Waiting

You have ungodly intent when you ask the questions that you ask. You ask your questions based on worldly desires of relationship and family. You justify your worldly intent by saying it is God’s will that you or someone else should have a husband or a family or a wife and a family. You quote scripture after scripture showing examples of men and women who were devoted to each other and with self-righteous indignation say “here, here is the proof that shows there is nothing wrong with my desiring a husband, a wife, or a family.” Instead you should not look for what God permits, but instead you should look for what God desires.

A man or a woman of God who looks to please God, who understands what was done on the cross, instead of looking for what they want they have come to understand the love that has been given to them and look no longer to their own wants but instead to the wants of the one who gave His life for us. And therefore they have been taught “to die” to themselves and the wants of the world, yes even the want of a wife, a husband or a family. “God do you desire that I should be married or should I be single?” This is a question that will begin from a man or woman that has been given to God in a holy matrimony to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. “Should I ever marry, I will wait on you Lord!” This is where we should begin, we who have been ‘bought’ with the blood of the Lamb.

Instead you have asked “Where is the one you said was coming back to you?” you ask with ill intent. You don’t look to a hope that has been given by God but instead you look for a hope that is given in this world. God is Spirit! To the contrary your happiness for someone else is based on whether they will acquire their heart’s desire in this world. And when they do not acquire a worldly promise you have in mind then your questions encourage them to be unhappy in that worldly promise not being fulfilled.

Instead, if ‘your’ mind is on heavenly things, you should be asking them questions that will assist their mind and heart in keeping with God’s eternal promises and not on worldly promises. By the questions that you ask you prove that you have little to no concern regarding the eternal promises that have been given by God through the Christ, the Son of God.

Has God provided you with a new job, a livelihood for your family? Is your family well? Is your son well? How is your father? How is your mother? Has the Lord blessed you with a new home, a new car? … These are all questions that are based in worldly concerns. You can find stories in the Old Testament you can compare with regarding physical prosperity but not so much  in the New Testament. You may find promises of lands flowing in milk and honey and camels on a thousand hills in the Old Testament but not the New Testament.

The New testament brought a greater truth, a greater treasure. Now the focus is no longer in a worldly treasure. No more talk about camels on a thousand hills, no longer any talk of physical prosperity, but now all the promises are about a heavenly dwelling. This is really hard for someone who can focus on nothing other than what their hourly wage is, the size of their weekly paycheck, or whether their car will make it to work. However God has taught us not to focus on the physical any more. But those that want to keep worrying about the physical ‘and’ keep their faith in God, well that group mentally run around trying to focus on all the old promises of the old testament. Then they justify their focus on these old promises by saying God does not change. Truly God does not change, He has always been Spirit with the goal always being heavenly (not temporal). It’s ‘we’ that were not yet ready for that spiritual message. Now, as the scripture says, God has revealed a fuller measure of the promise to us. The patriarchs were looking forward to this time in history. And ‘we’ are living in it !

A wicked and perverse generation ‘expects’ even their basic needs to be fulfilled by God. Understand the context of this statement, this is not contrary to the simple meaning in the Lord’s Prayer “give us each day our daily bread”, this is ‘not’ the sentiment I refer to when saying looks for “ even their basic needs”. Notice the true followers in the first century, as you can read about in the New Testament were not concerned with these things. They simply concerned themselves with living in the hope of Christ they were given and they knew all of their other needs would be provided for. They were not excited about God’s physical provision. To the contrary what they were ‘excited’ about was the promise in their heavenly dwelling, they were ‘excited’ that their name was written ‘is’ written in the book of life.

Jesus came to show us this better promise and fulfillment of a spiritual truth and in a spiritual home where physical provision was of little concern. We of faith who follow Christ will draw near to Him and ask questions of our brothers and sisters to keep their/our hearts and minds focused on Him and we already know that those of us who do that will suffer trial’s of many kinds, we might not even have “a place to lay our head” just as our Lord did not have a place to lay his head, but food and clothing we will have enough of. God takes full responsibility for the life that has fully submitted itself to Him. If we have the bare necessities of just food and clothing the cry out “God is Good!”, if God has given more to us ’so’ we can help provide for the needs of others then another opportunity to give God the credit. But don’t mistake physical gifts as being something that is meant for our comfort and pleasure. We are in fact warned regarding how easy it is for us to be distracted by worldly comforts and pleasures.

This is a hard teaching; the mothers and the fathers cry, “You can never understand, I must provide for my family!” This teaching is not new; it is the same teaching that was passed on from Jesus Christ himself. Understand it wasn’t primarily to the wealthy or to the singles that Jesus Christ was saying, “Do not worry about what you will eat or drink or what you should wear.” Jesus was saying this to a large society based on a family culture, to fathers and mothers who have often worried about the hungry mouths to feed. I have written all of these things to remind you to focus on spiritual matters.

So in regard to the question I started this article with, if you ask “When is this man coming back?” are you asking because you have a hope that he will come back or has God spoken to you too and told you that he is coming back? Are you looking for the fulfillment of a promise of God or are you a simple lot of busybodies (2 Thes 3:11) who have no greater concern than to know whether or not some man, some simple human being is going to do as he said he was going to and return to the Philippines because he said he would. Was it a promise that originated from himself? Was it by his own will and desire that he said he would return to the Philippines?

Do you remember that this simple human being always said that he was going to return according to God’s will, and it wasn’t his own desire that he was basing his return on but rather the desire and the plan of an eternal God who has given us a hope in a house not built with human hands. Remember God’s promise was and is not that I should return this month, or next month, or even in one year or the next. His word was simply that He would send me back. And that promise is not for my happiness but rather for his purpose and His happiness. My happiness nor the happiness of any true believer should ever be one founded in whether God is going to fulfill his promise of a worldly objective. Instead rejoice that your name is written in the book of life! (Luk 10:19-21). I am given courage to keep my hope in Him as I write these words. I pray you too will be given courage to keep your hope in Him and not in the day and the time of my return.

How many scriptures come to mind when you think of God’s timing? How many times is God’s timing measure in days? how often is it measured in weeks, how often is it measured in years? How often is God’s timing subject to our desires or what we do to “make it happen” and who are we to question his timing. Remember the words of the song “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus Christ and His righteousness.”