When, God? (Pt 2)
God rarely seems to answer our ‘When?’ questions with a date or timescales. It is often necessary to wait for Him (Ps 130, Ps 27:14), and waiting and hoping are inextricably bound together in Scripture. We might wonder why God works this way: is it just because He is cruel, wanting us to suffer, or just to demonstrate HIs power compared to ours? If we view God in this way, then we will always resent waiting, but if we begin to understand His purposes in waiting, we will learn patience and our characters will be transformed.
Sometimes we have to wait because God is preparing the answer. Daniel had to wait three weeks for an answer to his prayers on one occasion, not because God was unwilling to answer, but because there was a spiritual battle going on in the heavens and it took that long for the answer to reach him. (Daniel 10:12-14) Jacob had to wait seven years for his wife, but ‘they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.’ (Gen 29:20) God may well be working behind-the-scenes and that is why we have to wait. We live by faith and not by sight.
Waiting builds anticipation. It helps us to sift motives and to see what is really important and what is not. So often we are like the toddler who is desperate for something… but who then moves on to the next thing, with no real appreciation of what it has just received. We think we know what we want; we think we know what is best for us, but it’s often in the time of waiting that we discern more of what is really important and learn to look forward and anticipate with faith and trust and hope. Waiting can be extremely difficult, but in the waiting, we learn the meaning of delayed gratification. Some things are just better because we have had to wait for them!
Waiting transforms our character. God’s goal is for us to become like Him (see Rom 8:29) Waiting changes us from being whiny, impatient, selfish toddlers to mature, patient adults. Paul says, ‘we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.’ (Rom 5:3-5) The ability of the child to live in the moment is commendable, but adults need to be able to take the long view. James says, ‘Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.’ (James 1:4)
Waiting increases our intimacy with and dependence on God. It forces us to be real and honest with God as we bring our questions, fears, doubts, anger and frustration to Him. As we learn to wait for Him, though, our hearts are quietened and stilled, like that weaned child in Psalm 131, and we learn to rest in Him. Ps 37:7 advises us to ‘be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.’ Isaiah 26:8 says, ‘Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts.’ The more time we spend with God waiting for Him, the more His name and renown become the desire of our hearts. The more we learn to pray ‘Not my will, but Yours be done,’ the more we realise that God knows best, and whilst we may not understand the delays, we can trust God’s timing. We can trust even when we cannot trace.
When, God?
In our series exploring the big questions of life using the big question words Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?’, we reached the question ‘When?’ this morning. Questions concerning God’s timing can dominate our thoughts (When is God going to do all that He has promised to do? How long must we wait for an answer? When is Jesus going to come again?) and as the psalmists make clear, the question of ‘when?’ and ‘how long?’ can make life seem very difficult:
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My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, how long? (Ps 6:3)
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How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? (Ps 13:1)
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How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? (Ps 13:2)
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How long will the enemy mock you, God? Will the foe revile your name forever? (Ps 74:10)
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How long, Lord? Will you be angry forever? How long will your jealousy burn like fire? (Ps 79:5)
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How long, Lord? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire? (Ps 89:46)
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Relent, Lord! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants. (Ps 90:13)
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How long, Lord, will the wicked, how long will the wicked be jubilant? (Ps 94:3)
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How long must your servant wait? When will you punish my persecutors? (Ps 119:97)
In addition, we are presently facing many difficult questions (When will restrictions be lifted on how we can live our lives? When will we begin to get back to normal? When will it be possible to see friends and family normally again? When will the pandemic end? When will vaccines be fully rolled out? When can we hope to travel again normally?) and it can be even harder to bear hard times precisely because we do not have a timescale to answer these questions.
Gal 4:4-5 reminds us that God has ‘set times’, however, and we know that our times are in His hands. (Ps 31:15) We struggle with these questions because we live in time, but also because God has set eternity in our hearts (Eccl 3:11) and we can therefore never be fully satisfied with purely temporal answers; we need to live in the light of eternity. We must understand the truths of Eccl 3:1-8, that there are times for every activity under earth and seek to discern God’s times. We can be sure that whilst we may not be able to give a time or date for when God will do certain things, we can be sure that He will not forget about what He has promised or fail to do that which He has said. He does not keep us waiting because He is mean or capricious and we can be sure that whilst total fulfilment will probably never be realised on earth (Heb 11:13-16), God’s faithfulness means we can trust His timing.
Same Old, Same Old
The idiom ‘same old, same old‘ is used to refer to a situation or someone’s behaviour that remains the same, especially when it is boring or annoying. Life seems to consist of familiar problems which recur over a period of years without any real solutions that change those problems being found.
The problems of poverty, famine, criminal behaviour and human need have remained largely unchanged throughout history, and there is a weary sense of déjà vu in many situations which leave us feeling perhaps helpless (and even hopeless) when we see these situation occurring yet again. Even the pandemic (a ‘new’ situation for most of us!) with its ‘waves’ of infections and repetitious cycle of lockdowns may provoke in us that familiar feeling of ‘same old, same old’. We feel paralysed, unable to change any situation by our actions, and sometimes this leads to self-fulflling prophecies which tell us change will never come.
I find it interesting that Jesus fed crowds of people on more than one occasion recorded for us in the Gospels. On one occasion, He fed a crowd of more than 5000 people (Matt 14:13-21); on another, He fed a crowd of more than 4000 people (Matt 15:29-38). I used to wonder what was the point of telling the same kind of story twice – surely the point is that Jesus can do miraculous things in provision, and it’s futile to keep hammering this point home as if we were tiny chidlren? We get it! He’s all-powerful!
However, I have come to think that we need reminders, not only of that fact (because we seem extraordinarily dense when it comes to realising Jesus’ power and His willingness to meet our daily needs), but also of the fact that even when problems remain the same, Jesus does not turn His back on us – and we should therefore persevere in ministry (acts of service), even if the situations we face seem unremittingly grim.
Jesus did not see hunger as a one-off problem (‘I’ve fed a crowd once, so I don’t need to do it again.’) He responded to the needs of people, even if those needs recurred. He didn’t shrug His shoulders in indifference or tell them it was their fault they were hungry. Instead, He showed compassion to them.
Many of the problems of the world are unchanging in nature, and the church is called to consistently and persistently do what it can to meet the needs of the homeless, the hungry, the poor, the addicted, the helpless. This is not glamorous or easy. It requires selfless devotion and maybe even the same old solutions to the same old problems: compassionate care, selfless love, practical help, money given regularly to particular causes. If Jesus performed the ‘same old’ miracles more than once, we can live life helping others with the same old tenacity and faithfulness which transforms situations – never giving up, never letting familiarity breed contempt, but always being willing to go the extra mile and reach out to others.
Refuge
Storm Christoph has been raging in our area this week, with heavy rain bringing flooding to some areas and strong, gusty winds adding to the rather miserable January weather which is often a feature of winter. It has made me realise that sometimes taking refuge indoors from the storm is not a bad idea, and Jesus’s words about strong foundations (Matt 7:24-27) have taken on new relevance at this time.
Ps 2:12 tells us that ‘blessed are all who take refuge in Him’, and the idea of God as our refuge is one found 43 times in the Psalms, perhaps most famously in Ps 46:1, which says ‘God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble.’
Other psalms talk of God as a refuge, rock, fortress, shield and stronghold (Ps 18:2) and remind us that it is better to take refuge in God than to trust in humans. (Ps 118:8) At this time of lockdown, when we may feel that ‘Storm Coronavirus’ is raging even more fiercely than Storm Christoph, we may feel helpless and hopeless, unsure what to do and how to respond. As we make God our refuge, hide ourselves in Him and put our hope in His word (Ps 119:114), we are not simply being passive; we are actively shielding in God until the disaster has passed. (Ps 57:1) God will protect us and deliver us as we trust in Him, enabling us to sing and be glad even in these hard times. (Ps 5:11, Ps 59:16)
Moments Worth Cherishing
When my father died, we discovered thousands of photographs in a wardrobe at his house. Looking through these was not only a trip down memory lane but a literal snapshot of eighty years of family history.
Before digital photography, taking and developing photographs was a skilled and fairly expensive business. Films of 24 or 36 photographs were developed by experts; you couldn’t ‘see’ what photos you had taken before they were developed, and so photographs tended to be of special events. Birthdays, holidays and Christmas featured on these photographs alongside weddings, christenings and significant events (in our case, the arrival of pets!) Everyday momnets tended not to be captured as they are nowadays, and so a family’s history was crystallised into these ‘significant’ moments.
Nowadays, most of us have cameras on our phones and can take photos and videos at any time. We capture the ordinary as well as the ‘significant’ events, the silly moments as well as the special. Although the sheer wealth of material this generates will make it difficult for our descendants to work through this material in the way I sorted through my father’s collection of memories, it gives us a more balanced view of our lives.
Life is made up of more than memorable moments. It consists of more than special events and staged scenes (photoshoots of special occasions). It is made up of the ordinary and the mundane: children playing, learning to bake in Grandma’s kitchen, parents reading stories at bedtime. All of life is worth capturing: the sunrise on the way to work, the scenery which surrounds us daily, the splashing in puddles and building of snowmen.
I was amazed at how much I had forgotten of my childhood and how the photographs offered proof of who I was and what I had done (much of which I could no longer recollect.) Don’t wait for a special occasion to mark a moment. Capture the memories now and create your own record, for even the ordinary marks moments worth cherishing.
Whispers of Love
The hymn ‘Blessed Assurance’ talks of ‘echoes of mercy, whispers of love’ and all of us need to hear these on a regular basis. Love is so needed in our world and the constancy and unchanging nature of God’s love needs to be shared with those who don’t know Him.
As part of our desire to be with God in the community and with God for the community, we, along with other local churches, will be giving out hearts on Easter Saturday – knitted hearts, crocheted hearts, decorated wooden hearts. Following on from our ‘Advent Angels’, we hope to inundate our local area with these hearts which for us are God’s ‘whispers of love’. If you can help by knitting, crocheting or decorating a wooden heart, please contact us and bring us the hearts so we can distribute them around the villages for people to take home a visible reminder that God loves them.
At Easter, we celebrate that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, Jesus, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) What better way of celebrating than sharing His love? We’ll be distributing the hearts on Saturday 3rd April, leaving GPCC at 10 a.m. Please ensure all hearts are given to us by Wednesday 31st March at the latest.