I CALLED HIM BUT HE GAVE NO ANSWER

I CALLED HIM BUT HE GAVE NO ANSWER

"I called him but He gave me no answer" (Song of Solomon 5:6).

Prayer sometimes waits like a petitioner at the gate until the King comes forth to grant her request. The Lord has been known to try great faith by long delays. He has permitted His servant's voices to echo in their ears as from a brazen sky. They have knocked at the golden gate, but it has remained immovable, as though it was rusted upon its hinges. Like Jeremiah, they have cried "Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through" (Lamentations 3:44). True saints have continued long in patient waiting without reply. This was not because their prayers were not intense or because they were unaccepted. But the delay pleased Him who is Sovereign and who gives according to His own pleasure. If it pleases Him for our patience to be exercised He will do as He desires with His own! Beggars must not be choosers concerning the time, place, or form of their answer. But we must be careful not to take delays in prayer for denials. We must not allow Satan to shake our confidence in the God of truth by pointing to our unanswered prayers. Unanswered petitions are not unheard. There is a registry in the court of heaven where every prayer is recorded. The Lord has a bottle in which the costly tears of sacred grief are stored and a book in which your holy groanings are numbered. (see Psalm 56:8). You will prevail. Only be content to wait a little while. Your Lord's time will be better than your own. He will answer you to make you put away the sackcloth and ashes of long waiting. He will clothe you with the scarlet and fine linen of your heart's desire.

--C.H. Spurgeon

This is one lesson in my life that the Lord has been shouting from the rooftops for me to hear-I’ve heard it in the sermons at church, in my Bible study, my personal devotions, from friends and mentors. Ok, Lord. I’m listening!

Isaiah 61 has been one of my life passages lately which also depicts the ministry of Jesus Christ. In vs. 3, God promises to us that He will:

“give to them beauty instead of ashes, The oil of joy instead of mourning, A covering of praise for a spirit of weakness, And He is calling to them, `Trees of righteousness, The planting of Jehovah -- to be beautified.'”

(Young’s Literal Translation).

It’s always amazing to me the pictures the Scriptures use to show us continual renewal, redemption, the putting away of the old and the coming of the new. As with every process in life, it comes with a price. Change and growth hurt. But through it all, Christ is with us giving us a “covering of praise for a spirit of weakness”. We can emerge from our trials, stand before the Lord while he brushes off the firey ashes and watch him exchange them for beauty, like a Phoenix raising itself up again in new life. We’re stronger, closer to the shape that God would have us be to reflect His glory. We're “clothed with fine linen” as Spurgeon so eloquently describes above. God is always seeking to exchange our filthy rags of sin for robes of righteousness-His ultimate demonstration of that love was sending his Son Jesus to die a humiliating and painful death on the cross. He’s always seeking to do a work in our lives through waiting, challenges, “sifting.” We can rest assured that the end result will be more beautiful and blessed than we could ever imagine.

So Lord, I submit to you. I submit to the work you’re doing in my life. I sit at the gate, bended knee, palms outstretched, waiting for your healing and your promises. I feel the sinews of change, spiritual maturity and more of You weaving themselves together in my soul, strengthening my walk with you like muscle strengthens my body. There is a ripping, a bleeding as I work out my salvation, lifting the weights of trials and struggles. But always after there is repairing, renewing, strengthening…a planting of righteousness, a building of spiritual strength and the ability to rest in You.

Merry Christmas to everyone! May you remember the TRUE reason we celebrate this Christmas and that Jesus Christ is the best gift anyone of us could receive.

Psalm 18:30

Psalm 18:30
“As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.”

Webster’s definitions:

Perfect: entirely without flaws, defects or shortcomings; accurate, exact, correct in every detail

Proof: to establish genuineness or validity as by evidence, to give demonstration of; to show oneself to have the character or ability expected through one’s actions; to be found by experience.

Shield: device used as a defense against blows or hurled objects; to serve as protection for, to hide or conceal; protect by hiding

Trust: reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety of a person or thing; confident of expectation of something, hope; one upon which a person relies; the obligation or responsibility imposed on a person in whom confidence or authority is placed; to believe.

God’s way is without flaw or shortcomings. It is accurate, exact and correct in every detail. God’s word has been proven through the demonstration and fulfillment of actions-Christ’s death on the cross, Bible prophecies fulfilled, promises satisfied-and through personal experience.

God is a shield against the heavy blows and fiery darts of the enemy. He Himself is the shield that hides us in the shadow of His wings, concealing us from the wounding of the enemy.

Therefore, we rely on the integrity, strength, and ability of our God. We are confident, waiting in hope and expectation for God to do what He says He’s going to do. We believe Him.

Calvary

Jagged edge, blade of sin
Cuts my soul's life vain
Bleeding, wasting, spilling out
suffering and pain
People judging, my feet trudging
trying to walk the line
Strength is seeping, grief is keeping
me along this darkened path

Splintered tree holds nails of grace
that pierce my Savior's hands
Bleeding, loving, flowing out
suffering salvation
People following, Jesus leading
free from condemnation
Victory and freedom to those
that are believing

SLB 10/30/10

Bloom

A delicate flower is
Closed tightly around herself,
She protects her heart from the world around her
Letting nothing in or out
Each day is the same, with no new experiences or adventures
No bees or wind able to gather pollen
To spread the seeds of life
No dazzling view of the Sun; only darkness
But that same Sun pursues the little flower
Day after day, coaxing it to open its heart to him
So he can shine his light on her and in turn, give life
She feels the warmth from the outside in
And her curiosity is peaked
She slowly and cautiously opens one of her petals
To peek out at this familiar friend whom she has never seen
She gasps as she is met with a blinding rush of light;
Her eyes are not accustomed
To such radiance
After living in her dark cave for so long
She wants to shut herself up again, but the warmth she felt from the outside
Is nothing compared to the soothing, almost musical touch of the Sun
She feels at her core
Slowly, so slowly,
She releases the rest of her defenses, fully blooming and basking in the light
She surges with new life and new peace,
and shares with those around her not only by giving off a beautiful fragrance
But by the new growth of pollen she’s suddenly developed by exposing
The deepest part of her to the Light.

Continual Praise

I've been meditating lately on one theme verse that the Lord has given me for this season of my life...normally I would just start writing and pouring out my heart on my blog, but I decided to wait to see if the Lord would lead me to share. For what I'm personally experiencing right now in my life, this verse has lifted some heavy and painful burdens.

‎"But I will hope continually, And will praise You yet more and more." Psalm 71:14

I'm not going to share the exact cirucumstances in my life that have been so difficult because that's beside the point anyway. Those who are close to me know exactly what they are...needless to say I think when we as Christians go through something difficult, our first inclination is to ask God "why"? We can't reconcile the idea of suffering or waiting or pain with our Lord Jesus because to us He is always good, always perfect, always powerful. In Randy Alcorn's "The Goodness of God" he talks about the fact that goodness and love cannot exist without the presence of evil and suffering in the world. If God took away the suffering, he would also have to take away our free will. This book has too many layers to explore here but it opened up this subject for me even more.

The bottom line is God loves us. God has plans for us. If we've made the decision to commit our lives into God's hands, we've also committed our plans, desires, dreams and future into His hands. We have committed to living His way. While I think God openly welcomes our questions when things don't go our way, or we're hurting, or we're grieving (he wouldn't be a very good parent if we couldn't talk to Him openly and honestly), He also wants us to trust Him that He is going to work together "all things for good."

My conviction lately and especially after coming across this verse in my quiet time is that I want to be a child of God that rejoices and praises Him even though I don't understand what He's doing. What honor is there in throwing a child-like temper tantrum and stomping my foot and pouting that the Lord isn't giving me what I want? And then, just like a child, when He finally does give me the desires of my heart, suddenly I am happy and can praise Him again. I don't want to be a child in my faith, still feeding on spiritual milk. I want to eat the meat of adult Christianity and PRAISE HIM YET MORE AND MORE, despite what's going on my life, despite the pain and the confusion I feel, despite the pain. For He IS worthy to be praised...just for being who He is and for no other reason. We do not have a relationship with our Lord only to praise Him when He gives us what we want and things are going well. We praise Him for His endless love, blessing, sacrifice, mercy, grace, joy...for the gift of life, for sunsets, for majestic mountains, for beauty, for friendships, for meeting our needs in every way. We praise Him because He first loved us, because He sent His Son to die for us while we were still in the darkness of our sins. We praise Him because HE IS GOD.

God has promised to give us the desires of our hearts and it's up to us to believe Him. It might not take the form that we're expecting, we might not understand the current struggles we're experiencing for future events to come together. God does-He sees the big picture. So, we HOPE CONTINUALLY. We wait in expectation for our God to do what He says He's going to do, regardless of what our limited finite human minds whisper to us in the desolation of our suffering. We hope. We love. We serve. And we wait...with joy in our hearts, praising the God of everything yet more and more.