Tag: don’t delay!
Make Haste, O God!
Scripture reading for September 9: Psalm 70:1, 4-5 “Make haste, O God, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me!. . .”May all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You! May those who love Your salvation say evermore, “God is great!” But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! Your are my Help and my Deliverer; O Lord, do not delay!”
John 11:5-6 “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that Lazarus was ill, He stayed two days longer in the place where He was.”
All people who are caught in a crisis of disease and pain want quick answers. Those who seek God for help soon learn that God hears and answers prayers, but that His timing is not always our timing or our expectation. King David wrote Psalm 70 for the memorial offering and it was given to the choirmaster. This prayer and praise song seeks to entreat God to make haste to bring deliverance and help. David confessed his own need of God, that before God he was poor and needy. He stated that God was his Help and Deliverer. He appealed to God to end the delay and bring the help needed immediately! I have been there and am there now as our family is going through a difficult illness.
John, the apostle, records an incident he witnessed where Jesus was told about a friend’s illness and asked to respond. The family had requested that Jesus come and they were hoping for immediate results. But Jesus knew and loved His friend and delayed coming for two more days. In the mean time, Lazarus had died and his body was placed in a tomb. Mary and Martha were concerned that Jesus had delayed, but still trusted that God would answer their prayers. Jesus wept over the death of His friend, and stood at the tomb and called him to come out. Lazarus got up and came out, decked in the grave wrappings and God was glorified. God’s timing fulfills His purposes.
Prayer: Father God, we ask you to make haste and not delay to help us and deliver us from our current situation. But we trust You as our Healer and Deliverer to be on time! Help me to wait in faith and patience. Amen.
God’s Purpose:Saving Lives
Scripture reading for January 16th: Genesis 45-47
“I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.” (Genesis 45:5)
Joseph had taken his brothers through an elaborate test to soften their hearts and bring repentance. God was behind all of this and Joseph was in on God’s plans through interpretation of the dreams and the directions that God had given him. God is always at work to redeem and save His people. He is more compassionate than we are and also shows mercy to the just and the unjust at the same time. (Matthew 5:43-45)
In this case, God was sending Joseph to Egypt to prepare to save many people from the famine that was coming. The primary care was for Joseph’s family, however. If you remember, Abraham was told by God that his family would live in another land for four hundred years while God dealt with the Amorites, giving them time to repent. (Genesis 15:13-16) This famine was God’s method for moving Abraham’s family out of Canaan for this period of time and then prospering them and growing them in the world of Egypt. God’s use of Joseph, one of His “chosen people”, to bring the wisdom needed to save the whole world was also providential and a picture of the promised “seed” through whom all nations of the earth would one day be blessed! (Genesis 12:3)
God would later call His people to come out of Egypt to worship Him alone. (Exodus 3:10) He would also send His only Son (the “Seed”), Jesus Christ, to Egypt for a period of time to save Him from death! (Matthew 3:13) He would call His Son back to the land of promise to preach and heal and proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven! (Matthew 3:19-20) Everything in God’s plan is based on His desire for saving lives and helping people escape slavery to sin. (Luke 19:10)
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:10)
Take time today to thank the Lord for His mercy to you and for His plan to reach all nations with the message of the Gospel! Think of one person who needs the Gospel and pray for that person! They will be eternally grateful!