Month: <span>May 2016</span>

devotional

The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.” Isaiah  40:8

Jesus made it clear that we would endure hardship in this life. But God gave His children amazing tools to keep trials from overwhelming us. For instance, He placed His Spirit inside each believer to guide and empower. In addition, He gave us prayer so we could not only communicate and stay connected with our Father but also bring Him our requests.

Today I want to focus on yet another one of His marvelous gifts: the Bible. Scripture is the actual Word of God Almighty. It is truth. It never changes. It enables us in all circumstances, so we have a sure foundation on which to base our lives and decisions.

There are thousands of promises in the Bible–countless assurances that we can rely on with perfect confidence. God wants us to learn them so we won’t miss out on blessings He wants to give. And wise believers will turn His promises into prayers and the cries of their hearts.

Let me give you an example that relates to difficult decisions. Psalms 32:8 states, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.” We can pray God’s words back to Him, saying that we believe He will teach us and reveal His path, while remaining by our side as our caregiver through the entire situation.

When hardships arise, we need a solid foundation on which to stand. Otherwise, our emotions could easily lead us astray through faulty thinking. God is faithful and unchanging, so we can trust in His promises, which enable us to rest confidently and act boldly.

By Dr. Charles Stanley

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Thoughts by All thoughts by Charles Stanley Thoughts by Men

 

What do we do when God seems slow?

Let’s face it. Waiting is hard. The good news is it is not up to us.  The Holy Spirit enables us to wait. Galatians 5:5Through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope.” Through the Spirit by faith… that means we get the opportunity to draw nearer the Holy Spirit while we wait for God to work our miracle(s) of righteousness. That puts my focus where it should be… on Him, not myself or others. It is usually stubborn family situations that get to me, of course, for they have been going on the longest and require the most patient endurance in the midst of waiting.  Waiting is an invitation to stillness.

A faithful brother added this insight to the subject of waiting on God: “The Hebrew word ‘qavah,’ which is translated ‘wait‘ in Isaiah 40:31, means ‘to bind together like a cord.’ As we wait on the Lord in stillness before Him with our hearts in a quiet state, it is like adding strands to a rope to strengthen it. Picture the process of making a rope by twisting or weaving (binding) thin cords together to form the rope. The more strands that are twisted or woven together in a rope, the greater its strength. We can assume that the more we are still to listen to God, the stronger we become. Ecclesiastes 4:12 says ‘… a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.’

As we wait, we can choose to soak in the Lord Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. David wrote that he had “quieted his soul like a weaned child on his mother’s breast.” God speaks to our spirits, and our ears are trained to hear His voice (Isaiah 50:4). The mind wants to “ go go go,” but God says this is serious error (Isaiah 30). Our noisy souls must be told to be quiet and submit to our spirits and to God’s Spirit. In this age of incessant cell phones, texting, Internet, and TV, we have to choose to be intentional to wait to hear God’s still small voice.”

What is God trying to say to you about who He is and who you are in Him during this time of waiting?

Two Scriptural examples of people who did not wait on God show us the disastrous consequences of not waiting. God took the kingdom from Saul because of his impatience (1 Samuel 13:8-14). When God’s people forgot Him and did not wait for His counsel, He sent upon them wasting disease or leanness of soul (Psalms 106:13,15). You are probably painfully aware of times when you did not seek God’s counsel and ran ahead of Him. You have repented of these and asked God’s forgiveness. Ask Him to encourage you when you are impatient with waiting for the answer to prayer that you have desired the longest. Ask Him to give you grace to keep your hope fixed in the God-of-the-impossible.

By Sylvia Gunter

Used by Permission
From: Waiting on God, see Prayer Essentials For Living In His Presence,
Vol 2, page 277-280. © Sylvia Gunter 2000

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