|
|
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
In moving from head to heart, it's very important to learn perseverance. The reality is that (if you read the words of Jesus) the wise man builds his house upon the rock, and the foolish man builds his house upon the sand...the one thing that we can count on is that storms will come on both houses. Jesus said it Himself: In this world you will have trouble. As we learned yesterday, the first half of Psalm 129 shows us that we need to focus on God's faithfulness to us in the past.
Early on in our ministry, Tracy and I were in a ministry that required that we raise funds for our salary. So, sometimes our paychecks were late and sometimes they didn't come at all...and once we'd only gotten a small portion of our paycheck, and we were pretty much out of groceries. We decided that we'd spend lunchtime praying that God would somehow provide food for us.
Well, around dinner time we didn't have any answer or any food or any money, so we decided that if we simply showed up at dinner time at her parents house (who only lived 15 minutes away) they'd feed us.
On our way out of the house, these ladies pulled up and asked us if we were the youth leaders who worked at the local high school. We said we were and she introduced herself and the ladies with her as a senior women's prayer group from a local church who supported us. She said they'd prayed at lunch and felt that they, as a gesture of love and encouragement to us, would go and buy two weeks worth of groceries for us.
In our minds, it might as well have been God Himself walking those groceries into our home.
We've never forgotten that (and, frankly, we have LOTS of other stories from that time in our lives). At one time, we had a fishbowl that we'd keep answers to prayer in on little slips of paper so when times got tough, we could persevere as we'd focus on His past faithfulness to us.
That's what happens in the first half of Psalm 129...the second half reads (from The Message): "Oh let all those who hate Zion grovel in humiliation; Let them be like grass in shallow ground that withers before the harvest, Before the farmhands can gather it in, the harvesters get in the crop, before the neighbors have a chance to call out, 'Congratulations on your wonderful crop! We bless you in God's name!"
So, the next step is using those moments in the past to trust God with the future tribulations. When trouble stares you in the face, turn to God and trust Him...and if you focus on Him, you'll likely find a pretty stout track record God has already put before you, and simply trust in Him while you're struggling in the "now."
Today's application seems pretty obvious: What persecution are you facing, or what trouble are you going through, that you simply need to trust God to provide somehow, someway?
Brent 4:00 AM
|