Lord, I turn to You. My God, I trust in You. Do not let me be disgraced. Do not let my enemies gloat over me. No one who waits for You will be disgraced. (vs 1-3)
Turning and waiting. Doesn't God know how hard it is to do these two things? If something in my life needs to be fixed, I want it fixed now! Usually the mess is of my own making, but sometimes it just blows into my life like a treacherous tornado and I am sucked up into it. In the swirling and pounding, I have two choices to make. You guessed it! Will I turn to my God instead of my own limited resources, and will I wait for Him to work it out?
I take turning first. Sometimes that means repenting. Turning away from something and to Him because I have trusted in a false god for my redemption. The foolhardiness of trusting in anything else but God has been apparent in the often humiliating consequences of my own fixes. In my defense, I have on occasion felt in my spirit that the house in on fire and I must extinguish it or it will burn me up. So I douse a house fire with a glass of drinking water. Instead of calling the fire department, so to speak. We can all guess the results...disgrace. For being so short-sighted and, frankly, stupid. So, my 911 is to my God. Or it should be. Don't be afraid to call, even it you started the fire because you were smoking in bed. He loves you enough to be your rescue if you haven't fallen asleep on Him.
I know a man who struggles with an internet addiction. He does not, in his Christian heart, want to do this thing he does, but he has tried unsuccessfully to stop. He has not been able to turn sufficiently to the Lord for help. Consequently, he is always looking over his shoulder for the boulder to fall upon his head from a heavenly Judge who would accuse him daily of other things not quite so heinous. You see, his addiction has left him vulnerable to his own guilt. He knows this one over-arching god of his trumps his faith in the one God he loves......and Who loves him. See how it works? The thing we refuse to completely turn over to God keeps us from turning our lives over to God. Catch 22? Yes. Until we get sick of our sin and cry: "Lord, I turn to You. My God, I trust in You." I am not judging my friend. I am remembering how it feels.
Waiting. Once you turn, you must wait. Seem unfair to ask of us? Maybe. But in all my scenarios, it is the rushing to fix it that has made an even bigger mess. If the mess is big enough, it will take a while to get everything straightened out. And then there is God's timing. Remember, He sees history as beginning and completed and in process all at once. He sees what you cannot. Tomorrow and today and yesterday. Keep moving forward but don't mess with what you have handed over to Him. We live our lives forward and understand them backward. Don't go for the answer to, "What is He doing?". Trust me. He is trying to NOT disgrace you. To keep you from as much dishonor as possible given the situation. On the other hand, He is trying to vindicate you from wrong done to you, not by you. That also takes time. Sometimes years. Sometimes you won't even know it. But He does. Vengeance is His, not yours. Taking my hands off gives Him permission to act on my behalf. Too many cooks...etc.
Here is the promise and it is all-inclusive: No one who waits on the Lord will be disgraced. If you don't know what to do, don't do anything. Wait for His direction. Don't put on your fireman's outfit and blast into the holocaust if He is not leading the way. You will be destroyed in the fire, consumed by your own hubris in thinking you are the savior. How many times have I thought, If I'd only waited.
Your word from Him today? "I am Yahweh. Those who put their trust in Me shall not be put to shame." Isaiah 49:23. Believe it!!
Turning and waiting. Doesn't God know how hard it is to do these two things? If something in my life needs to be fixed, I want it fixed now! Usually the mess is of my own making, but sometimes it just blows into my life like a treacherous tornado and I am sucked up into it. In the swirling and pounding, I have two choices to make. You guessed it! Will I turn to my God instead of my own limited resources, and will I wait for Him to work it out?
I take turning first. Sometimes that means repenting. Turning away from something and to Him because I have trusted in a false god for my redemption. The foolhardiness of trusting in anything else but God has been apparent in the often humiliating consequences of my own fixes. In my defense, I have on occasion felt in my spirit that the house in on fire and I must extinguish it or it will burn me up. So I douse a house fire with a glass of drinking water. Instead of calling the fire department, so to speak. We can all guess the results...disgrace. For being so short-sighted and, frankly, stupid. So, my 911 is to my God. Or it should be. Don't be afraid to call, even it you started the fire because you were smoking in bed. He loves you enough to be your rescue if you haven't fallen asleep on Him.
I know a man who struggles with an internet addiction. He does not, in his Christian heart, want to do this thing he does, but he has tried unsuccessfully to stop. He has not been able to turn sufficiently to the Lord for help. Consequently, he is always looking over his shoulder for the boulder to fall upon his head from a heavenly Judge who would accuse him daily of other things not quite so heinous. You see, his addiction has left him vulnerable to his own guilt. He knows this one over-arching god of his trumps his faith in the one God he loves......and Who loves him. See how it works? The thing we refuse to completely turn over to God keeps us from turning our lives over to God. Catch 22? Yes. Until we get sick of our sin and cry: "Lord, I turn to You. My God, I trust in You." I am not judging my friend. I am remembering how it feels.
Waiting. Once you turn, you must wait. Seem unfair to ask of us? Maybe. But in all my scenarios, it is the rushing to fix it that has made an even bigger mess. If the mess is big enough, it will take a while to get everything straightened out. And then there is God's timing. Remember, He sees history as beginning and completed and in process all at once. He sees what you cannot. Tomorrow and today and yesterday. Keep moving forward but don't mess with what you have handed over to Him. We live our lives forward and understand them backward. Don't go for the answer to, "What is He doing?". Trust me. He is trying to NOT disgrace you. To keep you from as much dishonor as possible given the situation. On the other hand, He is trying to vindicate you from wrong done to you, not by you. That also takes time. Sometimes years. Sometimes you won't even know it. But He does. Vengeance is His, not yours. Taking my hands off gives Him permission to act on my behalf. Too many cooks...etc.
Here is the promise and it is all-inclusive: No one who waits on the Lord will be disgraced. If you don't know what to do, don't do anything. Wait for His direction. Don't put on your fireman's outfit and blast into the holocaust if He is not leading the way. You will be destroyed in the fire, consumed by your own hubris in thinking you are the savior. How many times have I thought, If I'd only waited.
Your word from Him today? "I am Yahweh. Those who put their trust in Me shall not be put to shame." Isaiah 49:23. Believe it!!
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