Delay that demands readiness!
Verse for Today: Saturday, November 19, 2011
Lamentations 3:31 – For the Lord will not cast off forever.
The experience of God’s people speaks vividly that God will not forget His people forever. It is likely that when they disobey Him, He might at times be silent. He sometimes delays the answers to their prayers. He even abandons His people for a time to make them learn lessons in life which they refuse to learn from His school. This has been the history of Israel who kept disregarding His decrees and instructions. So He did not work in their midst and waited until they came back to Him in repentance and confession. But His silence did not mean that He had cast His people off forever. In fact, it is in God’s very nature that He cannot and will not forget His people forever. Even when He is silent, He still loves them because they are His children. He still has great plans for them and He waits for them to come back to Him just as the father of the prodigal waited patiently for his son to return. When the prodigal returned, he was accepted without any condition. He was treated as if he has never before disobeyed the father. He was not cast off forever, but it was he who abandoned his father and went off to a far country. Sometimes God is silent with His children and this silence is to teach them patience and maturity in their relation with the Father. He wants us to learn how to wait patiently for Him to answer our prayers. God’s silent response to His praying children is to invoke importunity in them and thus to build up their life of faith and trust in Him. So let us today reaffirm our trust in the Lord even when we do not have His ready answers to our pressing questions. Whether He speaks to us readily or not, we know that He loves us with everlasting love which will not dwindle in its quality and dimensions. He will not cast off His children forever and will answer as it pleases Him at His best time.
Dear friend, have you been asking the Lord some puzzling questions about your difficult situations, and you have been waiting for answers for a long time? Has He delayed His answers to the extent to which it cast doubts in your mind as to whether He has forsaken you or not? Have you been undergoing hardship and adversity for considerable time without a release in spite of persistent prayer for long time? Have you been praying for physical or emotional healing, for that job which has eluded you for considerable time or for the salvation of a loved one? Rest assured that our Lord will not cast us off forever. When we pray, it is registered in His presence. Our importunity is well taken by Him in His grace and love. He sees our sufferings and pains of various kinds and has compassion on us. But He has designed His answers and timeframe to come to us. If we have backslidden, He expects us to find the way back to Him with confession and repentance. If we have grieved Him, He expects us to go to Him with a penitent heart and true brokenness. But we can be sure that our Lord will not cast us off forever and that He will give us a visitation in due season. He is faithful to do His part, but it is up to us to settle our matters with Him with contrition and confession. If His Spirit is grieved in our hearts, He wants us to bring joy to the Spirit through repentance. Abraham had to wait for a quarter of a century for a promised son. Joseph was out of circulation for 13 years before his dreams were fulfilled. David had to run around from cave to cave for years before he finally became king. Hanna had to wait for years to get the child she asked for. Rachel also had such an experience. Mary and Marta had to wait for 4 days to get their brother back from the dead. Yes, our Lord will not cast us off forever and will come back to us at the right time to answer our heart cry and meet our needs. Today it is our blessed privilege to cling on to Him and ask for His grace to wait for His time to answer our prayers and meet our needs.
Isaiah 54:7 – For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back.
Thought for Today
God’s delays are not denials, but opportunity for you to revive your life in readiness to receive what He wants to bestow upon you.
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