Month: February 2024

Waiting is Not a Game

On By francesrogersIn CONTENTMENT, GOD'S GLORY, GOD'S GRACE, GOD'S WORD, MUSIC, PRAYER2 Comments

(How well our  heavenly Father  teaches us this truth as we experience the trials of this life.
The original article with this title (below) was written while we were waiting for Jerry’s healing after the amputation of his leg (2006).
(It took 4 1/2 years and a third surgery before we had any hope of his using a prosthesis with even a walker.
~~~~~~~~~~
October 24, 2007

Today is exactly a year since Jerry’s amputation.  He has been three weeks in rehab, wearing the prosthesis a couple of hours a day, more just for sitting and getting used to it, a few minutes of exercise to put weight on it, and a few minutes walking on it with a walker.  Because of soreness he has not worn it the last two days.  Monday the prosthetist put in a small pad to help buffer the sore area.  It was feeling better, so he wore the prosthesis for about forty-five minutes this afternoon.  When he took it off, his leg was bleeding.  We have to wait again for healing before he can try the prosthesis again.

Sixty-eight years takes its toll on those who have not learned how to wait.  By this time most think that they have arrived at the point of having all things under their control, getting things done when they want them done, settling down to the golden years, and being happy in all their progress.

This is not our case, but we can attest to something better.

How do you explain to those who are impatient that waiting is good for God’s people?  Whether it is for a response to a letter, the arrival of a guest, a special event, for our children to grow up, or healing, the process of waiting is a part of life.  True waiting is the essence of hope, and a means to the end of obtaining contentment in this life as we wait for glory.

Waiting is a natural trait for God, but not for man.  Impatience was born in the Garden of Eden, and plays itself out in every person’s life, from the time of birth until death; except as we are given new hearts that know how to wait.  We learn from experiences that as we wait we receive blessings we did not expect.

Why do we not want a baby to be born before its full term? It will not be fully developed, or, not live at all.  Why do we not get a diploma until we have finished the required courses?  Why do we not marry at the age of eight?  Why do we not eat green bananas?  Waiting is not only necessary for life, but, the means to attaining true life.  It is not something we play at, or think about when we want to.  It is not a game, but a reality, that when practiced enough will become the beauty of life, without wanting to be the winner.

Waiting is serious business, in the same family as endurance, the big brother of patience.

Waiting is the will of God for us, and serves His purposes. “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” (Hebrews 10:36)

Waiting gives Him time to accomplish His work in us to His glory. God waits for the precious fruit of His husbandry, and so must we. (James 5:17)

Hope, and quietly waiting for the salvation of the Lord is synonymous with patience, the characteristic of the saints mentioned in the Book of Revelation. (13:10, 14:12)

 “I had fainted, unless I had believed
to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
Wait on the LORD: be of good courage,
and he shall strengthen thine heart;
wait, I say, on the LORD.
Psalm 27:13-14

Waiting strengthens our faith, letting patience have its perfect work, that we may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. (James 1:4)

I praise the Father for teaching me to wait. It comes more naturally now.  He is waiting with us, teaching us, loving us through it all.  I thank Him for all of you who have waited with us. I pray for more patience, more strength, more faith, more grace for us all—for His glory and our joy.

“The LORD is good to them that wait for Him.” (Lamentations 3:25)

Fran 10/07
(Excerpt from In Prayer and In Touch~ Articles and Stories of Faith)
Music:  Wait on the Lord Psalm 27:14 
They That Wait Upon the Lord Isaiah 40:31

Living and Leaving a Legacy

On By francesrogersIn CONTENTMENT, GOD'S GLORY, GOD'S GRACE, GOD'S WORD, HUMILITY4 Comments

 In Christ, we, as God’s children, have an inheritance, imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven for us who are kept by the power of God. (1 Peter 1:4) We learn of this inheritance in His last will and testament. In Christ, His death and resurrection, He has secured His own inheritance for us. (Hebrews 9:15) A child does not work for a parent’s blessing. It is the legacy given from one generation to the next.

Through us God gives physical life, but we cannot give the blessing of eternal life to our children; so how can we leave this legacy to them? It must be by example and sample. We can only leave the imprint of what we have learned and point them to the will that is recorded in God’s Word for all His children.

Footprints and Handprints
We leave footprints wherever we go. Children and other people see these. We can lead them to where Christ is in His Word, in His worship, in His service.   We leave handprints on what we touch, in how we touch others, holding forth the word of life; touching them with our hands and arms gently and lovingly in their times of need.

Heartprints
The greatest and most lasting impression is the heartprint. 0003KDWe may, in passing speak a word or leave a loving touch; this is but a sample. But the time spent with our children gives them assurance of who we are as God’s children, and the inheritance that we have in Christ. The example we set before them in a lifetime is proof of the work of God in our hearts. The light that is shined into our hearts shines through us revealing who God is and who we are. This is the work of God’s heart in and through ours that proves that we are His. This heartprint is left in different ways; four of which we will mention here ~ in humility, contentment, joy, endurance.

Humility
There is no pride in the legacy that is ours. We have not worked for it; nor do we deserve it. The only means of knowing and receiving this promise of inheritance in and with Christ is by His own desire; through grace, revealing and giving us a new heart through which He pours into us His own love for us. Recently in reading Charles Spurgeon’s sermon, The Meek and Lowly One, I realized that the love of God would never have been known, or available to us, except through Christ’s meekness and lowliness of heart. Others will not see the love of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, except through our humble estate in Christ. We may speak and read God’s Word to our children, but they must see it in us, alive and active through humble hearts and lives.

Contentment
We, who have this legacy, are content in all of this life, living in faith and trust, for the inheritance that is promised for the future. Children learn that true life is not in this world, nor the things of this world. With our seeking those things above where Christ is seated at the right heand of God; our affections set on things above, not on the things of the earth they see what the world cannot promise, nor be to them. They learn to look for life and contentment beyond the world and themselves.

Joy
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.
Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;”  Philippians 4:4-5

There is no true joy apart from Christ; not in ourselves, others, or anything in this world. When Christ fills our every longing; when He is all and everything to us; when He is our life there is joy beyond what the world knows. He is the joy of our legacy. We joy in what we have; and Christ is the greatest joy in heaven and earth, for us who know of our inheritance in him.

Endurance
The legacy of ours in Christ includes perseverance. Who would not endure to the end of this life, through thick and thin, that has the promise of such an inheritance waiting for us. Those who are wealthy according to the world’s standards are known by their wealth and how they spend it. Children of wealthy parents live in hope of their legacy. You know them by who they are and how they live.

Paul prayed for the early Christians that God would reveal His legacy to them, “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,” Ephesians 1:18

God’s children know the promise that Christ spoke to His disciples.

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.  (Luke 12:32) There is enough of His kingdom and His glory to share with all His children. In response to His will we seek His kingdom and His righteousness.

If we are to live it we must continue in faith to know Him and the legacy that is promised. We don’t dawdle away our time and assets that He gives us here. We live it, we even fight for it; and teach our children, so that they can, in God’s timing and His way, know, and with a new heart respond in faith and repentance; and receive the promise.

 “As long as there is breath in our bodies, let us serve Christ; as long as we can think, as long as we can speak, as long as we can work, let us serve him, let us even serve him with our last gasp; and, if it be possible, let us try to set some work going that will glorify him when we are dead and gone. Let us scatter some seed that may spring up when we are sleeping beneath the hillock in the cemetery.” Charles Spurgeon

Dear Father, enable us to continue in faith and obedience to your will, to live and teach what you have promised us as your children. Let us live as children whose Father supplies all our needs according to your riches in glory, which is only a sample of what you have promised. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.