Lent 2020 Day 30 “Present in the Presence”

Daily Scriptures: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20130;%20Ezekiel%201:1-3,%202:8-3:3;%20Revelation%2010:1-11

                                                          Psalm 130

¹ Out of the depths, I cry to you, Lord; ² Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive
    to my cry for mercy. ³ If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?

⁴ But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.

⁵ I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word, I put my hope.
⁶ I wait for the Lord
    more than watchmen wait for the morning,
    more than watchmen wait for the morning.

⁷ Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. ⁸ He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.

Present In The Presence

Tick tock, tick tock, Waiting….Waiting….Waiting. Is there anybody who enjoys waiting? Most people I have met will describe waiting as one of their least favorite life situations. I recently observed myself and my phone have a closer relationship when I am waiting. The moment things slow down my phone comes up. Its almost a habit. Checking messages, looking at the gram, anything to pass the time. When we are waiting, our minds tend to fixate on the not yet and the things we would love to be doing. The growth opportunity exists in bringing our full attention to the present moment and identifying GOD in our midst. It is easy to grow agitated and disturbed when we are having an “out of being” experience. When I say “an “out of being experience”,  I am thinking on the lines of Being a Human being and not just a human doing. An “out of being” experience occurs when our bodies exist in one place but our minds are running all around town. Every moment of anxiety while waiting in a line, at a stoplight, at the doctor’s office can indicate an out of being experience.

In the writing of this Psalm, we connect with the writer in an intimate moment. The writer expresses the cry of the soul for help. He writes, “Out of the depths I cry to you, LORD…Be attentive to my cry for mercy. I can feel this. During the most challenging times of my life, I have found myself laying prostrate at the altar of the church I pastor with my face down and a full agonizing cry to GOD. (I do this when alone, so I don’t alarm anybody). In the moment of this cry, I am fully present. My mind is not wandering, I am totally focused on experiencing GOD and GOD experiencing me. At this moment like the Psalmist, I confront my role in my situation. Either through neglect or arrogance sin has crept into my life and I need forgiveness. My situation cannot totally change until I change. Carrying guilt locks me into living in the past. Knowing I am forgiven liberates me to live in the present PRESENCE. When we are forgiven the residue of sin can be washed away and we become new creations in Christ. Forgiveness allows us to breathe again and to begin the practice of being fully present in the moment. This is the challenge of waiting.

When we are able to say my whole being waits for the LORD, we are able to lose the illusion of time and see ourselves in the context of eternity. It is always now in the context of eternity. To wait with our while being takes practice. Imagine pausing the next time you find yourself waiting, and focus on your breathing. Drop your shoulders, exhale, de-stress and know you are blessed. Place your hope in the word of the LORD who plans to prosper you. Trust in the LORD with all your heart and put your hope in the unfailing love of GOD. Sometimes the wait is a Divine delay while GOD is preparing a great blessing for us. Instead of stressing through the stretching of waiting, Be Still and chill. GOD is with you and that’s all we need.

PRAYER: LORD we confess we want you to hurry up. We want to escape the waiting time and just get to the bottom line now. We want the joy of Easter without the pain of Calvary. Help us to wait with our whole being. AMEN

Point To Ponder: Where are you now? Are you fully present? Today when you find yourself waiting, don’t fiddle with your phone, or get distracted, but whisper a prayer for someone near you. Pray for your pastor or president. Breath and Be…

Lent 2020 Day 28 “Look Around”

Daily Scriptures: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20146;%20Isaiah%2042:14-21;%20Colossians%201:9-14

Isaiah 42:14-21

¹⁴ “For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back.
But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant.
¹⁵ I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation;
I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools.
¹⁶ I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them. ¹⁷ But those who trust in idols,
    who say to images, ‘You are our gods,’ will be turned back in utter shame.

¹⁸ “Hear, you deaf; look, you blind, and see! ¹⁹ Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like the messenger I send? Who is blind like the one in covenant with me, blind like the servant of the Lord? ²⁰ You have seen many things, but you pay no attention; your ears are open, but you do not listen.” ²¹ It pleased the Lord for the sake of his righteousness
    to make his law great and glorious.

Look Around

Have you ever been riding in a car on a road you usually drive on? Have you ever noticed the different things you see when your vantage point has been changed? Many people find themselves asking the question, “Where is YHWH”? A crisis is a particular season of life that causes us to start to wonder if we have an absentee Deity. A crisis will grab our attention and make us more attentive to detail. Look around. I mean really look around. Think about what you begin to see when you focus on seeing. Details start popping up and the whole terrain changes. Could it be that we cannot find YHWH anywhere because YHWH is everywhere? Look around.

Our text in Isaiah 42 addresses Israel and it’s overlooking the presence of YHWH in their midst. Day by day they would look for YHWH but they missed YHWH in their midst. Isaiah writes, ¹⁴ “For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back.
But now, like a woman in childbirth,I cry out, I gasp and pant. The text gives us an idea that YHWH was always in their midst even when they looked but did not see. Too often we get caught up in just wanting things to move faster and faster with no regard that we may be truly missing the MIGHTY ONE in our midst. In the movie The Color Purple, there is a line that says, “I think it upsets GOD when we walk by the purple color in a field and don’t notice it. This applies to the children of Israel and us today. As chaotic as things appear YHWH is here. Vs 20 says, “You have seen many things but paid no attention. YHWH is working and yet we are oftentimes so preoccupied with minutia that we miss the marvelous and miraculous. The reality is YHWH is hiding in plain sight which is not hiding at all.

The discipline of Lent is intended to slow us down long enough to recognize YHWH all around. The grind can cause us to lose the desire to pay attention. To move beyond looking and into seeing we may have to slow down. We are tasked to grow from listening to hearing. We are encouraged to be fully present in as many moments as possible. When we pause and pray we may see that YHWH was working it out while we were still trying to figure it out. YHWH is in our midst.

Points to Ponder: In what ways have YOU longed for something you already had but didn’t recognize it? How often have YOU been on auto-pilot paying little or no attention to YOUR environment? Wherever YOU go, YHWH is already there, go boldly.

 

Lent 2020 Day 13 “Impatience”

 

Daily Scriptures: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20128%3B%20Numbers%2021%3A4-9%3B%20Hebrews%203%3A1-6&version=AMP;NIV

^{NUMBERS 21:4} They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea,^[a] to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; ⁵ they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”

⁶ Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. ⁷ The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

⁸ The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” ⁹ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.

Impatient

Any parent who has ever driven on vacation with a young child is very familiar with the following mantra, “Are we there yet”? “Are we there yet”? The more exciting the destination or long the trip the more the question gets asked. Many of us as children of GOD have been in a similar situation with GOD. We like the child on a long ride start to get anxious. We want what we believe has been promised to us to come and come quickly.

The Israelites in our text are in the wilderness on the way to the promised land. What an exciting destination. The challenge is the way to the promised land is through the wilderness. Going through the wilderness is more than a notion. The wilderness is often dry, untamed land. Rugged and rocky. Going through the wilderness requires strength, dedication, hope, and perseverance. To top it off sometimes you have detours and delays in the wilderness. While in the midst of a detour they grow impatient and grumble. They start giving GOD and Moses the attributes of Pharoah. It is Pharoah that would have them die and GOD has promised abundance. The Israelites lose focus and their faith falters.

One take away for us today is knowing the way to our most desired outcome may be through the wilderness. There is no instant success. The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary. The wilderness helps us to work through our delusions of self-reliance and inspires us to trust in GOD even when we cannot track GOD. This Lent we may be desiring closeness with GOD and we may have to feel alone and deserted to get there. Every snack we forsake or soda we give up is a sacrifice that we do in hopes of reaching the promised land of more intimacy. And we may grow impatient when it feels like GOD is farther away than when we started. I encourage YOU to not give up on GOD because GOD has not given up on YOU. It takes hot water to get the best flavor out of tea and it may take a wilderness to get the best out of YOU. Keep the faith.

Point to Ponder: Would YOU sacrifice freedom for security? Is death better than bondage? In what areas of your life are you growing impatient?

Lent 2019 Day 39 “Broken”

 

 

Sat Apr 13

Psalm 42, 43, 137, 144

Jeremiah 31:27-34

Romans 11:25-36

John 11:28-44

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2042%2C%20Psalm%2043%2C%20Psalm%20137%2C%20Psalm%20144%2C%20Jeremiah%2031%3A27-34%2C%20Romans%2011%3A25-36%2C%20John%2011%3A28-44%C2%A0&version=NIV

^{Psalm 42:1} As the deer pants for streams of water,
    so my soul pants for you, my God.
² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
    When can I go and meet with God?

^{Psam 137:1} By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
    when we remembered Zion.
² There on the poplars
    we hung our harps,
³ for there our captors asked us for songs,
    our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
    they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

Where have we hung our harps? Trials and tribulations can take their collective toll on a people and soon they begin to forget who and whose they are. After enough pain it can appear that prayer is simply wishful thinking wrapped in an illusion of possibility somewhat like Santa Clause. When this begins to happen we may tend to forget or over-remember. When I say over-remember I am saying we can often glorify the past in such a way that it is altered. Today as we near the end of our 40 days of Lenten meditations, I challenge us to reclaim our songs of joy no matter what our situation.

Through these 40 days we have explored different facets of ourselves and of our GOD. We recognize the high level of commitment to consistency in service that GOD desires. We have challenged ourselves to be stronger and more resilient in the face of internal and external pressures. Today knowing that soon we will be eating whatever we want and freeing up some more time listen to your heart. Where is there a song of joy in your heart? A song that situations can’t take from you. A song that adds meaning to your misery. The senior saints of my childhood would sing, this joy that I have the world didn’t give it to me and the world can’t take it away.

The Psalmist shares the predicament the Israelite community faced. Being in exile and often on the run they hung up their harps. The left their music makers behind. In other words they cried and gave in to the full expression of their depression. It can happen to the best of us. We get to thinking and forget to remember the powerful presence of our loving Divine Daddy. We can get into the woe is me and I can’t sing because there’s nothing to sing about. If you are here let me suggest you sing on credit. Sing not because of your situation but in spite of it. Sing because you know trouble don’t last always. Sing because over your head you hear the songs of the birds who sing even when they are caged. Sing because you know there is a GOD somewhere. Sing on credit, for in due season you will reap a harvest if you faint not.

PRAYER: LORD return to us the joy of our salvation we have so carelessly lost. In the midst of our pain erase our shame, and help us find our way back to you. Fix us where we are broken and heal us where we are hurting. continue to change our mourning into dancing we pray, AMEN

Point to Ponder: Write a song of defiant praise that you will sing in your most trying time. Encourage someone without judging them for needing encouragement.

 

 

Lent 2019 Day 36 “Human Being or Human Doing?”

 

Wed Apr 10

Psalm 119:145-176 Psalm 128-130

Jeremiah 25:30-38

Romans 10:14-21

John 10:1-18

^{Psalm 130:5} I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
    and in his word I put my hope.
⁶ I wait for the Lord
    more than watchmen wait for the morning,
    more than watchmen wait for the morning.

 

Waiting….Waiting….Waiting. Is there anybody who enjoys waiting? Most people I have met will describe waiting as one of their least favorite life situations. When we are waiting our minds tend to fixate on the not yet and the things we would love to be doing. The growth opportunity exists in bringing our full attention into the present moment and identifying GOD in our midst. It is easy to grow agitated and disturbed when we are having an “out of being” experience. When I say out of being experience I am thinking on the lines of Being a Human being and not just a human doing. An “out of being” experience occurs when our bodies exist one place but our minds are running all around town. Every moment of anxiety while waiting in a line, at a stop light, at the doctors office can indicate an out of being experience.

In the writing of this Psalm as in many others we connect with the writer in an intimate moment. The writer expresses the cry of the soul for help. He writes, “Out of the depths I cry to you, LORD…Be attentive to my cry for mercy. I can feel this. In the most challenging of my life experiences, I have found myself laying prostrate at the altar of the church I pastor with my face down and a full agonizing cry to GOD. (I do this when alone, so I don’t alarm anybody). In the moment of this cry I am fully present. My mind is not wandering, I am totally focused on experiencing GOD and GOD experiencing me. In this moment like the Psalmist I must confront my role in my situation. Either through neglect or arrogance sin has crept into my life and I need forgiveness. My situation cannot totally change until I change. Carrying guilt locks me into living in the past. Forgiveness liberates us to live in the present. When we are forgiven the residue of sin can be washed away and we become new creations in Christ. Forgiveness allows us to breath again and begin practicing being fully present in the moment. This is the challenge of waiting.

When we are able to say my whole being waits for the LORD, we are able to lose the illusion of time and see ourselves in the context of eternity. It is always now in the context of eternity. To wait with our while being takes practice. Imagine pausing the next time you find yourself waiting, and focus on your breathing. Drop your shoulders, exhale, de-stress and know you are blessed. Place your hope in the word of the LORD who plans to prosper you. Trust in the LORD with all your heart and put your hope in the unfailing love of GOD. Sometimes the wait is a Divine delay while GOD is preparing a great blessing for us. Instead of stressing through the stretching of waiting, Be Still and chill. GOD is with you and that’s all we need.

PRAYER: LORD we confess we want you to hurry up. We want to escape the waiting time and just get to the bottom line now. We want the joy of Easter without the pain of Calvary. Help us to wait with our whole being. AMEN

Point To Ponder: Where are you now? Are you fully present? Today when you find yourself waiting, don’t fiddle with your phone, or get distracted, but whisper a prayer for someone near you. Pray for your pastor or president. Breath and Be…

Lent 2019 Day 36 “Human Being or Human Doing?”

Wed Apr 10

Psalm 119:145-176 Psalm 128-130

Jeremiah 25:30-38

Romans 10:14-21

John 10:1-18

^{Psalm 130:5} I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
    and in his word I put my hope.
⁶ I wait for the Lord
    more than watchmen wait for the morning,
    more than watchmen wait for the morning.

 

Waiting….Waiting….Waiting. Is there anybody who enjoys waiting? Most people I have met will describe waiting as one of their least favorite life situations. When we are waiting our minds tend to fixate on the not yet and the things we would love to be doing. The growth opportunity exists in bringing our full attention into the present moment and identifying GOD in our midst. It is easy to grow agitated and disturbed when we are having an “out of being” experience. When I say out of being experience I am thinking on the lines of Being a Human being and not just a human doing. An “out of being” experience occurs when our bodies exist one place but our minds are running all around town. Every moment of anxiety while waiting in a line, at a stop light, at the doctors office can indicate an out of being experience.

In the writing of this Psalm as in many others we connect with the writer in an intimate moment. The writer expresses the cry of the soul for help. He writes, “Out of the depths I cry to you, LORD…Be attentive to my cry for mercy. I can feel this. In the most challenging of my life experiences, I have found myself laying prostrate at the altar of the church I pastor with my face down and a full agonizing cry to GOD. (I do this when alone, so I don’t alarm anybody). In the moment of this cry I am fully present. My mind is not wandering, I am totally focused on experiencing GOD and GOD experiencing me. In this moment like the Psalmist I must confront my role in my situation. Either through neglect or arrogance sin has crept into my life and I need forgiveness. My situation cannot totally change until I change. Carrying guilt locks me into living in the past. Forgiveness liberates us to live in the present. When we are forgiven the residue of sin can be washed away and we become new creations in Christ. Forgiveness allows us to breath again and begin practicing being fully present in the moment. This is the challenge of waiting.

When we are able to say my whole being waits for the LORD, we are able to lose the illusion of time and see ourselves in the context of eternity. It is always now in the context of eternity. To wait with our while being takes practice. Imagine pausing the next time you find yourself waiting, and focus on your breathing. Drop your shoulders, exhale, de-stress and know you are blessed. Place your hope in the word of the LORD who plans to prosper you. Trust in the LORD with all your heart and put your hope in the unfailing love of GOD. Sometimes the wait is a Divine delay while GOD is preparing a great blessing for us. Instead of stressing through the stretching of waiting, Be Still and chill. GOD is with you and that’s all we need.

PRAYER: LORD we confess we want you to hurry up. We want to escape the waiting time and just get to the bottom line now. We want the joy of Easter without the pain of Calvary. Help us to wait with our whole being. AMEN

Point To Ponder: Where are you now? Are you fully present? Today when you find yourself waiting, don’t fiddle with your phone, or get distracted, but whisper a prayer for someone near you. Pray for your pastor or president. Breath and Be…

Lent 2019 Day 28 “Naughty By Nature”

Tue Apr 2

Psalm 94, 95, 97, 99, 100

Jeremiah 17:19-27

Romans 7:13-25

John 6:16-27

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+94%2C+Psalm+95%2C+Psalm+97%2C+Psalm+99%2C+Psalm+100%2C+Jeremiah+17%3A19-27%2C+Romans+7%3A13-25%2CJohn+6%3A16-27&version=NIV

^{Romans 7:15} I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶ And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸ For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Naughty By Nature

The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray. This line written by John Steinbeck effectively captures how many feel when they start the day with good intentions and end the day in a self made hell. What comes over us? We have such good plans. We are going to love evrybody, lift as we climb, and ultimately make a positive impact on those around us. Then all of a sudden the good that we intend to do goes out of the window. Something rises up within us and we take a detour to devilment. We know better but the temptation overrides our best efforts. We sit at the end of the day with our head in our hands and futily have to acknowledge, we are “Naughty by nature”.

Paul, the writer of Romans is having a crisis. His crisis is familiar to most of us. We develop a case of the “can’t help its”. It is confusing on so many levels. Reading and relating to this text, my mind paused at the word want to do. Want is passive while work is active. All the things we want will remain wants unless or until we put in the work. The more time we spend wanting, the more time we lose working. My children will often say “I want this”, or “I want that”. My response is I want a million dollars but if I don’t work for it, it wont fall from a tree.

The Lenten season challenges us to do more than want to do good. We consecrate ourselves daily and put in the work to actually do good. Because we are wired for comfort we realize wanting without working leads to the paralysis of analysis. More than make resolutions and wishes we prepare to confront the “inner me” enemy. Yes may have a sin nature and we may fall daily, but that does not define us. Its not our falls that  make us who we are but our getting ups. We are not just naughty by nature we are also saved by grace.

Point to Ponder: How do you deal with transforming wants into works? In what ways are you naughty by nature? Can you forgive yourself and others for their best laid plans that go astray?

Lent Day Six “What Did You Do?”

Job 4 New International Version (NIV)

Eliphaz

4 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:                                                                                         ² “If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking? ³ Think how you have instructed many, how you have strengthened feeble hands.     ⁴ Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees.                                                                                                                                 ⁵ But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed. ⁶ Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope? ⁷ “Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed? ⁸ As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it. ⁹ At the breath of God they perish; at the blast of his anger they are no more. ¹⁰ The lions may roar and growl, yet the teeth of the great lions are broken.¹¹ The lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered. ¹² “A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it. ¹³ Amid disquieting dreams in the night,  when deep sleep falls on people, ¹⁴ fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake. 1⁵ A spirit glided past my face,  and the hair on my body stood on end. ¹⁶ It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes,  and I heard a hushed voice: ¹⁷ ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God?  Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker? ¹⁸ If God places no trust in his servants, if he charges his angels with error, ¹⁹ how much more those who live in houses of clay,  whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed more readily than a moth! ²⁰ Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces; unnoticed, they perish forever. ²¹ Are not the cords of their tent pulled up,  so that they die without wisdom?’

Ephesians 2:1-10 New International Version (NIV)

Made Alive in Christ

2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ² in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³ All of us also lived among them at one time,gratifying the cravings of our flesh^[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. ⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷ in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace,expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

What Did You Do?

Think about a time when you felt like you were suffering. If you have ever had to breakup with someone and your heart has been broken you know the feeling. The feeling of wondering what you could have done better. Was it your hair, make-up, too many words? Too few words? You wonder what signs you have missed. You second guess everything in an effort to make sense of this crushing blow to your heart. It is almost impossible to believe maybe there was nothing you did to cause this. Sometimes things just don’t work out. No rhyme, no reason, just didn’t happen.

So it is in this passage from Job. Job has begun to suffer and his good friend is trying to “help” him get to the bottom of it. He challenges Job and says, yes you have done some good things but you must have done something for this lot to have come your way. Eliphaz communicates an age old thought, You reap what you sow and if it is going rough you must have done something. In Jobs case it just isnt true. There was nothing Job did to precipitate this season of his life. In fact Job is going through his challenges because his good behavior and faithfulness has caught the eye of GOD.

This day as you reflect on some of your ups and downs examine your life without judgement. Just look at your life and know that it is by grace you have been saved. No matter how hard you work you cannot earn any blessing from GOD. You can be faithful and frustrated by life’s events. Don’t quit, Hang in there this Lent and you will see the power of grace in your life.

Point to ponder: What have you “gotten away with” in your life? Have you ever suffered without a known reason? How many ways has GOD blessed you with grace and favor?

 

Lent Day 36: Waiting

 

^{PSALM 130:5-8} I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
    and in his word I put my hope.
⁶ I wait for the Lord
    more than watchmen wait for the morning,
    more than watchmen wait for the morning.

⁷ Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
    for with the Lord is unfailing love
    and with him is full redemption.
⁸ He himself will redeem Israel
    from all their sins.

Waiting….Waiting….Waiting. Is there anybody who enjoys waiting? Most people I have met will describe waiting as one of their least favorite life situations. When we are waiting our minds tend to fixate on the not yet and the things we would love to be doing. The growth opportunity exists in bringing our full attention into the present moment and identifying GOD in our midst. It is easy to grow agitated and disturbed when we are having an “out of being” experience. When I say out of being experience I am thinking on the lines of Being a Human being and not just a human doing. An “out of being” experience occurs when are bodies exist one place but our minds are running all around time. Every moment of anxiety while waiting in a line, at a stop light, at the doctors office can indicate an out of being experience.

The Psalmist in Psalm 130 addresses this.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20130&version=NIV

In the writing of this Psalm as in many others we connect with the writer in an intimate moment. The writer expresses the cry of the soul for help. He writes, “Out of the depths I cry to you, LORD…Be attentive to my cry for mercy. I can feel this. In the most challenges of my life experiences I have found myself laying prostrate at the altar of the church I pastor with my face down and a full agonizing cry to GOD. (I do this when alone, so I don’t alarm anybody). In the moment of this cry I am fully present. My mind is not wandering, I am totally focused on experiencing GOD and GOD experiencing me. In this moment like the Psalmist I must confront my role in my situation. Either through neglect or arrogance sin has crept into my life and I need forgiveness. My situation cannot totally change until I change. Carrying guilt locks me into living in the past. Forgiveness liberates us to live in the present. When we are forgiven the residue of sin can be washed away and we become new creations in Christ. Forgiveness allows us to breath again and begin practicing being fully present in the moment. This is the challenge of waiting.

When we are able to say my whole being waits for the LORD, we are able to loose the illusion of time and see ourselves in the context of eternity. It is always now in the context of eternity. To wait with our while being takes practice. Imagine pausing the next time you find yourself waiting, and focus on your breathing. Drop your shoulders, exhale, de-stress and know you are blessed. Place your hope in the word of the LORD who plans to prosper you. Trust in the LORD with all your heart and put your hope in the unfailing love of GOD. Sometimes the wait is a Divine delay while GOD is preparing a great blessing for us. Instead of stressing through the stretching of waiting, Be Still and chill. GOD is with you and that’s all we need.

PRAYER: LORD we confess we want you to hurry up. We want to escape the waiting time and just get to the bottom line now. We want the joy of Easter without the pain of Calvary. Help us to wait with our whole being. AMEN

Point To Ponder: Where are you now? Are you fully present? Today when you find yourself waiting, don’t fiddle with your phone, or get distracted, but whisper a prayer for someone near you. Pray for your pastor or president. Breath and Be…

Additional Scriptures:

Psalm 128 and 129

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+128%2C+129&version=NIV

John 10:14-21

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+10%3A14-21&version=NIV