The Only Way is Jesus

 

Trusting and Waiting

 

Are You in the Waiting Room?
BY: GJRWM
IN: FEATURED ARTICLES, WATCHMAN LIFESTYLE, WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A WATCHMAN


I underwent major spinal surgery this year. It was not on my calendar, but God had other plans. One moment, most of my family were home enjoying the evening; the next moment my son and daughter were with my wife in the emergency waiting room while neurosurgeons and professional staff coordinated the 9+ hour emergency surgery.

Many know what it is like to be in the waiting room; praying, weary, waiting on word it’s over, and everything is going to be okay. Time seems to slow in the waiting room. Indeed, a watched clock does not tick.

Even when there is complete trust in a highly trained medical staff, the hospital waiting room is a difficult place to be. There is a parallel in the Spiritual realm. Many who say they trust in God struggle with patience. In an age where A.D.D. is common, and we demand instant gratification, it is easy to de-emphasize the importance of patience. However, when we lack patience, we lack the ability to trust God. Diminishing one diminishes both.

Consider this, long ago, Abraham and Sarai married, and for decades, prayed for children. When they were senior adults, God promised they would have a child. This was surprising, but wonderful news for the happy couple, who likely promptly began a 9-month countdown.

I can imagine Abraham going out to the shop to build a cradle. I can see Sarai working to child-proof the house and knitting a baby blanket. However, nine months later, there was no child. Nineteen years later, still no child. Genesis 15 records Abraham’s despair. Patience was waning. So, God encouraged Abraham by confirming His promise (Genesis 15:4-6).

This is a teaching story. Part of what we are to see is that Abraham and Sarai’s despair began when they imposed their expectations on God’s promise. Like most parents, they had ideas: 9 months, a baby boy, eight lbs., brown eyes, curly hair. This is common and demonstrates why patience is closely tied to trusting God.

As trials and tribulations increase in these last days, there will be many times when God’s plan and timing do not unfold the way we expect. That is okay. In fact, that is good and best. In such times, fervent prayer and absolute trust in God will help us persevere.

Patience is a character trait God appreciates and wants His children to develop. Galatians 5:22-23 notes that patience is one of the attributes of the Spirit given to every believer. However, just as a person with an ear for music can usually master an instrument more easily than one not musically inclined, they still must practice and work to develop musical skills.

The Fruit of the Spirit referenced in Galatians 5 is similar in that the Spirit doesn’t instantly make one patient, but rather provides incredible aptitude and ability to develop patience. Another analogy: If I want my body to have more muscle, God will not instantly change my body, but may provide a weight set.

There is a direct correlation between patience and trusting God, and as developing patience comes from enduring and learning from various trials, we must not fall into despair when the severe trials prophesied to come, arrive on our doorstep.

James 1:2-4 notes: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of our faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

Watchmen must remember that the eyes of the world are on Christians who “encounter various trials.” Demonstrating faith, patience, and complete trust in God during the trials is a powerful witness.

“Don’t doubt in the dark what God has revealed to you in the light.” -Adrian Rogers



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Fully Known and Truly Loved

John Piper

Jesus knows us fully and completely. He knows us better than we know ourselves. And He loves us - truly, fully and completely.  Have you surrendered your life to Him? Have you put your trust in Him? Will you spend eternity with Him?

Streams in the Desert - July 19

L.B. Cowman



The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? (John 18:11)

This was a greater thing to say and do than to calm the seas or raise the dead. Prophets and apostles could work wondrous miracles, but they could not always do and suffer the will of God. To do and suffer God's will is still the highest form of faith, the most sublime Christian achievement.

To have the bright aspirations of a young life forever blasted; to bear a daily burden never congenial and to see no relief; to be pinched by poverty when you only desire a competency for the good and comfort of loved ones; to be fettered by some incurable physical disability; to be stripped bare of loved ones until you stand alone to meet the shocks of life--to be able to say in such a school of discipline, "The cup which my Father has given me, shall I not drink it?'--this is faith at its highest and spiritual success at the crowning point.

Great faith is exhibited not so much in ability to do as to suffer.

--Dr. Charles Parkhurst

To have a sympathizing God we must have a suffering Saviour, and there is no true fellow-feeling with another save in the heart of him who has been afflicted like him. We cannot do good to others save at a cost to ourselves, and our afflictions are the price we pay for our ability to sympathize. He who would be a helper, must first be a sufferer. He who would be a saviour must somewhere and somehow have been upon a cross; and we cannot have the highest happiness of life in succoring others without tasting the cup which Jesus drank, and submitting to the baptism wherewith He was baptized.

The most comforting of David's psalms were pressed out by suffering; and if Paul had not had his thorn in the flesh we had missed much of that tenderness which quivers in so many of his letters.

The present circumstance, which presses so hard against you (if surrendered to Christ), is the best shaped tool in the Father's hand to chisel you for eternity. Trust Him, then. Do not push away the instrument lest you lose its work.

Strange and difficult indeed
We may find it,
But the blessing that we need
Is behind it.

The school of suffering graduates rare scholars.

Study Less, Obey More

All God's revelations are sealed until they are opened to us by obedience. You will never get them open by philosophy and thinking. Immediately you obey, a flash of light comes. Let God's truth work in you by soaking in it, not by worrying into it. The only way you can get to know it is to stop trying to find out and by being born again. Obey God in the thing He shows you, and immediately the next thing is opened up. One reads tomes on the work of the Holy Spirit, when one five minutes of drastic obedience would make things as clear as a sunbeam. "I suppose I shall understand these things some day!" You can understand them now. It is not study that does it, but obedience. The tiniest fragment of obedience and heaven opens up and the profoundest truths of God are yours straight away. God will never reveal more truth about Himself until you have obeyed what you know already.

Oswald Chambers

To Those Who Wait by Bethany Dillon

I am waiting on You,
I am waiting on You.
You say You’re good to those who wait.

My heart’s discouraged,
So I come to You expectant. 
You say You’re good to those who wait. 

Lord, today You know what I need to do,
But You can do more in my waiting than in my doing I could do.
So I won’t run anymore.
I’m waiting on You.

Oh, wretched man that I am!
Free me from my distractions.
You say You’re good to those who wait. 

Then confession and repentance
Find me in the quiet.
You say You’re good to those who wait.
Now I know You’re good to those who wait.

Lord, today You know what I need to do,
But You can do more in my waiting than in my doing I could do.
So I won’t run anymore.
I’m waiting on You.

Oh, my soul,
Wait upon the Lord.
Keep your lamp filled with oil.
Oh, my soul,
Be not deceived!
Wait for Him.
Don’t be quick to leave.

Lord, today You know what I need to do,
But You can do more in my waiting than in my doing I could do.
So I won’t run anymore.
I’m waiting on You.

Jesus Pure & Simple

When you cannot remember the 22 characteristics of a good wife, the 7 steps to authority, or the 9 ways of love ......
It's time to get back to Jesus.

When a speaker insists (again) that you need to stop your bad habits, increase your devotion, reduce your worry, augment your faith, or banish your fears ....
It's time to get back to Jesus.

When you're overwhelmed by testimonies of others praying all night, fasting forty days, raising the dead, and leading thousands to the Lord on their airplane rides home........
It's time to get back to Jesus.

When you've sat through your one hundred fifty millionth sermon about giving more, suffering more, doing more, or being more.........
It's time to get back to Jesus.

When you attend another hyped-up conference that promises to be the one that will reduce all your problems, and you buy all the books and CD's and try them out, but nothing is reduced except your savings account............
It's time to get back to Jesus.

When someone points a finger in your face and says, "Thus saith the Lord," but their advice contradicts someone else who shouted a different "Thus saith the Lord," and it sounds different from yet another "Thus saith the Lord"............
It's time to get back to Jesus.

When your mailbox is flooded with a multitude of letters, newsletters, and giving requests from a multitude of organizations with three-initial names..........
It's time to get back to Jesus.

It is time to hear His voice and simplify. It's time we get back to Jesus, pure and simple.

(adapted from Jim May, Living at His Place, 1995)

But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his

craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the 

simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.

1 Corinthians 11:3

Watched a documentary on Bonhoeffer last night.  I believe this is what he sought for the Church and himself - a "religiousless Christianity" that was not about rules but instead about the heart.  I pray that God would use me even half as much as He used Bonhoeffer - I would die a joyful, blessed follower of Jesus.  Amen.

Got Friends?

My family attended Providence Church in West Chester last Sunday and listened to a really good sermon.  Below are some bullet points from that sermon:

*  Jesus uses us as his strategy to fight the war

*  We are in training for the fight every day.  Our words matter, how we use our money matters, everything we do matters.  We are fighting for our lives.

*  We go into the fight together.  We all need godly friends and we need to be godly friends.

*  There is a difference between true friends and acquaintances.  Having lots of friends on Facebook is not the same as being a godly friend.

*  So often in today's culture we convey information rather than humanity.  Social media puts the focus on ourselves and less on others.

*  The definition of a godly friend:  Someone who stays with you where you are but loves you enough to not let you remain where you are.  Jesus modeled this more than anyone (Zacchaeus is just one example).

*  Tests for friendship: 

    1 - friends stop and stick with you - they WANT to be with you - not just for "coffee" but for meal sharing.  Meal sharing was an important social event in the days of Jesus and is often overlooked today.

    2 - Godly friends know all about you and still accept you (Jesus knew Zacchaeus inside out!).  It's not if you behave a certain way or do certain things for them.  If something happens a true friend will stick with you otherwise it's a superficial and fake friendship.

    3 - Friends are willing to wound you in order to help you. Try not to be defensive.  You should know you are with a godly friend if they are willing to hurt you to help you.  We all have at least one friend like this - Jesus!

    4 - Godly friends are willing to lay down their lives for others to see Jesus

In order to have godly friendships your relationship with Jesus comes first.  Remember you are forgiven and you have all you need - these things will transform you and show you what godly friendships should be.

Don't enlarge your circle of friends but rather enrich it.

Live Before You Die - day 5

Preconceptions produce misconceptions that can blind us to what is obvious, and this happens to many people as they seek God's will for their lives.

Those things that bring confusion and over analysis need to be dropped.  Start with simple, childlike faith.  Trust that God has a plan He is trying to reveal to you. Believe that He wants you to discover it more than you want to discover it!

God's call to Abraham did not include specific coordinates, just a call to go.  As Abraham obeyed, God revealed His plan one step at a time.  ........more often than not God reveals His will in a much less extravagant fashion, and it often unfolds slowly, layer by layer over time rather than in a single, earth-shattering epiphany.

If God revealed His ultimate plan for our lives from the beginning, we would often find ourselves chasing a dream rather than following Him.  God didn't want to just send Abraham to his inheritance; God wanted to lead him there.

God's will is never revealed in such a way that it negates our need for dependence upon Him.  The real reward for following God is God Himself.  He calls to us to see if we will follow even without knowing all the details.  When He sees that we take a step of obedience, then He gives us the next step.

Jesus laid out a principle in Luke 16:10 that is absolutely essential in the quest to discover God's will for our lives.  Jesus said, "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much:  and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much."  God calls us to small things before He calls us to great things. Many people want God to speak audibly from heaven and give them direction, yet they aren't following the small directions they already have.  If you aren't doing what you already know to do, why should God give you more instructions?  If you aren't being faithful in the small things, why should God entrust you with more important things?

As you follow Him in obedience, step by step and day by day, the picture will become clearer and He will entrust you with more and more. Eventually the day will come when you will look back on the many steps you took in faith and obedience, and you will see how the Lord carefully and strategically orchestrated each one in a way you never could have engineered in your own strength or wisdom.

Daniel Kolenda, Live before you die