Friday, September 21, 2012
Waiting Stinks
The Bible mentions the word wait somewhere around 106 times, depending on your translation. That's enough times to make this "waiting" business pretty relative. It doesn't make it any easier.
I think about all the times I tell my kids to wait and it's extensive. I feel like waiting seemed easier when I was younger and life seemed to stretch on forever, but now it feels like time is shortening up and waiting feels impossible. It's not just the waiting that's hard, it's the not even knowing what I'm waiting for that seems so impossible. When I wait in line for a taping of a show, waiting is tolerable because I'm excited and anticipating a good time.
I should totally feel this way about waiting for God too, the Psalms are filled with it. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalms 27:14; We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. Psalms 33:20; Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; Psalms 37:7a, There's that word patiently, ugh. What I do, God, is wait for you, wait for my Lord, my God—you will answer!I wait and pray so they won’t laugh me off, won’t smugly strut off when I stumble. Psalms 38:15-16 I really like that one out of The Message, it's so sure. I could go on and on, Psalms 130:5, Lamentations 3:24, Hosea 12:6, Hebrews 9:28.
They all convey the message that waiting on God will bring great reward, security, and peace, so why is it so hard? I can blame society and our "have it your way, NOW" mentality, I can blame my humanity, I can even blame the devil, but really the difficulty in waiting is all related to my heart and my ability to really trust God, I mean REALLY, REALLY.
REALLY.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; Proverbs 3:5. How many of us know this one? You know where it gets me every time? My own understanding. I want to understand everything, and the truth is, I just can't.
So today, God, I give you my understanding, I give you my need to "know". I'll still want to know and I'll still have to keep giving it to him, and I'll lean on the 184 some-odd times, the Bible says, TRUST.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
I Want to be Loved Like Jonah
Jonah has been heavy on my mind lately. Ultimately I have come to the conclusion that God loves me as much as he loved Jonah, and that was a lot. God went to an awful lot of trouble to ensure that Jonah was going to do the things he needed to, to receive God's rewards.
I decided to break this down and see how it compares to my life.
The book starts out with God giving Jonah a direct agenda, "Up on your feet and on your way to the big city of Nineveh! Preach to them. They're in a bad way and I can't ignore it any longer." Jonah 1:1 So what does Jonah do? Jump up and head to Nineveh? Uh, no. But Jonah got up and went the other direction to Tarshish, running away from God. (Jonah 1:2).
Sound familiar to anyone else?
Now I'm not sure I've ever gotten such concise direction from God, but I have certainly known when I was doing something really wrong, and I did it anyway. This is where God had a choice, he could have said, "Oh well, I have lots of other people I could use, so good luck with that Jonah." and Jonah could have lived out the rest of his days out of God's will, but God wasn't willing to let him go so easily.
So Jonah headed down to Joppa to catch a ship to Tarshish, this doesn't seem to be horribly evil, he paid for the trip. Only thing, it wasn't the way to Nineveh. Now he had some solid arguments for not going to Ninevah. First, the place was truly corrupt and godless. Then you have the fact that it's huge, I'm thinking it was loud and crowded, and lastly, he could have legitimately argued for his safety. The flaw in these, and our, debates with God is, "I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted." Job 42:2. That's Job talking.
Now Jonah gets innocent bystanders involved. But God sent a huge storm at sea, the waves towering. The ship was about to break into pieces. The sailors were terrified. Jonah 1:4. So these sailors freak out, knowing this is no ordinary storm. So they decide to draw straws to find out who's causing this horrible catastrophe. Of course, Jonah gets the short straw. He tells them he serves the God who made everything and he's running from him. The sailors try desperately to row back to shore, because even though Jonah tells them to toss him overboard, the are afraid of what God would do to them for, what they feel, would be killing Jonah. Finally, they realize they can't save Jonah, so they throw him over and the sea calms down (Jonah 1:11-15).
How many times do we take this path? I know I have. People, Christians or not sometimes even get involved not knowing where the troubles are coming from, and even in confessing doesn't always convince them that it is you that has brought this on with your choices, sometimes we don't even want to believe that, we call it coincidence. I was also pondering why the sailors had to be the ones to throw him over, why didn't Jonah just jump, but I believe it was the act of faith on the sailors parts that then brought them to their belief in the Hebrew God.
Then came the fish, the big smelly slimy fish, and Jonah was swallowed up. Then God assigned a huge fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah was in the fish’s belly three days and nights. Jonah 1:16 What had to be going through Jonah's Head? The next chapter is a prayer, it's telling God he knew he was a goner, but God rescued him!
Rescued him? He's still in the fish! Who thinks that's a rescue? Is he thinking he's going to grow old in the fish?
But, no, Jonah is grateful for the whale, he repents and tells God, he'll do what was asked of him. "Then God spoke to the fish, and it vomited up Jonah on the seashore." Jonah 2:10
Are you in the big slimy, smelly fish, wondering if it's a rescue or punishment? Even though I walk through the darkest valley,I will fear no evil,for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Psalms 23:4
His rod and staff comfort me? They smack those sheep pretty good to keep them together. Yet this is comforting. I think most of us have lost sight of the comfort in disciple because it' s not very socially acceptable to discipline or be disciplined, remember "live and let live?" Now I'm certainly not talking about meanness and hatred, we see plenty of that, I'm talking about loving, caring, needed discipline, for God's blessings to pour out.
The rest of the story goes that Jonah went to Nineveh and they did repent, and God spared their lives. Now here's the kicker. Jonah was mad! But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Jonah 4:1-3
What?!? He's actually mad God spared them. I do know there are people all of us have met that a thought could have crossed our mind that they belong in hell. I may have met a few... but if we are committed to becoming the people God has called us to be then we will have his heart for all people. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish. Matthew 18:14
You know what though, I think God just kinda shook his head at Jonah, with his chapter long prayer of exultation and repentance, just to be "human" all over again, and God loved him anyway.
So every time I lose sight of where I'm going I hope there is a fish waiting for me in the thrashing ocean.
I decided to break this down and see how it compares to my life.
The book starts out with God giving Jonah a direct agenda, "Up on your feet and on your way to the big city of Nineveh! Preach to them. They're in a bad way and I can't ignore it any longer." Jonah 1:1 So what does Jonah do? Jump up and head to Nineveh? Uh, no. But Jonah got up and went the other direction to Tarshish, running away from God. (Jonah 1:2).
Sound familiar to anyone else?
Now I'm not sure I've ever gotten such concise direction from God, but I have certainly known when I was doing something really wrong, and I did it anyway. This is where God had a choice, he could have said, "Oh well, I have lots of other people I could use, so good luck with that Jonah." and Jonah could have lived out the rest of his days out of God's will, but God wasn't willing to let him go so easily.
So Jonah headed down to Joppa to catch a ship to Tarshish, this doesn't seem to be horribly evil, he paid for the trip. Only thing, it wasn't the way to Nineveh. Now he had some solid arguments for not going to Ninevah. First, the place was truly corrupt and godless. Then you have the fact that it's huge, I'm thinking it was loud and crowded, and lastly, he could have legitimately argued for his safety. The flaw in these, and our, debates with God is, "I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted." Job 42:2. That's Job talking.
Now Jonah gets innocent bystanders involved. But God sent a huge storm at sea, the waves towering. The ship was about to break into pieces. The sailors were terrified. Jonah 1:4. So these sailors freak out, knowing this is no ordinary storm. So they decide to draw straws to find out who's causing this horrible catastrophe. Of course, Jonah gets the short straw. He tells them he serves the God who made everything and he's running from him. The sailors try desperately to row back to shore, because even though Jonah tells them to toss him overboard, the are afraid of what God would do to them for, what they feel, would be killing Jonah. Finally, they realize they can't save Jonah, so they throw him over and the sea calms down (Jonah 1:11-15).
How many times do we take this path? I know I have. People, Christians or not sometimes even get involved not knowing where the troubles are coming from, and even in confessing doesn't always convince them that it is you that has brought this on with your choices, sometimes we don't even want to believe that, we call it coincidence. I was also pondering why the sailors had to be the ones to throw him over, why didn't Jonah just jump, but I believe it was the act of faith on the sailors parts that then brought them to their belief in the Hebrew God.
Then came the fish, the big smelly slimy fish, and Jonah was swallowed up. Then God assigned a huge fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah was in the fish’s belly three days and nights. Jonah 1:16 What had to be going through Jonah's Head? The next chapter is a prayer, it's telling God he knew he was a goner, but God rescued him!
Rescued him? He's still in the fish! Who thinks that's a rescue? Is he thinking he's going to grow old in the fish?
But, no, Jonah is grateful for the whale, he repents and tells God, he'll do what was asked of him. "Then God spoke to the fish, and it vomited up Jonah on the seashore." Jonah 2:10
Are you in the big slimy, smelly fish, wondering if it's a rescue or punishment? Even though I walk through the darkest valley,I will fear no evil,for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Psalms 23:4
His rod and staff comfort me? They smack those sheep pretty good to keep them together. Yet this is comforting. I think most of us have lost sight of the comfort in disciple because it' s not very socially acceptable to discipline or be disciplined, remember "live and let live?" Now I'm certainly not talking about meanness and hatred, we see plenty of that, I'm talking about loving, caring, needed discipline, for God's blessings to pour out.
The rest of the story goes that Jonah went to Nineveh and they did repent, and God spared their lives. Now here's the kicker. Jonah was mad! But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Jonah 4:1-3
What?!? He's actually mad God spared them. I do know there are people all of us have met that a thought could have crossed our mind that they belong in hell. I may have met a few... but if we are committed to becoming the people God has called us to be then we will have his heart for all people. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish. Matthew 18:14
You know what though, I think God just kinda shook his head at Jonah, with his chapter long prayer of exultation and repentance, just to be "human" all over again, and God loved him anyway.
So every time I lose sight of where I'm going I hope there is a fish waiting for me in the thrashing ocean.
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