SPECIAL EDITION – SUNDAY PRAISE!
For the last few days I have been somewhat under the weather! After not even having even a small cold for over two years, it kind of took me by surprise. I knew I was not immune from sickness, but surprised nonetheless when it happened. The good news is that I am feeling more like myself today and I am praising God for it. That is not why I am writing this special Sunday edition however. This week has been momentous for many reasons in our nation’s history. While I am not going to comment on the shocking events that occurred, it caused me to sit up to attention when I read this verse:
..This is why I wait upon you, expecting your breakthrough,
for your word brings me hope.
6 I long for you more than any watchman
would long for the morning light.
I will watch and wait for you, O God,
throughout the night.
7 O Israel, keep hoping, keep trusting,
and keep waiting on the Lord,
for he is tenderhearted, kind, and forgiving.
He has a thousand ways to set you free!
8 He himself will redeem you;
he will ransom you from the cruel slavery of your sins. Psalm 130:5-8 (TPT)
It is one thing to have an opinion based on what you heard, or even what you felt you saw – it is another thing to look past the physical and ask God how you should react. I thought of just the years of this millennium. Rapid changes have occurred that would have had me looking for Jesus’ return around every bend in the last century. My faith has grown however, I am a bit more mature and I realize that there have always been clues pointing us to the return of Christ. It may be soon, or, He may delay His coming. So the question is not "when is He coming", the question is "how then should I live" while I await His coming!
As the Psalmist says in the above verse, I do long for you Jesus to show up in the morning light, more than the watchmen of the night. I want to show up not to take me away but to show me how to occupy until you come. Show me how to have faith and trust you that no matter what is going on around me that I know that you are a God who is "tender-hearted, kind, and forgiving". To remind me that You chose to take a wretched sinner like me and pull me out of the miry clay and set me free from demonic strongholds that were generationally rooted in my DNA! Repeat to me the testimonies of your mercy and grace to remind me that even my nation, that has blatantly turned its’ back on You, can be forgiven if they will repent of their sins and remind me of the charge that I have to pray to that effect.
Sin, when it acts out does not surprise me. What surprises me is when the Saints of the Most High have forgotten that God wants all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, and when it’s darkest, in the hallway of our despair, we need to send out a shout of praise – praising Him in the hallway, knowing we’re getting closer to the morning light!
Maria