Psalm 118:5-6
I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place. The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?
What of Today’s Verse…
The beginning of the year has been a trying time for people I care about. Maybe it has been that way for you or those you love. My prayer for you, and for them, is that they may know the comfort of God’s presence. Whether it is the popular little poem “Footprints” or the familiar “Yea though I walk through the shadow of death, thou art with me,” the presence of the Lord is vital to standing up against our anguish! The Lord does long to be with us, especially at those moments when we feel most alone. He told us that by experiencing it himself at the cross.
Let Us Pray:
I am thankful, O God that you refused to be God from a safe distance. Because you came and felt what it was like to be abandoned, forsaken, and alone, I know I can trust that you will never forsake me. Please give me a clearer sense of your presence with me in my life today, I pray through Jesus. Amen.
Words of Wisdom
Something More About His Ways
He comes where He commands us to leave.
If when God said, “Go,” you stayed because you were so concerned about your people at home, you robbed them of the teaching and preaching of Jesus Christ Himself. When you obeyed and left all consequences to God, the Lord went into your city to teach; as long as you would not obey, you were in the way. Watch where you begin to debate and to put what you call duty in competition with your Lord’s commands. “I know He told me to go, but then my duty was here;” that means you do not believe that Jesus means what He says.
He teaches where He instructs us not to.
“Master . . . let us make three tabernacles.”
Are we playing the spiritual amateur providence in other lives? Are we so noisy in our instruction of others that God cannot get anywhere near them? We have to keep our mouths shut and our spirits alert. God wants to instruct us concerning His Son, He wants to turn our times of prayer into mounts of transfiguration, and we will not let Him. When we are certain of the way God is going to work, He will never work in that way anymore.
He works where He sends us to wait.
“Tarry ye . . . until . . .” Wait on God and He will work, but do not wait in spiritual sulks because you cannot see an inch in front of you! Are we detached enough from our own spiritual hysterics to wait on God? To wait is not to sit with folded hands, but to learn to do what we are told.
These are phases of His ways we rarely recognize.
“When Jesus had made an end of commanding his disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.” Matthew 11:1.
