Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart

I am remembering this morning a little old lady friend of mine, who has now gone to be with the Lord. What she said to me in her very British accent was “The trouble with God, is He has no sense of time.” I had been complaining, that the Lord was taking forever to come through for me in a promise that He had made. That was years ago, and I am still waiting!

The verse before the one quoted above from Psalm 27:14, says “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living.” in other words His promises are not just for what happens after we die, He also has promises for the here and now. The verse in the title of this post tells us a major reason for the delay. He wants to use the time to strengthen our hearts. It’s not automatic, we need to “be of good courage,” that is we need to take heart, believe that we will see His goodness in the here and now, and in the meantime to be faithful and submit to His refining process.

I have come to realize in my own life, and I have seen it over and over in the lives of others, that if He gives us too much too soon, then we are likely to quickly and foolishly return to our old lives. In other words we prove the truth of the proverb “As a dog returns to his own vomit, So a fool repeats his folly” (Proverbs 26:11).

Father, it seems very often that it takes more than one lesson from the school of hard knocks for the lesson to stick. I saw this in my own life and I have seen it over and over in ministry. Too easily the honeymoon of our reconciliation with You fades, and the old temptations creep up on us, and we fall. But I thank You this morning Father, that You have promised that if we confess our sins, You are faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and You are faithful and Just to cleans us from the vomit to which we have returned (1 John 1:9). Let us not take this for granted Lord, because this was only made possible at incredible cost to Your Son on the cross. But also though You cleanse us, You do not always rescue us from the consequences of our foolishness! And I thank You even for that this morning Lord, in Jesus Name Amen.