Therefore the LORD will wait that He may be gracious to you; and therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all who wait for Him.
Isaiah 30:18
This is a fun one! Often when I am in the middle of something really tough I struggle with my perspective of God's character. As if bad things happening in life change who He is and His love for me. I know I am not alone in this struggle. This is when it is crucial that we go to God's word and remind ourselves who He is because we know from scripture that there is no shadow of turning (James 1) with Him. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is just, merciful and gracious even in our darkest times.
There is one aspect of God's character I want to point out in this scripture. His loyalty. He never goes anywhere. Even when we are in a great storm Christ is close at hand. We are the ones that pull away and believe things about Him that are not true. Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. James 4:8 NL
I am not saying there are not times when it seems God is quiet. Those can be tough times. We feel like we are coming close and don't walk away from our quiet time feeling like He came close to us. Its a good thing we have scripture to remind us of the truth beyond our "feelings."
In Isaiah 30:18 we find the world wait twice. In the Hebrew this word means: to adhere to. We see in vs. 18 that God adheres to us for the purpose of grace and mercy toward us. When we exalt Him in our lives we are putting ourselves under the flow of that grace and mercy. Exalting ourselves and our wants and desires only every leaves us dehydrated. Vs. 18 also tells us that blessed or happy are all who adhere to Him.
Back when we lived in San Diego before we had any kids, my parents were putting a pool in their back yard. One of those rad one that are really small but have a current so you can swim forward and stay in the middle of the pool. I was helping my mom with the underground piping. As we connected the pipes that would one day have water flowing through them is was important that we used an adhesive that would keep them secured together. It was a two part adhesive. One wouldn't work with out the other but put them together and the bold was solid. Water could flow through the pipes with out leaking and causing a mess.
This scripture makes me think of this to part adhesive. God adheres to us and we adhere to Him. In so doing we exalt Him and He is gracious to us. When these to states of being are in proper order the result is a pouring out. We actually become a pipe line of God's love, grace and mercy to others. God is loyal to wait on us with His half of the adhesive ready to go. We have to humble ourselves and come close to Him with our half of the adhesive that we might connect and live a life of pouring out. Often for me coming close or drawing near to God requires a humbling of myself. Meekness towards the Lord as I accept the trials He has aloud. Not acting like bad things are good and fun but submitting to God's sovereignty in them and that He has a purpose. Meekness and humility are the make up of our adhesive while grace and mercy make up God's. What a beautiful bond.
No comments:
Post a Comment