Wait On the Lord

“Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!”

That verse contains one of the major challenges in Christendom. It is counter to our microwave mentality, our search for instant gratification. I even saw a prestige car tag: “HTE2WTE”.

Even in one’s prayer life there is impatience. We ask and wait for an answer. An affirming answer is a blessing. However, the time between the request and the answer often draws us closer to the Lord than the answer.

“Wait” translates the Hebrew “kiwah.” It is a word that draws a picture for us. It describes starting with one thread and weaving it with sequential threads until a strong rope results.  Every experience with the Lord is a thread in the tie that binds you closer to Him. The time of waiting is a school in which faith is developed and exercised while waiting for all things to work together.

We are instructed to “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” (James 4: 8) There are many ways to do that. I am going to focus on one. He said, “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46: 10)

Solitude is the incubator in which the fertile Word of God has time to develop Christlike characteristics. Fenelon, a voice from yesteryear wrote: “How rare it is to find a soul quiet enough to hear God speak.”

We are indeed in His keeping, under His training FOR HIS TIMING. His timing is always the right time. Often our timing and His timing are not always in sync.

God’s Word speaks often of time. Consider. “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens…” (Ecclesiastes 3: 1).

GIVE GOD TIME TO BE GOD.
Faith that is willing to wait on God is assuring, insuring, and enduring.

Sorrow looks back, worry looks around, and faith looks up.

Faith helps us walk fearlessly, run confidently, and live victoriously.

The Lord wants to enable you to stretch yourself spiritually and expand the circumference of your faith. The time spent waiting expectantly on His action is a means of doing so. While waiting on Him “be of good courage.” The English word courage comes from the Latin “cour” which is a reference to the condition of the heart. Those who wait on the Lord find He does indeed afford strength. This is a metaphor for confidence and composure.

The prophet Jeremiah got it right when under the guidance of the Holy Spirit he wrote: “For since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, Nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him” (Isaiah 64: 4).

“Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!”

The new year will afford us many occasions to wait on Him. Patiently do so and be blessed.

Happy New Year 2025

Hopefully your new year is off to a very good start. If not and assess what you can and will do to make it the best possible.

The mask came off of the City that Care Forgot, New Orleans. It revealed the face of evil. Resultantly people who anticipated a new year experienced its abrupt end and others entered the new year through the portal of pain and suffering.

Hopefully America will begin the new year with a new commitment to the virtues that have traditionally made it great. The election of Donald Trump as President gives cause for optimism. His task is formidable. Expectations are staggering. Hopefully the best will result.

New Year’s resolutions are not a panacea, neither are they new. But they can be helpful. They go back over 3,000 years to the ancient Babylonians. Now it is your time.

The dawning of a new year makes many people concerned about changes in their lives. Do you? If so, how do you fit in the following?

The Forbes Health/One Poll survey found some resolutions to be more common than others, with the most popular goals including:
Improved fitness (48%)
Improved finances (38%)
Improved mental health (36%)
Lose weight (34%)
Improved diet (32%)

Men are slightly more confident (82%) than women (79%) in their ability to reach their goals.   

Optimism abounds depending on how a person is able to drop the last year into the stealth limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go. Remove “shoulds, woulduhs, coulduh” from your vocabulary this year.

Some people had such a bad old year they are going to stay up late New Year’s Eve not to bring in the new year, but to be sure the old one leaves.

Don’t pull the dark clouds of the pass over the joy of potential better things to come. You will get out of it more than what you put into it.

God made us with the ability to change the course of life. With His help you can change for the better.

“With the coming of the new year you can open a new record book. Its pages are blank. You are going to put words on them yourselves. The book is called “Opportunity.”

Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering “I will….”

Start your journey with a “what now, Lord….”

Of the top 15 most popular resolutions not one has a spiritual component. Your new year can be better overall if every page has His finger prints on it.

Pray as David prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51: 10).

This is a grand time “To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24 ESV).

Reconsider any new resolution you might make. Is it’s reason to honor God? If so, go for it with your whole heart. Get ‘er done for His glory.

May you have a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Bah, Humbug!

Thanksgiving is over, but this is not “National Humbug Month.”  When Scrooge repeatedly called Christmas “humbug,” it was because he believed the holiday fit the bill in more ways than one. He thought Christmas tricked people into feeling cheerful and thankful when they had nothing to feel cheerful about or thankful for. “What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough,” he tells his nephew Fred.

He used the expression because he believed people had “nothing to feel cheerful about or thankful for.” “Bah” was an expression of contempt or annoyance.

With Thanksgiving over and emphasis on Christmas ensuing some folks leave a thankful heart behind. Some even show contempt for Christmas. What a value swing: contempt or cheer?

There was another meaning to “humbug” other than the demeaning way Scrooge used it. Around 1820 in England large sticks of red and white striped peppermint were a popular candy. These sticks of candy were called “humbugs.” They were a treat that brought goodwill and cheer. Though not by that name peppermint sticks still fulfill that role. They were analogous for goodwill and cheer.

So the word humbug had two extremely different meanings. Consider them:

Scrooge used the word disparagingly, meaning there is no reason for cheer.

The public in general saw it as symbolical for good cheer.

Which do you prefer?

At the birth of Jesus the angel announced “peace of earth, good will to men.”

In the song “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” there is the line, “There is no peace on earth good will to men.”

Those who hold to this thought miss the true use of the expression. The expression at the birth of Jesus was not a promise of peace and good will, but it was a prescription for peace and good will. Banish “bah,” let there be humbug, good cheer, on earth.

Keep that in mind as you plan for Christmas. Sing and pray these words for “Let there be peace on Earth.”

“Let there be peace on earth And let it begin with me
Let There Be Peace on Earth The peace that was meant to be
With God as our Father Brothers all are we Let me walk with my brother
In perfect harmony. Let peace begin with me
Let this be the moment now. With ev’ry step I take Let this be my solemn vow
To take each moment and live Each moment in peace eternally
Let there be peace on earth And let it begin with me.”

After Thanksgiving, What?

Thanksgiving Day is over. Now what? Surely days of giving thanks are not over. This is no time to return to ingratitude.

We have survived a brutal election season in a divided country. We need healing. We need to give thanks for the things that unite us. Our broken world is filled with anger, distrust, and war. Thank the Lord we have survived all this and more.

Have thoughts of entitlement or familiarity or indifference crept in to diminish or color your gratitude? If so, you are being myopic in your thoughts regarding the many blessings you are receiving. Overcoming this and renewing an attitude of thanksgiving is found in two uplift ways.

The panacea is found in two of the most meaningful words you can speak. They are “Thank you.” Simple isn’t it?

We owe the Pilgrims gratitude for identifying the appropriate object of our thanks. Our object as was theirs should be to our benevolent God. Yes, God. Candidly, when was the last time you expressed to Him those two words: “Thank you.” Get up to date and pause now to do so.

Maybe you don’t feel thankful. Feeling thankful is an act of emotions. Giving thanks is an act of the will.

Surrounded by death and grief the Pilgrims likely did not feel very thankful. However, they had hearts of thanks and gave thanks in spite of any negative feelings.

Perhaps you presently don’t feel very thankful. Try these reasons for expressing thanks.

“Be thankful you can open your eyes wide.
Be thankful for what you see outside.
Be thankful for green grass and blue sky.
Be thankful for all those passing by.
Be thankful for this country so free
Where each can express opinions peacefully.
Be thankful on this and every day.
Repay these gifts in your special way.” Gregory Huyette

It has been said gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

An inventory of things for which you feel it unreasonable to be thankful is easy to make. Surprise, everybody has such a list. Everybody? Everybody, even the person you know with the cheeriest disposition? Everybody.

I have known a lot of “old saints” through the years. Their youthful and even golden years have passed them. Daily pain is an uninvited guest in their body. Sadness is strewn across their life’s past. Among them there have been many who simply chose to be thankful and to express it.

In another city I recently visited a friend who was once a vibrant athlete, a scholar, and high school principal. His eyes were deeply sunken, his complexion a sick yellow, and his body frail. Cancer was his bodily antagonist. Faint though it was, there was a smile on his purple lips and a faint voice expressive of thanksgiving. Why? Because long ago he found the source deserving of thanks of which adversity could not rob him. Here we are back to the Pilgrims. He, like they, had identified the source worthy of thanks.

Albert Schweitzer noted “At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” If there is such a person in your life, pause now for such a person and let that flame blaze by thanking the Lord for that person and all of His blessings upon you.

God is giving you the gift of 86,400 seconds today. When it is over how many will  you have spent thanking Him?

May Yours Be a Blessed Thanksgiving

To all who read my Post, thank you and may you be blessed. Recently I discovered a poem I learned years ago. I share it with the hope it might inspire you as it has me over the years. Have a blessed Thanksgiving.

Forgive Me When I Whine

Today upon a bus, I saw a lovely maid with golden hair; I envied her — she seemed so gay, and how, I wished I were so fair; When suddenly she rose to leave, I saw her hobble down the aisle; she had one foot and wore a crutch, but as she passed, a smile. Oh God, forgive me when I whine, I have two feet — the world is mine.

And when I stopped to buy some sweets, the lad who served me had such charm; he seemed to radiate good cheer, his manner was so kind and warm; I said, “It’s nice to deal with you, such courtesy I seldom find”; he turned and said, “Oh, thank you sir.” And then I saw that he was blind. Oh, God, forgive me when I whine, I have two eyes, the world is mine.

Then, when walking down the street, I saw a child with eyes of blue; he stood and watched the others play, it seemed he knew not what to do; I stopped a moment, then I said, “Why don’t you join the others, dear?” He looked ahead without a word, and then I knew he could not hear. Oh God, forgive me when I whine, I have two ears, the world is mine.

With feet to take me where I’d go; with eyes to see the sunsets glow, with ears to hear what I would know. I am blessed indeed. The world is mine; oh, God, forgive me when I whine.

Be thankful, be blessed. Be blessed, be thankful.