Waiting

The Promise…. waiting.

/ Roye Glass / Leave a comment

When I read this verse today I heard George Michael sing, “Faith.”  If you are familiar with the song now it’s stuck in your head too.  Sorry about that.  🙂

Faith.  Hearing and responding in faith, at times, can be a very difficult thing to do.  Especially when one is living in long season of silence.

I wonder about Abraham.  I wonder about his life and the thought process he went through before he took matters into his own hands.  God had told him he would have a son.  I presume he waited.  I guess he actively engaged at the task of trying to have a baby with his wife.  I’m sure he didn’t get tired of that!  But, then again, maybe he did.  He did end up taking things into his own hands by having sex with someone else.

I still wonder about his thought process.  He knew the promise.  He knew the Lord.  He was a friend of God.  Yet, he got tired in the waiting.  Did he question his understanding of the promise?  Did he begin to doubt?  Did he ask God about this decision to sleep with someone else?   Obviously he believed he was supposed to have a son.  That’s why he stepped outside of the covenant of marriage to have one.  (That doesn’t feel or sound right to even type).  But that’s exactly what he did.  He stepped into sin in order to bring about God’s promise…

I go back to wondering about his thought process that got him there.  Had he lost faith? Did he think it was up to him to help God bring about a child? In James 2 we read faith and works go hand and hand.  Abraham is even used as an example of faith and works when it comes to his son Isaac.  The son that was promised!  Yet, before he got to that point he exercised his faith with works outside of the covenant.  Outside of the realm of what God had promised.  Which brings me back to my wondering about what was going on in Abraham’s life and heart at the time he made his decision to help God along with the promise.

For me, I know I have made decisions in the darkness of silence.  Knowing I was supposed to do something, make a move, career change, etc.  Many, if not, most of those decisions didn’t work out so well for me.   Why? Did I not hear correctly?  Or did I not wait?

I think it has more to do about the waiting and trusting the promise God has spoken  than anything else.

Walk Steadily on the Road

/ Roye Glass / Leave a comment

You’re blessed when you stay on course, walking steadily on the road revealed by God. (Psalm 119:1, The Message).

Has God revealed something to you?  Is there something God has spoken to you that hasn’t come into being?  Do you have a desire in your heart that you can’t seem to explain to others?  Yet, you know God understands! What’s keeping you from pursuing that desire with all your heart?  Maybe you have given up on God, thinking, “That’s not what He really said for me to do.”  The Psalmist says here you are blessed if you stay the course.

Maybe there is something God called you to and circumstances blocked your path.  Where are you now?  Are you still on the road? Maybe you are still on the road but have settled for selling lemonade instead of walking steadily.  After-all, you heard once when life throws you lemons you should make lemonade.  Or have you given up altogether and decided to cut your own path?

I was listening to Steven Furtick’s message, “Don’t Stop on 6.”  It’s a message on Joshua and the people of Israel as they were headed for the Promised Land.  On the road, they encountered many obstacles and problems.  Jericho was one of those problems in their path.  God told Joshua to lead the people around Jericho.  Literally, they marched in circles around Jericho.  For 6 days they made one lap each day around the city.  What if they had given up on day 6?  What if they had given up on lap 6 of day 7?

It doesn’t matter where you are in life.  If you are a college student struggling to understand God’s plan, or if you are in your 40’s/50’s wishing you had made other choices. Blessed are those who stay the course! Don’t give up.  Don’t quit. Has God given you a dream – a passion – something you can’t let go of… yet you haven’t arrived? Don’t stop here!  Keep pressing on.  Let Him take you deeper in His Word.  Deeper with those He has put in and around your life.  God’s purposes are much greater on the road He reveals over the path either one of us could carve out on our own.

In Matthew 7:14, Jesus said, “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”  (NIV).

Josiah was eight years old when he became king. He ruled for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. He behaved well before God. He kept straight on the path blazed by his ancestor David, not one step to the left or right. (2 Chronicles 34:1, The Message).

Our lives aren’t meant to be a sprint to the finish line but rather a long distance endurance race.  Don’t allow the mountain in front of you to keep you from finishing the race strong!  Take it one step at a time.  Keep your focus on your footing and keep on walking steadily.

I picked up a journal recently I was writing in 2009.  The interesting thing for me is that I am still praying about the same thing today that I was then.  I’m even praying over the same passage of Scripture.  My initial reaction was, “Wow, I can’t believe that!”  I thought for a moment why continue… but that thought process quickly changed.  What if Israel had stopped on 6.  I’m not stopping either.

Day 7 is on it’s way if we keep walking steadily!

A time of waiting…

/ Roye Glass / 1 Comment

I can’t state it any better than Oswald Chambers.  My words I have tried to put together are worthless to go with this quote.  So, I’ll just let Chambers do the talking. 

There are times when you can’t understand why you cannot do what you want to do. When God brings a time of waiting, and appears to be unresponsive, don’t fill it with busyness, just wait. The time of waiting may come to teach you the meaning of sanctification— to be set apart from sin and made holy— or it may come after the process of sanctification has begun to teach you what service means. Never run before God gives you His direction. If you have the slightest doubt, then He is not guiding. Whenever there is doubt— wait.

At first you may see clearly what God’s will is— the severance of a friendship, the breaking off of a business relationship, or something else you feel is distinctly God’s will for you to do. But never act on the impulse of that feeling. If you do, you will cause difficult situations to arise which will take years to untangle. Wait for God’s timing and He will do it without any heartache or disappointment. When it is a question of the providential will of God, wait for God to move. (My Utmost for His Highest, January4).