…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