Keeping Your Lamp Ready for Christ’s Return

by Leslie Schmucker

In ancient Israel, when a man and a woman were to be married, they first were bound by a year-long betrothal, during which the husband and wife were legally joined, but the marriage was not consummated. Everyone knew when the year was up, the groom would, with much fanfare, return to the bride’s home and take her with him to the house he had prepared for her.

No one knew when the groom would return. It was his father who gave the go-ahead, and while the bride waited, she readied herself. She kept her bags packed and her lamp ready to go with an ample supply of oil. Unpreparedness would have implied complacency and lack of honor to the groom. For the couple, the betrothal year was spent in joyous and eager anticipation. 

We Are His Bride

In his parable of the ten virgins, Jesus used this imagery to describe the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 25:1-13). Waiting for the groom involved the bride and her attendants keeping an ample supply of oil to trim their lamps, in the event the groom returned at night. Dark lamps meant being shut out of the celebration. Dark lamps resulted in being left in the dark.

Throughout the gospels, Jesus used marriage as an allegory for his relationship to his church. Here, the church refers to the global body of followers of Jesus Christ, not a religious institution. If you believe that you are a sinner in need of a savior, and that Savior is Jesus Christ, you are his bride. 

The Promise of His Coming

More than two thousand years have passed since Jesus told that parable. His bride is still waiting. Many are asking the church, “Where is this messiah of yours? I think you may be mistaken.” I admit, more than once, I have been tempted to ask the same thing.

But Jesus is coming back. Based on the hundreds of prophecies and promises in the Bible that have already been fulfilled, there is no reason to believe otherwise.

So, how’s your lamp?

Five Ways to Keep Our Lamps Trimmed

John Piper describes the lamp as the trappings of Christianity— what some might call religion. “I go to church. I carry a Bible. I pray before meals. I try to keep the Ten Commandments.” The oil, Piper says, is “life, faith, hope, love, reality.” Trimming an empty lamp is foolishness. Empty religion is foolishness. And, as Piper explains, “A life of foolishness deepens foolishness.” 

Here are five ways, based on Piper’s description of the oil, to keep our lamps trimmed while we wait for Jesus’s return:

1. Life

We are given only one earthly life, and Christ would have us lose it completely. “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). 1 John 4:4 says anyone who follows Jesus Christ “belongs to God.” 

Jesus demands no less than our entire life, which is then “hidden with him” (Colossians 3:3).  When our life depicts the gospel, we are keeping our lamps trimmed. When the heavens dissolve, will you have been found  “alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:5)?

2. Faith

The level at which you seek to cultivate your relationship with God is indicative of your level of faith. Regularly reading scripture, being an active part of a Bible believing church, meeting regularly with fellow believers, and filling your mind with the things of God are the soil in which faith grows. 

Are you nourishing habits that produce an “assurance of things hoped for” and a “conviction of things unseen (Hebrews 11:1)?” When we consistently demonstrate a life of faith, we are keeping our lamps trimmed. When the heavens dissolve, will you have been found faithful?

3. Love

In Matthew 25, Jesus describes what it looks like to love in God’s economy.

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. As you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me. Matthew 25:35-36, 40

In other words, while you waited for my return, you loved. And in that love, you showed that you love me also. 

How are you loving in your sphere of influence? From motherhood to the mission field, when we love others we are keeping our lamps trimmed. When the heavens dissolve, will you have been found loving?

4. Hope

Romans 8:24 says we were saved in hope. But not the kind of hope that we have when we hope the weather will cooperate for our vacation, or the hope that the adoption we so longed for will come through. Christian hope is a sure hope. It is an eager anticipation of a secure future with Christ, as adopted children and heirs to his throne. It is a hope without wondering if. 

To what extent do you anticipate the return of Jesus Christ? Have you allowed complacency to dull your sense of hope? When we possess a sense of eager expectation, we are keeping our lamps trimmed. When the heavens dissolve, will you have been found fervently hoping for the appearance of Christ?

5. Reality

The hope in which we live is “folly to those who are perishing” (1 Corinthians 1:18). But this hope in which we live is more real than anything our senses can apprehend in the temporal world. 

C.S. Lewis became a Christian while seeking to debunk Christianity. But in the end, after extensive research meant to affirm his atheism, he concluded, “Heaven is reality itself. All that is fully real is Heavenly. For all that can be shaken will be shaken and only the unshakeable remains.” 

Does your life reflect your belief in the reality of heavenly things? When we regard heaven as more real than earth, we are keeping our lamps trimmed. When the heavens dissolve, will you be found to have been grounded in the reality of the gospel?

Jesus is coming. Today or thousands of years from now, the Giver of oil has an endless supply to ready his bride for his impending return. May we all keep our lamps trimmed.

Leslie Schmucker

Leslie Schmucker (@LeslieSchmucker) retired from public school teaching to create a special needs program at Dayspring Christian Academy in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She and her husband Steve have three grown children and seven grandchildren.

Posted at: https://ftc.co/resource-library/blog-entries/keeping-your-lamp-ready-for-christs-return/

When You’re Tired of the Battle, Persevere in Prayer

Colin Smith

Most people can put up with trouble for a while. But when the problems keep coming, they begin to wear you down. You start to wonder, “How long will this continue?”

Maybe you’re fighting to hold your marriage together, or you have a rebellious son or daughter who is bringing you pain. You’ve been dealing with family issues for some time, and it’s not easy to keep going.

Maybe you’re battling a particular sin. You think you are making progress. Then suddenly that old sin rears its ugly head. The battle just goes on and on. You’re tired of it.

Maybe you work in an environment where everything is affirmed, except faith in Christ and the pursuit of a godly life. You are facing the ongoing erosion of an increasingly hostile culture. You’re different and, over time, it is beginning to wear you down.

Maybe you have been called to serve in extraordinary circumstances. You’re facing the struggle of sustaining ministry. Anyone who serves God wholeheartedly will know what it is to come to the place of saying, “I don’t know how much longer I can do this. How much more can I take?”

How can I have more patience with my children? How can I persevere in ministry? How can I build stability and endurance into my life? How can I be the kind of person who goes the distance as a Christian in this hostile world?

Everyone has a battle to face, and there will be times when you get tired of yours. The obvious question is, “How can I get more perseverance?”

Perseverance is the Fruit of Faith and Love

We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing (2 Thess. 1:3).

These are the words God spoke through the apostle Paul to a community of believers in a town called Thessalonica. This church was born in great difficulties (Act 17). Paul spent three weeks in this town proclaiming that Jesus is the Christ, and many people came to faith in Christ through his preaching. But as soon as the church was established, the new believers experienced opposition. Paul wrote these words to encourage them by the fruit he saw in their lives.

Faith Growing

Paul told the Thessalonians, “Your faith is growing.” It is a wonderful thing to have faith in Christ. But what is happening to your faith? Is it growing?

When the disciples found themselves in a storm, they panicked. And Jesus said, “Where is your faith?” He wasn’t saying, “You haven’t got it.” Clearly, they had faith. They were his followers. He was saying, “You aren’t using it!”

What about you? Are you exercising faith by applying it to the particular battles that you are facing?

Faith is confidence in the ultimate triumph of God. That’s what you need when you are struggling with difficult relationships, stubborn sins, discouragement in ministry, and the hostility of an unbelieving world.

Love Increasing

Jesus tells us that the one who has been forgiven little, loves little; and the one who has been forgiven much, loves much (Luke 7:47). In 2 Thessalonians 1:3, Paul is thanking God that the love among believers is increasing. Growing faith and increasing love are God’s work in the hearts of these believers.

How does it happen that faith can grow and love can increase, even when a believer is under pressure? It is irrefutable evidence that God is at work in your life. Just as it is in the nature of grass to grow, in the same way it is in the nature of love to be patient and faith to persevere. Christ causes His people to persevere by growing their faith and increasing their love. Patience, steadfastness, stability, and endurance are nourished by the deep roots of faith and love.

Perseverance Changes the Way You Pray

How should you pray when you are worn out, discouraged, and weary of the battle? You could pray, “Lord, give me patience.” That would be good. But a better way to pray is to ask God to increase your love and to renew your confidence in his ultimate triumph.

You can pray about the surface issue, but you will pray better if your prayer touches the root of the problem. Underneath all your struggles with patience and perseverance, you will find a faith that is losing heart and a love that is growing cold.

Maybe you’ve been praying for an unbelieving loved one for years and nothing has happened. You’re getting discouraged. You can say to the Lord, “Help me to persevere in prayer.” But a better way to pray would be to ask God to increase your faith in His ability to change this person and to increase your love for this person with whom you are probably now feeling very impatient.

Suppose you are caring for young children. The demands on you are constant, and as time has gone on you find that you are getting short tempered and impatient. You see what’s happening and you want to change. So, how do you pray? You can ask the Lord to help you be more patient with your children. But when you know that patience is the fruit of faith and love, a better way to pray is to ask God to fill your heart with His love for these children and to give you a new confidence in what He can make of their lives.

Maybe you are battling again with the same old sin. You are discouraged by your many failures, and you are tired of the battle. Ask the Lord to increase your faith in His power to overcome this evil in your life. Ask God to help you love Him more than you love the sin that besets you.

God is the One who makes faith and love grow, so ask Him to do it specifically in relation to your battle. God will use the hardest things in your life to make you like Christ.

Jesus endured what he suffered by exercising faith. “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he trusted himself to him who judges justly” (1 Pet. 2:23). That’s faith! Jesus was surrounded by darkness, but He put his faith in the ultimate triumph of God!

Jesus also endured through love. How could he stay on that cross? People were shouting for Him to come down. What made Him stay there? “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for His friends” (John 15:13).

Christ persevered through faith and He endured through love. When others see you enduring great trials because your faith is growing and your love is increasing, they will also see a reflection of Jesus Christ in you.

Posted at: https://unlockingthebible.org/2020/10/dont-give-up-when-tired-of-battle/

When God Doesn’t Choose You For A Miracle

by Kasey Johnson

Christians love to tell seemingly instant stories of redemption. The alcoholic that gets saved and never goes back to the bar. The husband that after an affair, immediately comes to his senses and rebuilds a beautiful life-long union with his family. The woman with chronic pain that wakes up one morning healed.

These stories are inspiring and they fill us with the wonder of what God can do. We invite these stories into our worship services, and they go viral on social media. God can do these things, and He often does. And it ought to inspire worship. 

But, they don’t tell the whole story of how God works in his church. And I think we do the body a disservice when we don’t celebrate slow sanctification.

How should a wife live in a difficult marriage when it seems like God isn’t answering her prayers?

How should the infertile couple think about God when we know that giving life is easy for Him?

What about the faithful single man that is waiting for a wife?

How do we respond when it feels like God doesn’t choose us for a miracle?

First, remember that He is good, and He sees us.

He is not indifferent to our pain. Scripture describes the heart of Christ as gentle and lowly. Your struggle is not a surprise to Him, and He has not left you.

Second, remind yourself of what God actually promises.

It can be tempting as a Christian to think that if you spend a certain amount of time obeying God, then He will reward you with a changed circumstance. This is an insidious lie, that can take root in even the most devout believer’s heart. Root out any whisper of this. It will turn to ash in your mouth, and harden you towards the good gifts that God does promise us.

He has the words of eternal life, where else would we go? His ultimate promise to us is eternity with Him. It is worth following Him no matter the outcome because He is Lord. (John 6:60-71)

Third, remember that scars shape us. 

We talk about life being a vapor, which it is. But seasons also come and go. Don’t react out of fear or impatience. You don’t know what God holds in your future. There may never be the healing that you hope and pray for, but God will be faithful in his promise to sanctify you and bring you peace despite your circumstances. A way out of your particular circumstance may not come, but He will deliver a way through, day-by-day and hour-by-hour.

Lastly, create pathways to press in to the Lord in profound ways.

This should be true for every Christian, but this will be especially live-giving for those that feel they are bearing a disproportionately heavy burden.

Take practical steps to draw from the words of scripture and pray deeply. Make sacrifices to pay for Christian therapy. He won’t compete with the noise and business of life. Take care of the physical limitations on your body by going to bed early, and waking up before the stresses of the day consume you. Implement a sabbath day. Commit to getting in nature regularly. Get around other Christians that are walking out a long obedience in the same direction. Don’t be tempted to surround yourself with others that will commiserate with you.

Let God create a redemptive road map in your life. Be an example of long suffering to a future generation (maybe your own children!).

Even the above list of items can be a temptation to check off, and hold expectations for getting what you want. Continually check your motives.

It can be easy to assume stories of redemption were easy for others. The Instagram square and caption just looks so tidy. But don’t be fooled. Change isn’t magic. You will fail. And God will be faithful to complete the good work that He began in you (Philippians 1:6).

Posted at: https://ftc.co/resource-library/blog-entries/when-god-doesnt-choose-you-for-a-miracle/

Help for Stagnant Hearts

Linda Allcock

“I just feel a bit…” My friend furrowed her brow as she wrestled to find the exact word.

“Stagnant,” she finally said, with a despondent look on her face. Without the regular accountability of attending church in person, and with the disruption of everyday routines and her tiring shift patterns in pediatric intensive care, she was struggling in her faith.

It’s not the greatest word, is it? A puddle is stagnant when it’s been there a bit too long with no fresh rain falling on it. Water so murky, it no longer reflects the sky like it used to.

I have to be honest in saying that, throughout COVID-19 lockdown, I too, struggled with feeling stagnant—and I’ve written a whole book about meditating on God’s word! I was still in the habit of Bible reading, but let’s be honest: there’s a fine line between a habit and a rut. I wasn’t being changed by what I was reading, and so I wasn’t reflecting God at all well to those around me.

There’s help for stagnant hearts in Proverbs 2:1-6, where the Bible teaches us how to read the Bible.

Reading the Bible is Like Searching for Hidden Treasure

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding (Prov. 2:1-6, NIV).

In this passage, listening to God’s word is likened to searching for hidden treasure. That helps us know how to read the Bible and get past that stagnant feeling about it.

Let’s just slowly walk through that description and dig deeper into what those words mean. Searching. Hidden. Treasure.

Treasure

…if you look for [God’s Word] as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God (Prov. 2:4-5).

Treasure. That’s how the writer of Proverbs describes God’s word in verse 4. Why? Proverbs 2:5 further defines the reward for searching in God’s word: we will “understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.” Infinitely weightier than any worldy treasure, of supreme worth, we can know this God! What riches!

When our hearts are stagnant, we reach for the Bible on the shelf without being prepared for how weighty it is. We need to raise our expectations—of Scripture. Bible reading is far more than ticking off a box on the reading plan. Through it we can know God! What greater treasure could we ever hope to find?

Hidden Treasure

…indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding…then you will understand (Prov. 2:3,5).

Why is this treasure “hidden”? Proverbs 2 shows that it’s hidden in the sense that it is a gift that the Lord gives, for “from his mouth come knowledge and understanding” (v. 6). And verse three hands us the tools with which we are to dig: “call out” and “cry aloud.”

If we dig into Scripture armed only with the tools of our own experience, it’s little wonder that our hearts are unmoved by what we read. We need to lower our expectations—of ourselves. Whether we are Bible scholars or baby Christians, we must recognize that we cannot know God unless he gives understanding. Believing that the Lord promises to give wisdom (v. 6), we can ask him for more insight.

Searching for Hidden Treasure

…accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding… (Prov. 2:1-2).

Searching is not easy. As we call out to the Lord for insight, we must also turn our ears and apply our hearts (v. 2). This is a real challenge, especially at this time when we are physically separated from our churches. Going to “church online” can result in Zoom fatigue, lack of accountability when watching alone, and struggling to concentrate. There are things we can do to help ourselves, such as taking notes and connecting with a friend to discuss what we are learning. But, essentially, turning is repenting: confessing where we have been distracted by the treasures of this world, and turning to Christ for forgiveness and help to treasure him.

Searching implies a goal: finding the treasure. Proverbs 2:1 tells us what to do when we find it: accept and store up. Proverbs challenges us to think of our hearts as a treasure chest—far from a stagnant, murky puddle. Seven times in six chapters of Proverbs, we are told to store up God’s commands within us, to write them on the tablet of our hearts (2:1, 3:1, 3:3, 4:21, 6:21, 7:1 and 7:3). Memorizing God’s word is integral to the vitality of our walk with the Lord.

We’re quick to put in the effort to help our kids memorize maths equations to pass exams. Do we invest even a fraction of that effort into learning treasure that is of eternal value? Writing a little symbol on our hands or texting a Bible verse to ourselves can help us remember the truth we’ve learned and can motivate us to repent of ways we haven’t lived in line with it. Meditating on God’s word throughout the day can help us to obey and worship God.

The moment we put away our Bibles without capturing what we’ve learned and deciding how we will store up that truth throughout the day, we’re in danger of walking away unchanged. When we open our Bibles searching for hidden treasure, as Proverbs 2:1-6 instructs, the Lord transforms our hearts.

Stagnant puddle or treasure chest: which do you want your heart to be?

Posted at: https://unlockingthebible.org/2020/10/help-stagnant-hearts/

Three Ways to Grow While You Wait

Colin Smith

Waiting is not wasted time.

Often, though, it seems to be! I am waiting for the train. I am waiting for my appointment. I am waiting in a long queue. Sound familiar? Waiting can seem futile, so we look for something to do while we are waiting. This is why there are magazines in the doctor’s waiting room. We try to fill up the time with something useful while we are waiting.

Some of you are searching for a job, but what you are looking for has not opened up; you are waiting. Some of you are looking for that special person to be your life partner, but you haven’t found them; you are waiting. Couples long for a child, but nothing has happened; you are waiting. Others are longing to see a deep change in a person you love. You have prayed for it. But you are still waiting.

All of these instances can make waiting seem futile at best and frustratingly difficult at worst. But what if we were thinking about waiting in all the wrong ways? What if waiting was not wasted time, but valuable time in the life of the Christian?

We think of waiting as something we endure in order to get what we want. But God speaks about waiting as the way that we grow when we don’t have what we want. So waiting is not wasted time. In fact, waiting can be the greatest growth opportunity of your life.

I want to suggest three ways in which you can grow while you wait.

Grow in Patience

Patience is what you need when things have not worked out as you hoped.

Somewhere deep within every heart there is a dream of life as we would want it to be. Our culture is sold out in the pursuit of paradise now. I’ve been thinking about designing a sign that could be very useful for some of us. It would have just four words on it: “This is not paradise.”

There are a lot of places where you could put that sign. You might want to hang it over your front door at home.  It would help because some of us are so intent on a perfect family life that we are reaching for what cannot be attained in this world, and it becomes crushing for everybody.

Some couples ought to put that sign on the door to your bedroom. It would take a great deal of pressure off you. Perhaps you need to put that over your desk at work. Or what about in your car? It will help you when you are in a traffic jam.

I’d be very happy to have the sign over the entrance to the church. This is not paradise. If you came here looking for a perfect Christian community, you won’t find it.

Friends, if you give yourself to the pursuit of paradise now, you will be disappointed. When that happens you will be angry with God because he has seemingly let you down. But this life is not paradise. And the sooner you discover that, the sooner you will be able to break free from the pursuit of an advertiser’s dream that will always elude you.

When God does not give what you eagerly desire, a door opens for spiritual growth. Embrace the pain. Love God in the disappointment. Detach yourself from the pursuit of paradise in this world, and set yourself apart for the Lord. Paul says, “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?” (Rom 8:24).

Embrace the disappointments of life as opportunities for spiritual growth.

Grow in Hope

As you embrace disappointment, ask yourself this: Do you honestly anticipate heaven? All that you can experience in the Christian life is only a taste of what Christ has in store for you. There is much, much more to come! This is why we are to grow in hope while we wait.

The Bible speaks about the Holy Spirit being like a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Think about when you bought your first house. How much was the deposit? How much was the mortgage? Though it may have seemed large at the time, the deposit was only a tiny fraction of what you had to pay. Similarly, all that you experience of God in this life – every good gift, every blessing, every pleasure – is only a tiny advance on what God has in store for you in heaven.

As you wait for eternity with God, use both the disappointments and the joys of your life to cultivate a healthy anticipation of what God has promised. Are you in pain or alone? Have you shed tears? Does this life seem empty to you? Wait upon the Lord: “God will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. For the old order of things has passed away” (Rev 21:4).

Grow in Worship

Waiting on God is equally a wonderful expression of worship.

My calling is to wait on God. Your calling is to wait on God. The purpose of our lives is to make ourselves wholly available to Jesus Christ, who has come into this world to die for our sins. But often, we forget this wonderful truth and make ourselves the center of attention. We want God to wait on us!

Jesus gives us the perfect model of what waiting on God looks like. He delights in the will of the Father, and He is ready to do it even when it involves a cross. He tells us plainly that if we follow Him, we should not expect a trouble-free life. Jesus is not offering us paradise now.

Saying ‘yes’ to Jesus in the disappointments of life will be the highest worship you can offer. We learn this from the story of Job who lost everything, and in the middle of his pain he worshipped. We learn it from Jesus who, in the agony of the cross and with His “why” unanswered, committed Himself into the hands of His Father.

Worshipping God through disappointment will be the greatest evidence that you love God for Himself and not just for His gifts. If all your dreams were fulfilled, and if all your prayers were answered, there would be no way of knowing if you loved God for Himself.

So I want you to think of the great disappointments and the great joys of your life. I want you to think about all the waiting you are doing right now, and how you are perceiving that waiting. I want you to hear God saying to you, “I want to make this waiting useful. I want to use it to grow you in my likeness – in patience, hope, and worship.”

Posted at: https://unlockingthebible.org/2020/01/three-ways-to-grow-while-you-wait/

Waiting Well in a World of Right Now

Matt Chandler

It seems that all the creativity of man and all the energy we possess is focused on one thing in our day and age: to eradicate from the face of the earth any need to be patient. We are bent on making sure we don’t have to wait for anything… ever. 

And yet the faster things get, the more perpetually impatient we actually are—precisely because we have lost the ability to wait well. I bet that in the last month there has been at least one moment when you were downloading a document, a picture, or something else, and then gave up or grew annoyed because it wasn’t moving fast enough: “This isn’t fast enough. This isn’t happening quickly enough. This is frustrating me.” We’re perpetually impatient these days.

Everything is built for speed, as our technological brilliance focuses in so many ways on us not having to wait. And that hasn’t been good for our souls—because the Christian life calls for patience. Not just the kind of patience that means that we don’t yell at our screen or scream at our spouse or snap at our children. God cares about those things, and he speaks into those things, but God is serious about patience because persevering faith and gladness in God requires it. We Christians are by definition a waiting people, and that requires patience—especially when life brings trials, hardships, or pain.

You Can Wait: Your Father is Coming 

Jesus’ brother James wrote to suffering Christians in the first century, “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord” (James 5:7). For two millennia, the church has been waiting for Christ to return and make all things new. For the Christian, history is linear. We are moving toward something—to the day Christ returns and consummates all he accomplished in his cross and his resurrection. Our Father is coming to get us.

I remember playing in the backyard with my youngest two, Reid and Norah, several years ago and throwing the football with Reid. Honestly, I was throwing it at him. It just bounced off. He couldn’t catch well quite yet. We’re tossing the ball in the back, and Norah had snuck off. I lost sight of her. Judge me if you want. It happens. She’s alive. 

So I heard this whimper and a cry of “Daaaaad…” I came around the side of the house, and she had climbed up our fence. After she got up there she had apparently enjoyed it for five or six minutes, and then thought, “I don’t know how to get down.”

Stuck on the fence, she began to cry out for me, and she was there until I got to grab her, kiss her, and put her down on the ground. She’d had to wait, but she’d known I would come. This is the Christian hope: “My Dad is coming. My Dad is coming, and I’m getting closer to him getting here.” 

You are closer to seeing Jesus than you were when you started reading this blog. This is a reality, not a vague hope. And that helps you wait patiently, as well as eagerly (Romans 8:23,25). That helps you wait with hope, even when life doesn’t go the route you’d planned or expected.

So be patient. Hold tight. The plan is not off-track. God didn’t take his eye off the ball. Just because he’s not here yet doesn’t mean he’s not coming. Every bit of difficulty, suffering, crawling, weariness, depression, anxiety, sin will be over one day, on that day. God will lift us off the fence. Hang in there. The Lord is coming. But you are going to need to wait.

Every bit of difficulty, suffering, crawling, weariness, depression, anxiety, sin will be over one day, on that day

You Can Wait: Your Father is Working

Not only that, be patient in suffering because God is accomplishing something in you. If you are a child of God, he is at work to make you like the Son of God. He is now sanctifying us, making us more and more like Jesus. And God uses both joys and sorrows to do that. 

If you’re a Christian, difficulty is not punitive. You’re not being punished for not having a long enough quiet time or for messing up again. That’s not how this works. If you trust Christ, you are a fully loved, fully accepted son or daughter of God. 

But that doesn’t mean the Lord doesn’t have work to do in you. He’s our Father.

I love my son. He’s a 13-year-old boy. There’s nothing he could do to make me not love him, but we have some work to do. Part of that work is rewarding what is good and right, and part of that is disciplining what is wrong. And that’s how God treats us: “The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives … God is treating you as sons” (Hebrews 12:6-7). Our difficulties as we walk home to see Jesus is not God punishing his children, but God shaping and molding his children. 

God is producing in you “the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (v 11). Be patient; the Lord is at work in your struggle. He is at work in your joy. He is at work in your losses. He is at work in your fight. He is at work as he tears some things in you down in order to build you back up. Don’t lose hope. Be patient. God is accomplishing things. 

Waiting in Your Struggles

You may be in a season of struggle right now. If you’re not, then you can know that, at some point between now and the day you see Jesus, you will be. And our world is telling you that when that suffering comes, you need to get it fixed right now. You should demand a solution—from God if you can’t find it in yourself—right now. But God doesn’t work like that. God’s got a longer gameplan than that. The Bible’s full of people who learned that God’s road is longer, and it has bumps in it, but it’s always better. Joseph, Ruth, David, Job, and supremely Jesus… all of them had struggles, and waited patiently through them, knowing that their Father was coming and their Father was working. 

So we need to learn to be patient. We need to learn to do the one thing our world won’t do: to wait. That’s how we can suffer well, with hope, with joy, with faith. Be patient; the Lord is at work in your struggles. Be patient; the Lord is coming and he will put an end to your struggles. Be patient; his return is closer now than it was when you got up this morning. 

Joy in the Sorrow is the moving story of Matt Chandler’s battle with a potentially fatal brain tumor. But it's also the stories of members of The Village Church, whose lives were marked by suffering of various kinds. How they taught Matt, and continue to teach him, how to walk with joy in sorrow.

Posted at: https://www.thegoodbook.com/blog/interestingthoughts/2019/10/04/waiting-well-in-a-world-of-right-now/

No Throwaway Seasons

EMILY JENSEN

In an age of public sharing, we see people lament life’s transitions. Moms post pictures of the moving boxes or the progression of their baby bumps with coordinated letter boards. They write about the sadness of the empty womb or express their struggle as they wait for a child’s diagnosis. We’re getting used to embracing the awkward and painful transitions of life by locking arms and coming alongside one another in the journey.

There is some good in this trend. Acknowledging and validating the messy seasons of life assures us we’re not alone. This gives us a sigh of relief. After all, Jesus wept with the hurting, cautious not to gloss over the hardship of struggle, pain, and death. But we have to wonder if positive affirmations and prompts to “look ahead” extend our gaze far enough for real hope.

I can relate to hard seasons of transition when our family size changes. When we had four kids three and under, one being a newborn, the days were incredibly long. One morning before church, my husband left early, leaving me at home with everyone else. I was determined to make food for a potluck we were attending after church. In a couple of hours, I needed to nurse, shower, change everyone’s clothes, and make a meal. There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth. When we finally made it to the potluck, I was so tired and frazzled, I misstepped and dropped the meal before placing it on the table. Seeing the dish shatter into hundreds of shards of glass on the concrete was an embarrassing representation of my heart during our transition to a new normal. I was a big, hot mess going a hundred directions, unsure of my usefulness in such a pitiful state.

Transitions are like that. They can bring out the worst in us, depriving us of what we think we must have to be happy, comfortable, and thriving until our true nature is revealed. God shows us our impatient exasperation when our husband works late every night or travels for weeks on end. He shows us our fickle hearts when a chorus of commotion from our children sends us to seek refuge in social media.

When a goldsmith wants to purify gold, he heats it until the impurities are revealed so he can skim them off. Without the heat, the impurities stay embedded in the gold. Similarly, our circumstances turn up the heat until we see what’s in our hearts. It’s not that we used to be nice, energetic people, and now (due to this transition and things outside of our control) we’re suddenly irritable and unkind. Those changes simply expose the hidden sin that existed all along in the ease and familiarity of our old circumstances.

In the same way, God allows us to experience the pain, difficulty, and discomfort of transitional seasons so our faith is tested and purified because this results in eternal glory and praise for Christ. (1 Peter 1:7) The transition you just want to end isn’t a throwaway season—it’s a time full of God’s purposes, when hindsight will tell a story of sin and need driving us to the Father and making us love more like the Son.

A Better Thing to Look Forward To

We’re right to look forward to something better, but we’re often wrong about what that is. We don’t just need to hang on until the end of this transition— until we’re sleeping through the night again, until we’re more familiar with the school routine, or until we unpack our moving boxes. Rather, we need to hang on until we meet Jesus face to face, finding joy and purpose in the meantime. God doesn’t promise our current hard season or transition will end the way we want it to, but he does promise he’ll be with us all the way through it.

In my season of transition to more children, I needed a promise of spring. I needed to see the value in the season of transition, when God was shoveling, tilling, raking—messing up the hard soil of my heart. He was ready to plant new seeds of faith that could later produce a great harvest for the kingdom. He was not content to let the field of my life stay dormant.

The ultimate spring we all need to look forward to is the defrosting of Satan’s cold grip on this earth, when the full and final sunshine of God and the Lamb lights up the streets of the New Jerusalem. (Revelation 21:23) That’s the true end to this big, groaning transition we’re all in, and it’s the only thing we can count on.

Transitional seasons are part of life. We might not enjoy every aspect of them, but we don’t have to fear them. God loves us too much to let us be comfortable and unscathed. Adoption, infertility, job loss, sick family members, new careers, and new schools might feel like transitions we don’t want to bear. But let’s rejoice when we have moments of joy and rest, knowing that God has good purposes for today and a sure promise of our final destination.

Editor’s Note: This post is an adapted excerpt from Risen Motherhood: Gospel Hope For Everyday Moments

Posted at: https://encourage.pcacdm.org/2019/09/05/post-template-167/

Cultivating Godly Character While Waiting on God

Dave Jenkins

A little over seven years ago in May 2012, I graduated from seminary with my second Master’s Degree. Since that time, I’ve been applying to a variety of pastor positions to no avail. While I’ve had a lot of interviews, none of them have resulted in me receiving a call from a local church.  

In the meantime, I’ve served in the local church in a variety of roles since graduating high school almost two decades ago. Presently, I serve as a writer, editor, podcaster, and speaker living in Southern California. 

Waiting on God is challenging, frustrating, and painful. See, our flesh and our instant-gratification-society don’t teach us patience. They teach us to snap our fingers and expect whatever we want in a matter of minutes.  

Today you might be like me, waiting on the Lord to provide that job you want. Or you might be struggling with discouragement, depression, anxiety, and worry. I don’t have a magic formula that will ensure you get what you want in an instant. Nor do I have a to-do list for you to reach your best life today. And let’s be honest, you and I both know that won’t work.  

Instead, what you and I both need is the Bible and what it teaches about waiting on God. 

The Bible’s Teaching on Waiting on God

The Lord gives us great promises in His Word so that we’ll trust Him in seasons of life where we’re waiting on Him. Look with me now at some of the biblical teaching on waiting on the Lord: 

• Lamentations 3:5: “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.”

• Psalm 33:20-22: “Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.”

• Psalm 130:5-6: “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.”

• Psalm 27:14: “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”

• Micah 7:7: “But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.”

• Isaiah 64:4: “From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.”

Focusing on the Lord 

I don’t know about you, but I am often guilty of focusing too much on my circumstances. When we replay our situations over and over in our mind, we are not thinking about what is noble, pure, and good as Philippians 4:8 says.

If we are so focused on what is negative in our lives, we will never give thanks like we’ve been commanded by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:18. And if we aren’t giving thanks, we will focus too much on our circumstances. We’ll become frustrated with life, getting discouraged, depressed, and full of anxiety.

Instead, what the Lord offers is for us to rejoice in Him (Philippians 4:4) because we believe that He alone is sufficient (Philippians 4:13). Such a perspective shift will help us to become focused less on our challenges and more on the Lord who helps us through our difficulties. 

Challenges are Opportunities to Grow in Grace 

Within the last month, a book project of mine got rejected by a major Christian publisher. And then I again got that dreaded email, though nicely worded, that I was rejected by a church for a pastor position I applied to.  

Talk about a double whammy. It felt like a gut-punch. Needless to say, I didn’t respond well. I immediately went negative, but later in the evening, I went on a walk, had a good cry, poured out my soul to the Lord, and preached the gospel to myself. 

Then, I walked back home, headed to bed, kissed my wife, and told her I love her. I prayed and hit my pillow to sleep for the night. I woke up the next morning, ready for the day, and refreshed in the Lord. 

At the moment, that rejection from my book project and the church devastated me. But what I remembered while on my walk was that Jesus was thoroughly rejected in every way by humanity at the cross. I considered how my worst days are nothing compared to Jesus’s worst day. 

It is because He was rejected by the world He came to save, I am now adopted, fully accepted, and loved by Him because of His finished and sufficient work.

The Seasons of Our Life Are Not for Us Alone 

The seasons of our lives are not for us alone; they are for others also. When you grab hold at the heart level that God is faithful and good, you will wait on Him with faith in Him.  

You will also trust him in the storms of life knowing that the storm may shake you, but you are held in the storm by none other than the Creator and Lord who secures your salvation in Christ alone. 

You may say, “I get that in my head,” but it’s not just in the head where this truth should hit us. We need to know and experience it in our hearts. As I continue to grow myself in applying these truths to my own heart, I grow more peaceful and content in Christ.   

To that end, I daily remind myself that the seasons of my life are governed by the hand of a sovereign God who loves me and cares for me. This truth helps me to face the present and the future with confidence in His sovereignty.

Perhaps today you are tired of waiting, sometimes patiently and sometimes not. What you need to understand is this: in Christ, you and I have been given everything, and all of it is of grace. No matter how long we have to wait on God, He is still good and sufficient.   

We can trust the Lord while we wait on Him and look to the author and finisher of our faith, Jesus. who alone secures the beloved and who now faithfully intercedes for the people of God. 

Let’s you and I commit as His friends while we wait on the Lord to trust and to grow in Him. It’s here in waiting on God where we will become men and women of godly character, useful to our Master so that He may use us to lift high the name of Jesus, for His glory.  

THE AUTHOR

Dave Jenkins is happily married to Sarah Jenkins. He is a writer, editor, and speaker living in sunny Southern California. Dave is a lover of Christ, His people, and sound theology. He serves as the Executive Director of Servants of Grace Ministries, the Executive Editor of Theology for Life Magazine, and is the Host for the Equipping You in Grace Podcast. Dave loves to spend time with his wife, going to movies, eating at a nice restaurant, or going out for a round of golf with a good friend. He is also a voracious reader, in particular of Reformed theology, and the Puritans. You will often find him when he’s not busy with ministry reading a pile of the latest books from a wide variety of Christian publishers. Dave received his MAR and M.Div through Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary.

Posted at: https://unlockingthebible.org/2019/07/cultivating-godly-character-while-waiting-god/

Waiting When God Seems Silent

BY RANDY ALCORN

In a time of suffering, David engaged in righteous self-talk about how he should respond in light of God’s goodness: “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” (Psalm 27:14).

The call to wait on God is an invitation to trust and hope. It entails believing that one day—even if today is not that day—He will make all things right. In times of waiting, as we seek God in prayer, we must learn to listen to Him as well as talk to Him—to shut out the clatter and quietly wait as He unfolds to us His person, purposes, promises, and plan.

But what about when we wait and listen, and God still seems silent?

God Is Near

In Deserted by God? Sinclair Ferguson discusses what our Christian forefathers called “spiritual desertion”—the sense that God has forgotten us, leaving us feeling isolated and directionless. But through faith, we can affirm God’s loving presence, even when He seems silent and we feel deserted. “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8) is a promise God will not break, despite how we feel.

Several years ago, for no apparent reason, I went through four months of depression. I had to learn to trust God for His presence despite what I felt. Eventually, as I continued to open His word daily and seek His face, while still in that depression, I gradually regained my ability to sense and hear Him.

Many of us have walked the Emmaus road (Luke 24:13–32). Overwhelmed by sorrow. Plagued by questions. We wonder where God is. When, all along, He walks beside us.

Is This Your Best for Me?

A pastor friend told me about his experience after his teenage son’s death: “Nearly every morning, for months, I screamed questions at God. I asked, ‘What were you thinking?’ And, ‘Is this your best for me?’ And finally, ‘Do you really expect me to show up every Sunday and tell everyone how great you are?’ Then, when I became silent, God spoke to my soul. He had an answer for each of my questions.”

Waiting on God involves learning to lay our questions before Him. It means that there is something better than knowing all the answers: knowing and trusting the only One who does know and will never forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).

Trusting God when we don’t hear Him ultimately strengthens and purifies us. If our faith is based on lack of struggle and affliction and absence of doubt and questions, that’s a foundation of sand. Such faith is only one frightening diagnosis or shattering phone call away from collapse. Token faith will not survive the dark night of the soul. When we think God is silent or absent, God may show us that our faith is false or superficial. Upon its ruin, we can learn to rebuild on God our Rock, the only foundation that can bear the weight of our trust.

His Silence Is a Matter of Perspective

There’s a sense in which God is never silent. He has already spoken in His Word and by becoming man and dying for us on the cross, purchasing our eternal salvation. This is speech, and speech is not silence! What we call God’s silence may actually be our inability, or in some cases (certainly not all) our unwillingness, to hear Him. Fortunately, that hearing loss for God’s children need not be permanent. And given the promise of resurrection, it certainly won’t be permanent.

Psalm 19:1 tells us the heavens shout about God’s glory. Romans 1:20 shows how clearly creation proves God’s existence. God speaks not only through His Word, but also through His world. When my heart is heavy, walking our dog Maggie or riding a bike through Oregon’s beauties is often better than listening to a great sermon or reading a good book.

Still, when we can’t hear God, we can keep showing up and opening His Word, day after day, to look at what He has already said—and done—and contemplate and memorize it until we realize this is not silence but is God speaking to us. Naturally, there remains a subjective sense in which we long to hear God in a more personal way. God spoke to Elijah in “a low whisper” (1 Kings 19:12).

The problem with low whispers is they’re not easy to hear—especially when all around us the wind is howling! Why does God sometimes speak so quietly that it’s hard to hear Him? The answer may be to bring us to the end of ourselves. To prompt us to be still and seek Him. And to build our faith and eventually speak more clearly or heal our hearing problem.

When Life Goes Dark

Martin Luther’s wife, Katherine, saw him discouraged and unresponsive for some time. One day she dressed in black mourning clothes. Luther asked her why. “Someone has died,” she said. “Who?” Luther asked. “It seems,” Katherine said, “that God must have died!” Luther got her point. Since God hadn’t died, he needed to stop acting as if He had.

What can we do when God seems silent and life is dark? We can pray with biblical writers who cry out to God:

To you, O Lord, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. (Psalm 28:1)

O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God! (Psalm 83:1)

I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me. (Job 30:20)

We also can remember that, however long the silence seems, God promises it is temporary. Consider Zephaniah 3:17:

The Lord your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, he will be quiet in his love, he will rejoice over you with shouts of joy (NASB).

Just because we can’t hear God exulting doesn’t mean He is not rejoicing over us with shouts of joy. A blind or deaf child may not see her father’s face or hear his words, but can learn to sense his love and affection nonetheless. The blood-bought promise states that this brief life will be followed with an eternity in which His children “will see his face” (Revelation 22:4).

My Soul Waits for God

My wife, Nanci, while going through chemotherapy treatments that ended several months ago, read me this from Andrew Murray’s Waiting on God: “It is God’s Spirit who has begun the work in you of waiting upon God. He will enable you to wait. . . . Waiting continually will be met and rewarded by God himself working continually.”

“For God alone my soul waits in silence . . . my hope is from him” (Psalm 62:1, 5). If we lean on Him while we wait, God will give us the grace to wait and to listen carefully as we pray, go to trusted Christ-followers for encouragement, and keep opening His word and asking Him to help us hear Him.

Posted at: https://www.epm.org/blog/2019/May/24/waiting-when-god-seems-silent

Trusting God In Your Waiting Season

by Katie McCoy 

When I was about 8 years old, my family had a bunch of people over for a pool party. I was so excited to jump in with the crowd until my parents told me that since I’d just gotten over being sick, I’d have to sit this party out. (Between the colds and earaches we got to know the pediatrician’s office pretty well). I was disappointed, to say the least. I had my very fashionable goggles and was ready to go, only to find out that “for my good” I would have to sit on the sidelines…by myself…when everyone else was having a party. To my eight-year-old social life, this was devastating. All the people were there, the pool was right there – all I had to do was jump in! I was supremely bummed.

But later, as I was sulking on the porch, my parents surprised me with the reason for the restriction: In just a few days I’d be getting on a plane and traveling 3,000 miles to see my favorite childhood friends. My little 3rd-grade heart was elated! All of sudden I didn’t feel so left out. Another sniffling nose or earache would have made for a rather miserable trip. When I realized that what seemed like a joy-stealing restriction was actually a preparation. Once I realized what was coming, I didn’t mind temporarily sitting off to the side.

While the days of pool parties may have passed, there are still times when it seems like I’m sitting on the sidelines, waiting for some divine revelation to make sense of all the “why’s.” Maybe you’ve been there too, asking God, Where do I go from here? What’s the next step? or Is this ever going to change?

Sometimes we feel stuck waiting for the answer. Or, perhaps we’ve convinced ourselves that we have the answer, but God doesn’t seem to be on the same page. The solution is seemingly right there – you could just jump in! But, for whatever reason, you’ve been given what seems like a joy-stealing restriction or another closed door and you’re left wondering whether God really is the caring, involved Father that He says He is.

But learning to wait on the Lord seems to be an unavoidable aspect of the Christian walk. Miles Stanford said, “God does not hurry in His development of our Christian life. He is working from and for eternity! So many feel they are not making progress unless they are swiftly and constantly forging ahead.” (Principles of Spiritual Growth) If the pace of our lives is in His hands, then even our seasons of silence are for a purpose that goes way beyond our current circumstance. In fact, one biblical woman shows us that how we wait for God is just as important as what we’re waiting for Him to do.

Hannah had wanted just one thing from the Lord – a son. After enduring years of being reproached in her society, ridiculed by the child-bearing second wife, and perhaps feeling forgotten by God, she pleaded with the Lord: “O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life” (1 Sam. 1:11). She prayed, wept, and poured out her soul (v. 15). Then, without any guarantee that the Lord would even fulfill her longing, Hannah got up and “her face was no longer sad” (v. 16).  She trusted the heart of God even before she even knew His answer. She had surrendered herself to whatever He had in store.

But what’s even more striking about Hannah’s request was her focus. In the deepest cry of her heart, her focus was still not on her own happiness. She had already determined that, should God give her the one blessing she wanted – she wouldn’t hold onto it for herself. Hannah vowed that if the Lord gave her a son – the one thing in this life that she wanted – she would give that son back to the Lord, dedicating him to His service.

Perhaps we can learn something from this woman in waiting. Hannah surrendered to trusting the will and timing of God, even if it meant giving back the very blessing she’d hoped for all these years. God did give Hannah a son (1:20), and Hannah gave her son back to God (1:28). It was only when she determined to give God glory in whatever He chose to give her that she was finally blessed with it.

It’s true – we don’t have any guarantee that our specific request will be given. If you’re anything like me, it’s easy to hear Hannah’s story and think “Ok-great! All I have to do is want God’s will above all else and then He will have to say yes!”  Our hearts could be entirely surrendered and yielded, and in the wisdom of God, our circumstances may stay the same.  But perhaps what Hannah’s story would teach us today is that when we pursue God for who He is more than for what He can do, our waiting seasons don’t have to be miserable. When we rest in the truth that the same God who ordered our steps (Ps. 37:23) is our loving Father who wants only our good, and gives only good things to His children (Matt. 7:11), then our seasons of waiting can become times of expectant hope. What may seem like a setback or a delay is actually His perfecting preparation. Like Hannah, when our hearts are more intent on displaying the reality of God than obtaining His blessings – when we let go of those hopes we cling to so tightly and surrender to His perfect will – perhaps then we come to a place where He can act for and through us.

What do you find yourself waiting on today? Will you trust that even in your seasons of silence, God has a refining purpose? Sure,  you could jump into the convenient, “quick-fix” solution, tired of feeling restricted and like you’re on the outside looking in. But God has promised that He is good to those who wait for Him (Psalm 27:14) and that if you’re called according to His purpose, He will work all things together for your good (Rom. 8:28).  He has only good in mind for you! Even more, The Lord has already promised that He will fulfill His purpose for you (Psalm 138:8) and that none of those who wait for the Lord will be ashamed (Psalm 25:3). Will you trust his kind intentions for you, even when it feels like you’ve been forgotten? Will you wait for Him to act when it seems like you’ll never see the results?

For since the world began, no ear has heard, and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him! (Is. 64:4). Will you wait on the Lord in your waiting season?

Posted at: https://ftc.co/resource-library/blog-entries/trusting-god-in-your-waiting-season