Are you impatient? ( Psalm 40 v 1 )

 Sometimes I feel frustrated, I supposed we all do at times,and recently I found myself asking  our loving heavenly Father why  was He not granting me a particular thing.I should know, the fact is if God is withholding something from us,He must have a good reason. I know that, but never the less I do get impatient,and a sense of frustration fills me. Of course my request may be answered but not yet,patience they say is virtue,but it does not come automatically to us.People do not like waiting,we see it in so many ways,in the lines of the supermarket,you hear people saying 'they have only got two people serving.' And of course on the roads how many accidents are caused by people being impatient.We are not happy with delays,even when its God who is doing the delaying,The thing is we want it now,whatever it may be.why do I have to wait?,why?,God may simply say to us,'Because I said so'. that should be enough, often its not.There is a saying which goes,'The waiting game', God is not into playing games, He is into changing  us from the old to the new, and he says to all of us we have need of patience.to wait on Gods timing,which is always perfect,always.He never comes to late or to early.Psalm 40 v1 reads 'I waited  patiently', it does not say impatiently. Spurgeon points us to our dear Saviour as patience personified,   Impatience  never lingered in His heart,much less escaped His lips in His suffering,one thing for sure He was patient,He waited,and waited,; was patient,and patient to perfection' .David's patience was not in vain, for in v1ff he tells us that the Lord heard his cry,and acted on his behalf.

                                                            'Patience is not a vain exercise'.

                                                   

God is to be feared. ( Revelation 20 v 11 -15)

Psalm 119 v 119-120 reads ,'All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross. My flesh trembles in fear of you',he is speaking about the Lord,I stand in awe of your laws'.Unlike the wicked he loves God's word,he is very conscious of his unworthiness so much so that he trembles in fear before a holy God. Michael Wilcox writes on the psalmist ,'trembling in fear, says ,'Let us not assume complacently that that ' merely means reverence.'. Verse 120 is about the shudder of dread;' For our God is a consuming fire'.(Hebrew 12 v29) Of course the fear of God does mean reverence also ,we must always remember whom God is, He is not our old pal,or our bosom friend He is God and  must be treated with reverence, always bearing in mind that we must not act in ways that offend Him.Consider what our Saviour said,' And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.But rather  fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell'(Matthew  10 v 28) The unsaved care to ignore this truth,alas to their cost, hell is real as sure as heaven is real,every knee shall one day bow before Him,the unsaved in dread and anguish,as they await their terrible fate.the saved will bow before Him,in gratitude and thankfulness for the mercy shown to them,in saving them,from a fate worse than death.

                                                                      'Fear God'

Be a Sower. (Psalm 126 v 6 )

After the great preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon died,a man told how he came to know Christ as his Saviour. Spurgeon was going  to preach at a very large premises at  Crystal Palace.Thousands were expected to attend the meeting,he wanted to check out the acoustics,so he got up on the platform, and spoke with a very clear voice the words from John 1v 29,'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world',he heard  his voice echo around the hall. When he left, a man who had been in another part of the building, came out of the room he was in , knelt down,and asked Christ to save him.Years ago I read how Wesley was held up and robbed of his money which he had very little off,and as the man was leaving Wesley spoke to him,he said,'I have something more to give you',here is what he said,'You may live to regret this sort of life,if you ever do here is something to remember,'The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin (12 John 1 v7 ) Years later he met that man ,he had trusted the Saviour and had become a successful businessman,,he said to Wesley ,'I owe it all to you',Two remarkable conversions,let us all be faithful  in witnessing for Christ, and trust God to bless the word sown.

There is more. ( John 11 v 25 )

My son's family has had a death in there family,the cat has died,they are upset,yes a lot of people see their pets as part of their family, I understand that.It came up in discussion when my wife and I were visiting relatives,and a niece said I could pray in order to help that cat cross over.Well I told them I don't think so,and sought to explain ,that animal's ,lovely though they are,they don't cross over,the fact is when they die they cease to exist.We are told that God has placed  eternity within the human heart(Ecclesiastes 3 v11). One translation puts it like this,'has put eternity into man's mind' Derek Kidner writes, Unlike the animals immersed in time,we know something of eternity; enough at least to compare the fleeting with the ' for- ever.'.We are like the desperately near sighted,inching their way along some great tapestry or fresco in an attempt to take it in'.Again as someone else said,'There is something more to life than what we can see and experience in the here and now'.Within humanity there is longing for something more,and they are continually chasing a 'will-o'-the- wisp', a delusive or elusive goal',or to put it plainly,'Shadows'.The word of God tells us 'that the things that are seen are temporal,but the things that are not seen are eternal', (2 Corinthians 4 v 18 ) It is only as we come to know God who is eternal through Jesus Christ  we realise that we have been saved from a lost eternity, and saved to life eternal with God in heaven.

We have a choice ( Romans 5 v 17)

 When on holiday with my son and family, we viewed  a lovely garden,as I  walked around it, I thought how beautiful the garden of Eden must have been .It was a perfect in a perfect world. God the creator was pleased with what he had done,we read these words,'it was good' and  when He created  Adam and Eve and placed them in the garden He said that it was very good.All creation was in harmony with not one note of discord,Adam and Eve had everything going for them,they had not a worry in the world.Present humanity cannot grasp perfection,cannot appreciate what that truly means. Let us return to that perfect garden,to a moment in time when creation experienced a change,Romans 8 v22 tells us,'For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now'.That beautiful perfect garden had turned from perfection to imperfection.But of course something more serious had taken place place,those perfect human being were now changed,life would become a struggle,they would experience something we were meant to experience  ,death.That perfect nature was changed,they had now a fallen nature,and all kinds of evil was possible, God did not forsake His creation,but the crown of His creation had forsaken Him.But God had a plan a new creation,and the one who would bring it into being  would be Jesus.In their perfect state humanity had a choice Genesis 3 v2,they made the wrong choice,and we paid the awful price for their sinful choice.But now there is way back to God,from the dark paths of sin ,and all its consequences when we come as a sinner to Jesus.

                                                              'Make the right choice'

Littleness. ( 1 Corinthians 3 v 10 - 15 )

 Some of us are called to be missionaries ,ministers,deacons,yet there are many dear people who for whatever reason cannot do very much.It was Milton who said,'They also serve who only stand and wait'. We cannot all be at the battle ,but we can support those who are by prayer,the great Apostle Paul,knew the importance of prayer support, in writing to the Christians in Ephesus he wrote,'Pray also for me'.Never let us underestimate our prayers for others,they make a difference.We can serve God in many ways,think not about what you can't do,but what you can do ,be it ever so small. A widow woman give the little she had over to God,and God blessed it ,and it fed the prophet Elijah,herself and her son.( 1 Kings 17 v 7ff).A little boy handed over his lunch and Christ used it to feed thousands of people (John 6)A poor widow woman  give her last bit of money, two small copper coins ,worth practically nothing into the temple treasury,and our dear Saviour commended her highly for it.(Mark 12 v 41ff).If Christ places a cup of water in your  then that's all he demands (Matthew 10 v42)

                                       'Be not concerned how others view our smallness

                                        of gifts,or our smallness of giving,It is how Christ 

                                         views them,that's what is important.'

Good and Evil ( Isaiah 5 v 20)

 Let's consider some thoughts from Psalm 119 v 65-72. We will consider v66 ,'Teach me knowledge and good judgement,for I trust in your commands'.it is Michael Wilcock who writes the following,'It is Scripture that both promises and conveys the good things that the Lord intends for his servant. They include knowledge,which is an excellent gift,and good judgement.( the ability'to distinguish good from evil) V65 reads,'Do good to your servant,according to your word,Lord. How are we as Christians going to distinguish between good and evil?,the answer is very simple according to God's word.. We are  not left to ourselves to flounder blindly on the worlds idea's of morality ,which so many Christians alas are doing.We have the 10 commandments,and many other scriptures that help us to distinguish between good and evil. In v66  we read,'For I trust your commandments', yes we must trust God's word, in all things,in relation to morality and theology,if we do, we will be walking in the light,if we don't we will be walking in darkness. Remember what our Saviour said ,if you love Me,keep my commandments. ( John 14 v 15)