…and eagerly watch

Psalm 5: 3 says, "In the morning Lord, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch." There is so much about who God is that is wrapped up in this one little sentence that it would takes days and days to write out all of it. But three things that I want to remember for today are: (1) God always hears, (2) God is always up to good, (3) I need to be looking to see what God is up to. These three areas are three things that I can tend to treat like facts and nothing more. Here is an example of what I mean. I know that as I am writing this blog, there is a team of people who are doing something up in space with the international space station. They took off a few days ago and have connected to the space station and are doing something. I don't know any more than that because it is not affecting my life right now and to be honest, I don't really care about what is happening up there. That is how some of the truths that I just mentioned hit me when I come across them unless I slow and am reminded that these truths are more than just facts…they are life.

God always hears me when I am talking. This can be a comforting thing and it can also be a terrifying thing. God hears me my house hasn't sold, I have no more money to pay for the mortgage, and there is no end in sight. That is extremely comforting to know that God hears me. When any of my kids has a horrible cold and they are coughing and shaking from a fever, it is comforting to know that God is near me hearing my prayers for their safety and healing. It is a terrifying thing though to know that God hears me when I say something to the guy who just cut me off in traffic. It is horrifying when God hears the very thoughts that go through my head about immoral things…and there are times when they seem to come out of nowhere. It is humiliating for God not to hear what I say when I am sitting next to someone and know that I should talk to them about salvation and I don't. I need to be reminded that this truth of God always hearing is so much more than just a fact about who He is…it has everything to do with who I am and my relationship with Him

God is always up to good…Romans 8:28. As with the first truth I mentioned, this one is just as true and has an even more practical implication for me. If God is always up to good through every circumstance, then I have no right to complain or even question God and His motives. It is good for me to write that out, because that is hard for me to do. I was just at a conference in Philadelphia and wouldn't you know it, I came down with one of the worst colds that I have had in a long time while flying on the way to the conference. While I was there I was put in a hotel room that was 30 minutes away from the conference without traffic almost an hour with traffic. When checking in at the car rental place I failed to see a dent in the back end of the car (or someone hit me in the parking lot), which means that I might be responsible to fix it. God is always up to good. While I was at the conference, I received a bunch of emails about how things were going back at the church where I work…and the whole time I was tempted to question the goodness of God and what He was up to. But God reminds me in this psalm that He is always up to good. There is nothing that happens, including falling into sin, which is outside of His control. He is using it for my good and His glory. Thankfulness is the key to this truth…am I thankful for all that God is doing in my life.

So I need to watch and wait. If God hears all things and is always working things out for good, then I simply need to watch and wait. I need to be patient and trust. Hard to do…

Soli Deo Gloria

Psalm 1 – 1 Reason for Hard Times

As I was reading this morning in Psalm 1, I was vividly reminded of a reason for hard times. I have to admit that I like good times. I like when I don't have to watch my checkbook as closely because I know that there is ample money to spend. I love it when my kids all listen and I don't have to discipline them for disobedience. I love to "fall back" and gain an extra hour of sleep instead of "spring forward" and lose one. I love it when my whole family is healthy and the doctor has not been visited for months. On that note, I love it when my medical deductable has been met so that I don't have to pay nearly as much for doctor's visits. In short, I love it when life is going the way that I want it and expect it to go. I love it when life is easy…the waters are calm, the sun is high up in the sky, it's about 85 degrees out and I am on my 4^th coconut.

By contrast…I don't really care for the hard times of life. I don't really enjoy having to share my bedroom an infant who could care less if I have a full day of counseling ahead of me. I absolutely hate it when my kids get sick and I can't do anything about it other than listen real closely at night to make sure that they are still breathing. I would rather have to do something else than find out that a close friend has died or something else tragic like that. I hate it when I hop online to check out how much money I have left and realize that I was way off in my "mental" math. In short, I hate the hard times of life. I don't like the cold rainy blustery days that are unpredictable.

But…there is an ironic twist about the days that I love and the days that I hate. The good days, while fun and enjoyable, are really wasted days in my life when it comes to eternity. I am forced to deal with absolutely nothing on those good days. Life can continue on as normal in those good days. I am not drawn one step closer to the God I claim to love as long as life is peachy. I am always tempted on these days to be satisfied with what I know about Him and how far I have come in my walk with Him. And to be honest…there are more days that I care to admit where I give in to that temptation. That's extremely sad considering those good days are a gift from Him that I just take for granted. On the other hand, the bad days are the best days for my walk with the Lord in this life. The worse the day…the closer I draw to Him. The harder the rain, the more shelter I need. The higher the wave, the faster and bigger the rescue.

As I was reading through Psalm 1 again, I got to the verse that talks about the wicked being blown away like the chaff. The righteous on the other hand are like a tree that is firmly planted by streams of water which yield its' fruit in its season. It's funny because this does not mean that life is always sunny for the righteous and things always go well for the righteous. No, the same circumstances come at the righteous that come at the wicked. Righteous people have lost millions in the stock market just as the wicked have. Righteous people have lost their homes due to the housing crisis just as the wicked have. The storms of life rage and not selective as to whom they mess with. The difference however is in what happens to the righteous and the wicked. The righteous produce fruit in those hard times…the wicked perish. The righteous bring honor and glory to God…the wicked have lost all purpose. The righteous have every reason to put one foot in front of the other…the wicked have every reason to give up and float away. The righteous are made stronger in the storms…while the wicked are destroyed.

Give a logical biblical look at the way good works and I am thankful for the storms in my life, not because I enjoy them in the moment, but because of what they produce. Man I hope I remember this when I am going through the storm.