1 Samuel 14:37b – “…and God did not answer him that day.”
I don’t know about you, but I can relate to the words of Samuel! But so could King David. In Psalm 37:7, David says, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him…” Only three chapters later, in Psalm 40:1, he gives good reason for exhibiting patience: “I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry.”
DON’T GIVE UP! God may not answer today, but He hears your cries and He will answer in His perfect timing.
This just in for all you coffee drinkers…GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Studies show that coffee kills bacteria in the mouth that cause “bad breath.”
Perfect! That means the next time you don’t have time to brush your teeth just down your favorite Cup O’ Joe. If anyone tells you that you have coffee breath, simply reply with the most obvious and appropriate answer, “Thank you!!”
“The parched ground shall become a pool…” (Isaiah 35:7).
As Oswald Chambers says, “We always have a vision of something before it becomes real to us. When we realize that the vision is real, but is not yet real in us, Satan comes to us with his temptations, and we are inclined to say that there is no point in even trying to continue. Instead of the vision becoming real to us, we have entered into a valley of humiliation.
God gives us a vision, and then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of that vision. It is in the valley that so many of us give up and faint. Every God-given vision will become real if we will only have patience. Just think of the enormous amount of free time God has! He is never in a hurry. Yet we are always in such a frantic hurry. While still in the light of the glory of the vision, we go right out to do things, but the vision is not yet real in us. God has to take us into the valley and put us through fires and floods to batter us into shape, until we get to the point where He can trust us with the reality of the vision. Ever since God gave us the vision, He has been at work. He is getting us into the shape of the goal He has for us, and yet over and over again we try to escape from the Sculptor’s hand in an effort to batter ourselves into the shape of our own goal.
The vision that God gives is not some unattainable castle in the sky, but a vision of what God wants you to be down here. Allow the Potter to put you on His wheel and whirl you around as He desires. Then as surely as God is God, and you are you, you will turn out as an exact likeness of the vision. But don’t lose heart in the process. If you have ever had a vision from God, you may try as you will to be satisfied on a lower level, but God will never allow it.”
Why have I stopped asking of God? Is it humility, or is it pride? What would I think if my kids never asked me for anything? If my kids ask nothing of me they’re saying they don’t need my help! Have you stopped asking of God? I don’t know…maybe you need the following words of Christ as much as I do:
Mark 11:22-25 (NIV)—“22 Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.“
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Also, please check out what God is doing at Trinity Chapel online (http://www.trinitychapel.org/).