No And Wait

I have heard it said that God always answers our prayers. They say He answers our prayers with, "Yes. No. Wait."

We love it when God answers with yes. This can come in many shapes. He says yes to the chosen spouse. Yes to children. Yes to a home, a vehicle, to a new job, and a host of other blessings. We rejoice when God says yes. We celebrate when God says yes. We testify when God says yes.

We don't love so much when God says no. Let's back up for a moment. Does God truly love us? If you believe He does what is the proof of that love.
John 3:16 (ESV) 
¹⁶  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 5:8 (ESV)
⁸  but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

If God loves us and if He has proven that love through giving Jesus to reconcile sinners to Himself, then does God want to harm us? Is it the desire of God to do bad things to His children? Think about that before you answer. Think of the person with cancer, the family coping with the death of a loved one from a car accident, people devastated by hurricanes, people who feel abandoned and forsaken by the very God they love. Does God really want to do good for those people. 

How many prayed for healing but the healing did not come this side of eternity. God's answer was no. How many prayed for God's protection over their family and still the accident happened and the hurricane along with flooding still came. The answer for protection of at least property seemed to be no. Sometimes God's no is for a relationship, a new job, a new direction or opportunity, or being able to see a dream realized. 

When God says no does that mean He is any less loving. At times when I told my children no it was because I loved them. My no was for their well being in their best interest. My no brought protection and preserved them for the very best. My no was in fact the fullest expression of my love. 

Is it any different with God. When He says no can we trust it is for our good. It is God's fullest expression of love to protect us. His no may disappoint but that is only because we do not see things as He sees. We do not know all the facts. We cannot see the future and what He has planned. 

Neither do we like it when God says wait. Our society is fast paced. We live in a hurry. We have expressways. We have fast foods. We have microwave dinners. We have instant communications. In all of this sometimes God says wait. He puts a stop sign in our path. He throws a red light on the road of life. Why does He make us wait? His timing is perfect. It may not appear that way. Just as the red light comes at inconvenient times it also serves to protect us from oncoming traffic. His delays are far our good. 

God's most consistent answers to many prayers I have prayed for a long time are no and wait. It has been disappointing. I have many times been frustrated by His no and His wait. 

He is still at work orchestrating His masterpiece, weaving His maser design, and perfecting His plan. 

I grow weary of His nos and His waits. This is only when I quit looking at Him and look at my world. He knows what He is doing. He knows far better than any of us. 

Isaiah 55:8-9 (ESV) 
⁸  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. 
⁹  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Glad To Help

Taylor needed help today. He needed something from home electronically sent for a new job. I found the needed information and sent it to him. A very easy fix. Though he is a man he still my little boy. Digging for the needed information I relived over two decades of memories.

I came across his birth certificate. I still remember holding him in my arms the day he was born. What joy he brought into my life. I held him with a smile as big as Texas. He was my boy, my son. Later that day I went off by myself to pray and offered Him to God right then and there. I realized then he was only mine to raise but his life was dedicated to God. Next, I found an old picture when he was no more than a tyke. I also came across his passport. He got that to go on a mission trip with me when he was only ten. What precious memories.

He needed my help. A small task easily completed. From start to finish the whole thing could not have taken more than three minutes. He thanked me for helping. I texted him, "Always glad to help my boy." Then I thought he is no longer a boy so I resent a text calling him a man.

If I am so eager and glad to help my son how much more glad is God to help His children. Helping my boy brought unbridled joy to me. Does God get joy from helping His people when they need His intervention? Does He delight in coming to our aid more than we delight in asking?

Tucker recently celebrated his 18th birthday. We have a tradition in our home. We have a plate we only break out and use on someone's birthday. The writing on the plate reads, "You are special." I got up early that morning and made Tucker omelets. His favorite breakfast meal is an omelette. Only on this day I had enough to make him two omelettes and he ate both heartily. I delighted in blessing him.

I know God loves more perfectly than I can. I know He is love is perfect. He is glad to help. He is strong enough, wise enough, compassionate enough, and loving enough to help. When we thank Him I wonder if He ever says, "Glad to help."

Waiting

Day after day I find myself still waiting, 
Impatient for the long delay I keep hating, 
You are in control and have perfect timing, 
Behind a frowning providence a silver lining, 
So I keep waiting - praying and still believing, 
Though the long delay brings nights of grieving, 
Grief turned to tears and days of great sobbing,
Broken waiting with desperate heart throbbing,
Clinging to faith clutching asking and praying, 
Standing firm on your every word You are saying. 

One Step And One Prayer Closer

I learn a lot of lessons while I am out on my walks. I see things. I pray about a lot of things. I meditate. All of this while getting a little exercise. I even meet a few people along the way.

Yesterday I set an aggressive goal. The temperature hovered in the high nineties. About half way through the walk my back began to cramp from all the sweating. I paused for a break mainly to relieve the cramping in my back. After a few minutes I made my way back home. It did not take long for the cramping to return. In addition the hot pavement began burning the soles of my feet adding more discomfort.

Somewhere on that return walk to the house the thoughts occurred to me, "I am one step closer to home. With each step I am one step closer. Just like wth the steps every time I pray I am one step closer to a breakthrough. I am also one day closer to eternity."

One step at a time I trudged on. Up hills. Past yelping dogs. Around corners. Through the heat. At times against the stiff breeze. Several times I stopped briefly to stretch my back before resuming. One step at a time I made it all the way. One mile faded behind me and then the next. Eventually I made it home.

I grabbed and chugged two bottles of cold water and sank into an old chair. The pressure from my back relieved immediately. The burning in my feet subsided when I removed my shoes.

I thought back to my walk. I thought about the discomfort in my back and feet. I also thought about how with each step I got closer and closer to home. I knew when I got home I could drink water and find relief. That seems like a metaphor for the spiritual life.

There are so many enduring difficulties in life. You pray and pray and when you can't even manage words you pray with groans. Every prayer you offer is one prayer closer to the long awaited breakthrough. One day God will intervene. The mountain will move. The breakthrough will come. The long delayed answer will arrive. The fog of confusion will lift. The closed door will open. The provision will come. Don't give up. You are one prayer closer to the breakthrough.

When I finished walking it also dawned on me just like every step brought me closer to home, every day brings us closer to eternity. For the redeemed that means heaven. I cannot even fathom the relief, comfort, refreshing, and reviving that will awaits us in heaven. One moment there will make all the trials and difficulties fade because we made it home.

I realized after my walk yesterday I got severely dehydrated. My back cramped well into the evening hours. Yet I was finally home. I drank plenty of liquids. I enjoyed a good meal with Brenda and the boys. I retired to bed pretty early in the middle of a severe thunderstorm. Yet I had refuge from the storm in my home.

None of this can compare in the least to when we finally get to our eternal home if it is heaven. I look forward to that day. I have only read about it but I fully agree with Paul;
Philippians 1:21 (ESV)
²¹  For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 

I know life can be challenging. I know it can be downright uncomfortable. Maybe it so hard for you there are questions if you will endure to the finish line. You are one step closer. You are one prayer closer. You are one day closer. Press on brothers and sisters.
2 Corinthians 4:16-17 (ESV) 
¹⁶  So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
¹⁷  For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,

Keep pressing one foot in front of the other. Keep praying and keep believing. Keep loving, trusting, and serving Jesus. One day we will all get home. We are closer now than we have ever been.  

Love

1 Corinthians 13:4-5 (ESV)
⁴  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
⁵  or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;

Love. Is is mushy gushy feeling? Is it more than a second hand emotion like Tina Tuner sang about.  Is love something you do or something you feel. Maybe it is a combination of both. 

According to our scripture love is patient. Another way to say it is that love is song suffering. That could be in the form of a missionary in hostile territory. It could be in the form of tortured and martyred muslim converts savagely slaughtered for their faith in Jesus. It might in the form of a spouse treated without respect and kindness for years but chooses to stay anyway. It might be in the form of a friend betrayed who chooses to forgive. Long suffering love, patient love is on display around the globe. I wold not go so far as to say this type of love is prevalent.

Love is kind. To show kindness means to display benevolence and to help people. You do such things with no strings attached. It is love on display in tangible expressions. Service acts. Helpful acts. All part of real love. We have seen this in many volunteers helping with hurricane Harvey and Irma recovery efforts.

Love does not envy. Love does not covet nor is jealous. This sure seems to be in short supply. Envy is epidemic. Coveting calluses hearts. Jealously jeopardizes the effectiveness of the church. Envy is everywhere. In sports, at school, on the job, in the neighborhood, and sadly even at church.

Love does not seek its own way. To put it another way, love is not selfish. Love is willing to defer to others. Love denies selfish desires for the best for the other party. Love is not so much about what a person can receive but what they can give.

Love is not irritable. That means love is not easily provoked or easily exasperated. Who has not fallen into this sin. We say things like, "That person woke up on the wrong side of the bed." When people are irritable others walk on egg shells so as not to set them off. This could be with a sullen spouse, a moody boss, temperamental children, and a demanding parent. Love does not behave that way.

Love is not resentful. It does not keep a record of wrongs suffered. Love does not think about and dwell where others have failed. Love does not keep want to reconcile accounts at the end of the day. Love forgives. Love extends grace. Love embraces mercy.

After all of that how many really love like we should? All of those things are the personification of Jesus. Through His Spirit alone can we love like this.

Proof Of Love

I love Brenda Edwards. Just the other night while we were preparing dinner I leaned on the counter and stared at her. She asked, "What?" I replied, "I just wanted you to know I am madly in love with Brenda Edwards." She smiled that smile that has lit up my life for so many years.

She had to train me after we got married. I grew up spoiled. I never washed clothes. I did not help in the kitchen and our every meal was made from scratch, as my grandmother often said. I did not even put my dirty laundry in a hamper. My mother came in my room to gather my dirty laundry.

I recall Brenda telling me I needed to help more around the house after we had children. She gave me a couple of options. Since I am an early riser I took the breakfast shift for the boys. I wanted my boys to grow up on more than cereal and pop tarts.

I try to help her more these days. God really tested me with this recently. What He put in my mind and heart to do to express my love seemed unfathomable. It was out in left field I never would have entertained it before. Before telling you what I did to prove my love I need to change course for a moment.

Years ago I gave in and let Brenda have a dog. She named her Anna Bell. She is a black furred miniature schnauzer. I recall all the times she escaped out of the back yard in the mission house in Seminole when we lived there. I changed her name to Jezebel.

When we first got her Brenda did some research about that breed of dogs. One of the things she found is they like to try and dominate the family agenda. When she told me that I determined right then that dog would NEVER determine the agenda for me.

So I could not have been more shocked when I felt led to give her a bath. Brenda had tried for weeks to get either Tucker and Turner to do it. She even offered to pay them a little money to do so. Neither  followed through. So I could not have been caught more off guard more when the thought occurred to me to give her a bath.

I assure you she got the scrubbing of her life. I spared no effort in scrubbing and dousing her with water. I even brushed her fur after towel drying her. All of this while Brenda and the boys were gone. I wanted to surprise her.

That is the proof and debt of my love for Brenda. I washed her dog. If she ever wonders about my love all she has to do is remember me washing that stinking matted dog. That is the proof of my love.

Graduate Level Testing

I remember in grade school we took a spelling test every Friday. Some of those tests were easy. We had to spell words like sun, red, lid, fun, hop. Things got a little more difficult when the words contained multiple syllables and silent letters.

In high school we no longer took spelling tests. We started taking vocabulary tests. There were multiple choice tests, true false tests, and my all time favorite the essay questions tests.

One test stands out in my academic career. I took a two semester philosophy course. We discussed some heavy material. I often left class with my head swimming. Much of it I could barely understand. Some of it I grasped. At the end of the second semester I sat down to the simplest and most challenging final exam I ever took. The exam contained only one essay question. "Write down everything you learned in this class this year." That is the only time I took all the allotted time for my final exam.

Those tests pale in comparison to the tests Brenda and I have been given in the past several years. Rheumatoid arthritis. Diabetes. Failing eyes. Three eye surgeries. Three knee surgeries. A car wreck. Declining church attendance. A failed ministry. And others I care not to mention.

Graduate level testing. It is easy to write about faith when you are on top of the world and everything is going your way. It is easy to peach about faith when you have great testimonies to share as Brenda and I do.

It is much harder when everything you believe is put to the test. When your every prayer goes without seeing any changes. It is hard to preach when your faith and hope are shattered by another set of challenges that plunged you deeper beneath the surf when you were barely treading to keep your head above water.

Brenda and I are in graduate level testing. It has lasted a long time and only intensified no matter how, how much, or how long we have prayed. The few we confide in respond in one of two ways. Most do not have words for us. They often respond, "I don't know what to say." We are not looking for human wisdom. We desire the wisdom that comes from God. Others try offering cliches. That is something we do not want to do to others.

This testing is more than difficult. It more than challenging. Yet, it is by Divine design. Through it all we still trust Jehovah. . We still cling to Him. We still hope in His word. Brenda sent me three different scriptures where God spoke to her today. God's truth nourishes and reinvigorates

I keep preaching faith to help others. I keep writing faith to help others. We are in the battle like so many of you. We do not live in an ivory tower. We knows the agony of defeat and we know the joy of triumphs.

I know we are not alone. There are others going through own graduate level testings. Their faith is weakened. Everything in their world seems to go wrong and they wonder where God is and why He is silent nor does He intervene. When such people can barely catch a breath in between the crashing waves of never ending challenges. I still point to God and His enduring faithfulness.

If God can use Brenda and I to give people a little hope, to help them to keep believing, and to help them not lose heart and give up then I welcome these graduate level testings. Brenda and I do not just want to boast about our faith surrounded by success and financial security with no trials. We want to cling to God in the most difficult challenges before us. We want to boast in God in every season of life.

Here is a verse we surely set our feet. May you set your feet in the same place as well.

Isaiah 41:10 (ESV)
¹⁰  fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.