spending time with God and you will begin to see your adversity as an opportunity from Him to experience His faithfulness even more.  Sing in your time of sorrow.  Triumph in tragedy. Look for the rainbows.   Our Lord will bear you up on wings like eagles.   Immerse yourself in the water of His word, girls, and go from strength to strength on your own journey to Zion.

Be Ye Kind...

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.--Ephesians 4:32

Some of my favorite words in the NT:  AND BE YE KIND ONE TO ANOTHER...

There is so much personal grief, sadness and heartache in the lives of the people that we meet and interact with each and every day...most of which we will never know this side of eternity.  All the more BE YE KIND...merciful, mild, gentle, compassionate, pleasant, good, benevolent.  Be imitators of God as dear children for His compassion fails not and extends to ALL:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.--John 3:16

AND it is the goodness of our God that leads us to repentance. 

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.--Romans 12:21

Be Strong and of Good Courage....

Beloved...

Be strong and of good courage....I usually so dislike when someone says this to me, but that is because I forget that our God is not like the world.  In Him, I do not have to pull myself up by my bootstraps and, as the King James says, "quit like a man."   Beloved believer...Our God does not ask us to be strong in ourselves and in our own power...He asks us to be strong in Him!  He is the one who does it all.

We walk by faith and not by sight.  It is so easy to think we know better than God....especially when our circumstances look impossible and we have not been washing ourselves daily with His truth.  Faith does not look at what is seen.  Faith obeys no matter how things look from a human perspective.  Faith puts its trust in God.  It surrenders all!  Psalm 27:14 tells us to wait on the Lord and be of good courage and He shall strengthen our heart.  What a place of rest we come to when we can truly place all the issues of life in His hands.  No fretting...no matter what happens we are trusting God.  We are standing fast in Him!  Immersed in His word and aware of His presence we cannot be thrown off balance by anything the enemy might throw at us!  We fight from victory and it is not our battle...it is the Lord's. 

Read the following verses from Joshua, Chapter 1, verses 6,7,8,and 9. 

Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.  Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.  This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.  Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

The key is in the last few words...for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.  The presence of the Lord eradicates fear and faint-heartedness.  It is His courage and strength that we walk in.  He is there.  He is with us.  He upholds us and bears us up.   

Our God prepares us for whatever we will face as we diligently study His word daily.  He arms us with His strength, His knowledge and His presence.  It is only in Christ and His strength  that we can "quit like a man"! 

Read with me some verses from the book of Daniel, Chapter 10...

Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come.”

When he had spoken such words to me, I turned my face toward the ground and became speechless. And suddenly, one having the likeness of the sons of men touched my lips; then I opened my mouth and spoke, saying to him who stood before me, “My lord, because of the vision my sorrows have overwhelmed me, and I have retained no strength.  For how can this servant of my lord talk with you, my lord? As for me, no strength remains in me now, nor is any breath left in me.”

Then again, the one having the likeness of a man touched me and strengthened me.  And he said, “O man greatly beloved, fear not! Peace be to you; be strong, yes, be strong!”

So when he spoke to me I was strengthened, and said, “Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.” 

How beautiful is that?  The awareness of God...His voice, His touch, His presence with us and His love for us strengthens us and brings us peace.

Be of good courage...be strong, stay in the word and stand fast for the people God has placed in our lives.  We are in a battle...eternity is at stake.  Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh.  And may the Lord do what is good in His sight!