While We Wait: God's Got It

Welcome!

So much of life is waiting. . .

As a Christian, I am waiting for a lot--for God to do His refining work in me, for Jesus to return, for me to GET how much God loves me and for me to see what He is doing . . .

What to do in the meantime? I have learned much about what the Lord is trying to teach me, tell me and show me through the discipline of daily time spent reading the Bible. So often we make this time harder than it has to be.

This blog was born out of wanting to share what God is showing me and wanting to be an example that daily time with God is not a deep or mysterious thing (well, every once in a while it can be), but simply a time to read scripture and note what jumps out at you that day. We don't have to be scholars or super-holy or ministry leaders to do this. Some days I hit the jackpot and others I come up empty--but only by persevering do I give God the space in which to speak and myself the stillness in which to hear and obey.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

God's Got It

Happy first week of 2012! Once again, I am unduly excited to be finished with the minor prophets and Revelation and back reading in Genesis and the gospels. I wonder if I will be 90 years old and still saying, "I can't believe how God can show me something new in a verse I have read a million times!"? Last year I participated in a memory verse activity through Beth Moore's blog community (Living Proof Ministries Blog). One of the verses I chose to memorize was Proverbs 28:13: "Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy."

Probably I am the only person who has ever done this, but when I picked that verse, I had a specific situation in mind. I hoped that by sharing this verse in "public" as it were, maybe someone would be convicted (by my holy promptings) to do what I thought they should do. Yeah, that didn't work. As I re-visit this verse, I notice something new. My focus had been on how this person should confess so that they can obtain mercy (and do the right thing). I missed the beginning, which was that if they didn't, they wouldn't prosper. God has given us built-in consequences. None of us can conceal sin indefinitely, and, even if we appear to be successfully deceiving people, we will not prosper. There will be some area of lack, some deficiency as a result of deception.

I was encouraged to see this not because I want someone else to suffer consequences, but because it reminds me that God has it under control. He knows what His children are doing. He sees when we are hurt by someone's sin, and He sees when my sin hurts someone else. He is not oblivious to how we are living, and, like I remind my students when they tattle by asking them if they are "the cop of sitting on the carpet" or "person in charge of being quiet", I am not the "Police Officer of the Universe." Thank God for that.