I, like many of you, love a great action movie full of stunts and special effects. Every once in a while a great film comes around and will buy it on DVD so I can watch it long after it’s left the theaters. Most of today’s movies come with special features on the DVD like “deleted scenes” or a “behind the scenes look” at how the special effects were done.
I never watch those features. Why? Because it erases all of my awe and wonder of simply enjoying the movie. I don’t need to know how the stunts were done. Rather, I just need to believe that somehow, someway they made something impossible look real and then I get the benefit of engaging in the story of the film.
Thousands of years ago, the prophet Isaiah foretold of a day in which God would give Israel a Messiah. A king of all kings who would deliver them from oppression and free them once and for all. 700 long years would pass before Isaiah’s prophecy would come true in the birth of Jesus.
700 years of waiting and hoping while God worked behind the scenes.
What was God doing all this time? Who knows. Why did it take so long? Your guess is as good as mine.
Scripture is full of stories where people waited on God. Waiting seems to be inseparable from our faith. We pray and seek God for answers and then almost always, we wait. Sometimes we wait a very long time and yet God comes through. Why? Because it’s His nature to be faithful. Leaving us stranded with unanswered prayers or empty hope is NEVER a part of God’s plans!
When we’re in that place of waiting on God, the point isn’t to try and figure Him out when He seems silent or becoming anxious over wondering if He’s doing anything at all. The point is to live in His peace, while knowing that the waiting is for our benefit.
After all, God said through the prophet Jeremiah, “For I know the plans I have for you. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
Are you frustrated with God today? Wondering if he’s listening to your prayers? Are you finding yourself living in more anxiety than peace?
Try this little practice: find a time and place of solitude this week and begin to recall (even if it means going back to your childhood) when God answered your prayers. Often, when we remember His faithfulness in our past, we can be at peace in our today while we wait and He works behind the scenes for our good.
Grace and Peace.
Pastor Rex
Photo Credit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1V_qtyg8AI
Why? Because its true.
Last week as we began the series “Setting the Table,” we began to share the excitement the church feels as we develop our vision for the next ten years. We are not going to be reactive to life but proactive. So we are listening for God’s vision as we find our place at the table for one of the most exciting conversations of our lives.
There is a joy in helping people and friendships run deeper when you share challenges. It has been our practice to have a pastor wait with the family as their loved one is going through a bypass, or transplant etc. It is also our policy that no one in the area dies alone. We wait with patients who will never go to our church just because it can be so helpful to sit with them, pray with them, and even sing to them (yes I have even been known to sing in such situations - although some request that I don’t). Every once in a while some one says, "I bet you don’t do this for everyone." I reply simply, "Yes, we pretty much do. Even people that don’t go to the church."