Wait on the Lord - by Charles Spurgeon

• • 'Wait on the Lord.' Psalm 27:14
    
    'It may seem an easy thing to WAIT, but it is one of the postures which a Christian soldier only learns after many years of teaching. Marching and quick marching are much easier for God's warriors than standing still. There are hours of perplexity when the most willing spirit, anxiously desirous to serve the Lord, does not know what part to take. Then what shall it do?
    
    Vex itself by despair? Flee back in cowardice, turn to the right hand in fear, or rush forward in presumption? No, but simply wait. WAIT IN PRAYER, however. Call upon God, spread the case before him; tell him your difficulty, and plead his promise of aid.
    
    In dilemmas between one duty or another, it is sweet to be humble as a child, and WAIT WITH SIMPLICITY OF SOUL upon the Lord. It is sure to be well with us when we feel and know our own folly, and are heartily willing to be guided by the will of God.
    
    But WAIT IN FAITH. Express your unstaggering confidence in him; for unfaithful, untrusting waiting is only an insult to the Lord. Believe that if he keeps you waiting even until midnight, he will still come at the right time; the vision shall come and not tarry.
    
    WAIT IN PATIENCE, not rebelling because you are under affliction, but blessing your God for it. Never murmur against the second cause, as the children of Israel did against Moses; never wish you could go back to the world again, but accept the case as it is, and put it as it stands, simply and with your whole heart, without self will into the hand of your covenant God, saying,
    
    "Now, Lord, not my will, but yours be done. I do not know what to do; I am brought to extremities, but I will wait until you shall part the floods, or drive back my foes. I will wait, if you keep me many a day, for my heart is fixed upon you alone, oh God, and my spirit waits for you in the full conviction that you will yet be my joy and salvation, my refuge and my strong tower." '

The Fragrance of Life

The jasmine is out .... in frothy scented bloom, marking my wedding day 10 years ago. This gloriously heady fragrance wrapped itself around me, like the most beautiful of gowns, as I entered through the church doors. A perfume that is now bitter-sweet, in the memories it awakens. A union that was meant to express and reflect the perfumed breath of love-drenched life ... officially ends in two days, with the lingering smell of 'death'; of two messed up, broken, sinful lives. This is not how it was meant to be - this shattering of oneness.

This is not Gods beautiful image of marriage. A lifelong covenant relationship that is designed to reflect the intimate relationship between God and his pure spotless bride, the church - fully living, fully breathing, fully thriving - through grace in Christ. A holy love relationship between people and their Maker.

As I sit and ponder the passing fragrance of jasmine ... that is here one season and gone the next. I am drawn to the sweetest perfume of all, one that will never fade. The fragrance of true life, the aroma of ... Christ! In his death, the shedding of his blood - incredibly the torn, stench-of-death gown I wear, is washed clean, with new life.

I draw in deep - filling my lungs with the fresh, comforting smell of a wind-breathed, white linen robe - fresh off the washing line of grace! :)

Amazing grace.

"I delight greatly in the Lord;

my soul rejoices in my God.

For he has clothed me with the garments of salvation

and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness..."

(Isaiah 61: 10)

Wretched Brokeness

It will be ten years on Thursday... and then two days after that - until I stumble off the marriage train. Would love to say I could muster up a dignified, chin in the air, graceful departure ... but that wouldn’t be honest or true. Stumbling, baulking, half crazed, desperately sad, head hanging, bandy legs with knees folding beneath me, tears blinding ... this raw, undignified exit is a more accurate description of the reality of divorce. Anyone want to make this kind of excruciating decision? This is what it looks like. Puffy eyes, snot running ... nothing beautiful here. It is all wretched brokeness.

In the excruciating suffering of Jesus on the cross, he felt the full force and ugly reality, of depraved sinful humanity. He took on and bore the curse of sin ... becoming the curse. Worst of all, he experienced the tearing apart of the closest relationship there has ever been - the relationship he has with his heavenly Father. He bore the full brunt of God’s wrath against sin. Jesus was innocent, but he obediently submitted to a humiliating death ... out of love for us, for me. In the cross the price has been paid, justice has been accomplished - and somehow ... I get to go free! Free from the power of sin and it’s 'death penalty' ... free to live instead and to flourish in a life bound to him, my loving maker. What glorious freedom! In the cross, there is hope of new beginnings and the gift of life, despite the wretchedness of broken relationships. The cross brings healing and wholeness.

I hope in, and cling to amazing, heartbreakingly beautiful grace; the undeserved love and mercy of my Maker. In the cross, I witness a God who chooses to love unconditionally, despite my destructive behaviour and cold rejection of him, at times. He chooses love. He chooses forgiveness. When I run away, take no heed to his warnings, think I know best ... find myself hurt and all I can muster is an anguished breath for help; He runs ... scoops me in his arms, my loving Father ... and loves me with a ‘never stopping, never giving up, never failing’ love. How can this be? How can love work this way?

I certainly can’t muster up this kind of love within my own fallen, broken heart.