There are many things we look forward to that will forever change the lives of all who have salvation through Jesus Christ and by God’s grace. Paul refers to this as “waiting for our blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). But this “waiting and hope” will not have much meaning unless there are certain essential qualities in our waiting that make the hope worth waiting for. Notice the verses that come right before verse 13.
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,” (Titus 2:11–12). You can be absolutely certain that godless living, worldly passions, uncontrolled and unrighteous living will quickly take away any hope in Christ. But because of this hope, God’s grace is teaching us how to wait patiently in this present evil world He has saved us from (Galatians 1:4). Are you receiving God’s grace for living today? God’s grace will teach you to make right choices in every area of your life, starting with yourself, because everything you do matters to God. The more we allow Him by the Holy Spirit to mold and shape our desires, the more “our blessed hope” becomes real. He will give you a greater appetite for His presence and what is eternal. Waiting will be glorious! If you are wanting to grow spiritually, go to our “Training Resource” page and download our material that will help make your life Christ-centered and on a biblical foundation. WARNING: “The natural person [the person without salvation in Christ] does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14). If you are not certain of a relationship with Jesus Christ, please go to our contact page and send us an email. We will be glad to help.
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In Psalm 16, the psalmist takes great pains to review in detail the history of Israel and the specific areas where they fail God who delivered them from bondage in Egypt. When travel through the wilderness became difficult, the people resorted to complaining rather than seeking God’s counsel in the difficulties. In addition, “they soon forgot His works [which were many and powerful]; they did not wait for His counsel” (16:13). His was repeated in the Promised Land when they faced the Gibeonites, they made a treaty with them instead of asking for God’s counsel (Joshua 7:1-9). Disaster followed that they never recovered from.
The sin of impatience and not seeking God’s will results in spiritual weakness and defeat. It is a great grief to my heart to see the church becoming powerless in the face of rising evil because it has lost a strong belief that we need the Holy Spirit to constantly guide and teach us. This requires waiting on God, depending on the Holy Spirit rather than assuming our programs, plans and agendas will bring us success. I quote again from Andrew Murray; “And so in all our gatherings we need to believe in the Holy Spirit as the Guide and Teacher of God’s saints when they wait to be led by Him into the things which God has prepared, and which the heart cannot conceive. [We need] more stillness of soul to realize God’s presence; more consciousness of [our] ignorance of what God’s great plans may be; more faith in the certainty that God has greater things to show us; that He Himself will be revealed in new glory. These must be the marks of the assemblies of God’s saints if they would avoid the reproach, “They waited not for His counsel”. Waiting on God, Renaissance Classics, 2012, page 44-45. Italics mine. “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.” (Psalm 33:18–22).
Andrew Murray expresses so beautifully how opposing ideas have perfect harmony in the Lord our God. “Fear and hope are generally thought to be in conflict with each other, but in the presence and worship of God they are found side by side in perfect and beautiful harmony. And this is because in God Himself all apparent contradictions are reconciled. Righteousness and peace, judgment and mercy, holiness and love, infinite power and infinite gentleness, a majesty that is exalted above all heaven, and a condescension that bows very low, meet and kiss each other.” Waiting on God, Renaissance Classics, 2012, page 25. Our confidence in God with perfect harmony in all His character give us the ability to wait on Him, knowing that His steadfast love will be our shield while we wait for Him to sustain and deliver us in all that we face. His eye is on YOU! In the last four days following the horrific events in France and other situations, I have been exposed to vehement anger against persons and ideologies that devalues life and concepts that God has established as eternal principles. How do we bring these horrific events and circumstances into perspective? RETURN TO SCRIPTURE and let it speak to us by the Holy Spirit. To do that, I give a few references below that we must ponder:
1. “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.” (Psalm 37:7–11) 2. “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” (Psalm 27:14). 3. “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” (Romans 16:20). Notice that I have underlined the things that we should be doing in these situations. When Asaph tried to understand the prosperity of the arrogant and wicked, he found himself up against forces of evil that seemed overpowering. Then he says, “But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.” (Psalm 73:16–17). Being still and waiting on the Lord in His presence with His Word and His Holy Spirit as our teacher, things become much clearer. Satan has already been defeated at the cross through our Lord Jesus Christ! It is only a matter of “just a little while, the wicked will be no more”. In the waiting time, God is calling His people to be occupied with sowing the seed of the gospel. “Be strong, and let your heart take courage” and you will see the fruit of consistent sowing the good seed. This occupation replaces anger and fretting with “abundant peace” and “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,” (1 Peter 1:8). This is the grace of Christ! “Make me to know Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for You I wait all the day long.” (Psalm 25:4–5).David is the kind of man I want to model my passions after. This must become a way of life woven into the fabric of our inner being, not just a fleeting desire in the hard times. When David is reviewing God’s ways with him in Psalm 139, he gives God an open invitation; “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23–24). This is challenging for anyone of us because there is often fear in us that God might find something in us that needs correction, or forbid, repentance. But whether we want this kind of divine examination or not, don’t forget that He knows our hearts and ways anyway. Being who God is, we can “wait” on Him to show us the right way, the right attitude, the right words and actions that reflect Him and His truth.
Here is the key principle from Psalm 25 and 139: God’s searching our hearts is in view of His leading and teaching us His truth. Notice the high importance David places on this; “for You I wait all the day long.” From the moment we rise until the moment we slip into sleep, there must be this abiding desire to know God’s ways and truth because they are “everlasting”. We must develop a mindset that everything has an eternal impact. Are you willing to “wait all the day long” to know God’s truth? “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.” (Psalm 62:1). Only those who know God through His Son, Jesus Christ, can understand what this really means. The context of this Psalm refers to God’s people who find themselves up against opposition and moments when it seems that God is allowing attacks to bombard us. It is difficult for our hearts to stay quietly fixed on God and wait for Him until He provides deliverance.There is an inconceivably glorious salvation God has wrought for us in Christ, and is now working out perfectly in us by the Holy Spirit. He who will never leave us is perfecting this great salvation from moment to moment. As Andrew Murray says, “we hinder Him either by our indifference or by our self-effort, so that He cannot do what He would.” He will help us wait in silence until God gives His answer and deliverance.
Andrew Murray, Waiting on God, Renaissance Classics, 2012, page 3. A good friend of mine posted this quote from John Newton which spoke volumes to me in some difficult challenges I am facing. It also follows on well with yesterday’s blog. Accepting this perspective requires an attitude deeply rooted by faith in the Word of God.
"God often takes a course for accomplishing His purposes directly contrary to what our narrow views would prescribe. He brings death upon our feelings, wishes, and prospects when He is about to give us the desire of our hearts. " John Newton Trials and difficulties separate trees or plants with deep roots from those with shallow roots, or worse, no roots at all. Jesus took a parable addressed to the crowd and explained it in more detail to His disciples so they would “understand with their hearts” (Matthew 13:15) its real significance. Notice Jesus’ explanation carefully:
“As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.” (Matthew 13:20–21). Let’s put two things together in this parable, that are necessary for understanding the lesson. The “seed” is the gospel message which the Sower spreads as he goes. The “root in himself” is the inner response to the gospel message through repentance, contrition and humility. Where there is “no root”, there is an immediate outward response to the message which looks good for a short time until “tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word”. You can be certain that those who ‘profess faith in Christ’ will at some point be tested by the truth of the gospel and its claims on our minds and life. If there is “no root in himself”, the person is unable to take the word of the gospel and allow the Holy Spirit to internally transform the life into one that is fruit bearing. Times of testing very quickly reveal how deep our root structure is, and whether change taking place through the power of God’s Word is taken into the heart. Paul says, “But you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear” (Romans 11:20). “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith” (1 Corinthians 16:13). This is the opposite of “falling away”! This raises two questions: 1) What is being revealed about your life by the tests you go through? 2) Are you “falling away” under the pressure of trials and persecution? When individuals and local churches make it their priority to put roots deep into God’s Word and seek the Holy Spirit’s power to live by its principles, they establish a ‘root system’ that will ensure they remain strong in times of testing. That is a long sentence, but let’s see if Scripture supports my proposition.
There were churches Paul planted and mentored through his letters, who followed this principle. Notice what he says about the church at Colossae; “Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant” (Colossians 1:5b–7a). The “word of the truth” came to them because their spiritual roots were deep in “the gospel” (read Galatians carefully). The natural outcome was that the gospel which came to them was growing and bearing fruit “in the whole world”. Now that is what we call ‘global impact’! My next point is that it requires the Holy Spirit to ‘live by the principles’ of the gospel. He gave the Colossians the ability to “understand the grace of God in truth” because He is “the Spirit of truth” (John 14:17). Without the Spirit we are unable to either understand or apply the truth of the gospel to our lives. Paul makes this point abundantly clear; “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.” (1 Corinthians 2:12). Through that understanding, lives are transformed and proclaim the gospel by the way they are lived. I will leave my last point about roots for tomorrow – ‘remain strong in times of testing’. I want to conclude this blog with a portion I read this morning from a Puritan prayer. Plough deep in me, great Lord, heavenly Husbandman, That my being may be a tilled field, The roots of grace spreading far and wide, Until You alone art seen in me, Your beauty golden like summer harvest, Your fruitfulness as autumn plenty. Adopted from The Valley of Vision, Arthur Bennett, The Banner of Truth Trust, 2014, page 135. I doubt there is anyone in the world that could honestly say they have no favorite food. I actually have a few – ice cream being one of them. But let’s push this analogy with our subject of roots and their purpose. A tree will grow best and become strong, mature and useful if it is planted near a source of food that will give it the right kind of nourishment; water being a favorite food.
As we saw in Psalm 1, the righteous man “is like a tree planted by streams of water” because he knows that in order to be a strong, fruitful tree, he must place himself next to a source of food that will develop that kind of maturity. The writer of Hebrews points out the difference between ‘milk lovers’ who are unskilled in the word of righteousness…but solid food is for the mature, for those who have their power of discernment trained by constant practice of distinguishing good and evil” (5:13-14). Roots that take in water nourish the tree because it is taken up into the whole tree – put into practice through every branch and leaf. How seriously have you considered your spiritual nourishment? If you are married and have a family, they are depending on you to become mature so they are properly fed and protected. The same is true for any role you fill in the church. Make sure your roots are in the right place and drawing from the right source so you can discern biblically. |
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