"HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE? And do we have the patience to wait? I think God is asking me to consider these
questions – and then decide what the answer will be for me. Another lady and I were talking this morning
about how prayer has seemed to change down through the generations and how in
many cases, people’s prayers have been watered down. They are not very strong, focused, frequent,
or passionate. Generally speaking, many
Americans “pray on the go” and send up a fast “bless me, help me” prayer and
then add, “oh yes, ditto that for all my family and everyone I love”. God must just shake His head. How gracious He is to give us even more than
a second glance and actually listen to us.
Our prayers have become anemic and powerless. And our time spent in the very presence of
God is the teensiest fraction of the time we spend on the phone, on the
internet, and on facebook or similar sites.
Consider those in mid-eastern cultures of the world who bow down to
their god five times daily, and who actually spend lots of time in prayer – and
their god doesn’t even hear them, and sure cannot help them. Yet they live with an admirable commitment to
who they believe in. How sad that their
god cannot reciprocate their love and faithfulness. Or how about those cults that send their
people out on the streets in pairs of two to go and witness about their faith –
which is lacking the truth of the one and only God. Yet, they go.
They talk. They share. It’s a big part of how they live out what
they believe. Then there’s US. We know the true God. We have the full gospel, the absolute truth
of God Almighty. Would we take time to
bow down in prayer before our God five times daily? Would we spend an entire summer walking the
streets of a city and talking to people we’ve never met – about our God and our
faith – without begrudging the time it was taking from our personal lives? Would we carve time out of our day to pray
and sit and listen until we heard God speak back to us? I heard about one man who took the opportunity
to spend eight hours in prayer and in the Word while his wife was gone one day,
just longing to hear from God. And so he
spent the entire day talking to God. A half-hour passed by … then an hour. He was enjoying his time, but he heard
nothing from God. Another hour passed
by, and he kept talking to His heavenly Father.
Hour after hour ticked by on the clock, and while the time was precious,
there was still silence. Surely, he had
thought, he would hear something from God.
But there was nothing; then as the end of the eight hours neared, he saw
a glimpse of his wife’s car way down the road.
He knew exactly how long it took her to reach the house: two minutes.
He said, “God, I have spent nearly eight hours with you, and I was so
longing to hear from You. Why haven’t
you spoken to me at all?” Then God
spoke, and this is what He said, “Thank you for spending these hours with Me; I
have so enjoyed our time together today.
I wanted it to last as long as possible.
I didn’t speak to you sooner, because I didn’t want you to leave!” Imagine that!
The God of Heaven and earth … enjoys spending time with us! He wants it to last … and last, because He
loves us so. After all, we were created
for fellowship with Him! Do we hold up
our end of fulfilling that purpose?
There’s nothing sweeter than spending time with the one you love, is
there? Then it should not surprise us
that God wants to be the one that we actually spend time with! Can we say, “No matter how long it takes, I
will be patient and wait to hear from you, Lord!” Revive us, O Lord, we want to spend time with
You … help us not to be in a hurry and miss out on what You long to share with
us!
IN A NUTSHELL . . .
BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS to AJ who celebrates on May 10th,
and to Mitch on May 12th! We
wish you both God’s very best!
A SPECIAL WELCOME to Connie, Joshua, Cole, Kayla, Sam, and Anna
… who all worshipped with us for the first time on Sunday!
SUN, MAY 06: 10:00 A.M. –
WORSHIP & PRAISE, with Pastor D’s Graduation message on “Collection of
Attitudes”!
SUN, MAY 06: 11:15 A.M. –
FELLOWSHIP with your church family and the Bucholz family visiting today! Welcome back!!
SUN, MAY 13: 10:00 A.M. –
WORSHIP & PRAISE, and a special message for our mothers! Don’t miss this service!
SUN, MAY 20: 10:00 A.M. –
WORSHIP & PRAISE / MISSIONS EMPHASIS SUNDAY with updates, photos, prayer
requests!
PRAYER OPPORTUNITIES . . . Tina, Julia, Johnny, Justin, Ruth,
Seykoras, Lundstroms, Tarike, Daouda, and for revival!
REMEMBER . . . “God can do anything, you know … far more than
you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!” Ephesians 3:20
Serving Christ Joyfully . . .
Pastor Doug and Debbie
