Category Archives: Faith At Work

4 Things To Do in a Season of Wait

17 Replies

Maybe you have heard the story of the lady who read this scripture, “And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.” Malachi 3:3. She was curious about its meaning so she sought out a silversmith and asked him about the process of refining silver. After he explained the procedures she asked him, “Sir, do you sit while the refining is taking place?”

The silversmith replied that he did, indeed, sit and watch the furnace constantly because if the time necessary for refining went over just the slightest degree the silver would be damaged or injured.

The lady was thrilled to be able to understand the scripture in Malachi and see why the silversmith would sit while working.

Are you in a refining fire? Are you in a season of waiting?

Waiting is just plain hard. Whether it is for a financial need, a healing, marital intervention, praying for Mr. or Mrs. Right, children on the wrong path, or salvation for your neighbor, it is difficult to let those prayers escape our lips and then sit back and trust God to do the work.

4 things to do in a season of wait

4 Things to do in a Season of Wait

  1. Pray. Yes, pray! The Bible says to pray about everything and worry about nothing! “Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything.With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God.” Philippians 4:6 CET. But it doesn’t end there, it gives you the result of your giving those needs to God and leaving them there! “…and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” If you do this, He will give you a peace that cannot be described!
  2. Share. Sometimes it is good to ask a friend to come alongside of us and believe together. “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2. Your friend, and confidant, cannot change your season but they can be there for you and take your need to the throne. That is powerful.
  3. Keep Busy. Do not allow yourself to be so consumed with your wait that you can’t see anything else around you. Pour yourself into the life of another who is hurting, you will be amazed at how your own cares will pale in comparison when you are focused on someone other than YOU. And while you are busy caring for a stranger, friend or neighbor? Your season will change in God’s time!
  1. Remember what He has done in the past. This is huge. Every trial that has come your way has been used of God to make you strong and then you can be used to help someone else! So, while in your season of waiting, remind yourself of all the prayers He has answered, even the ones you attribute just to LIFE, and praise Him for what He has done…and what He is going to do!

“Our willingness to wait reveals the value we place on the object we’re waiting for.” ~Charles Stanley

Click To Tweet

Back to the silversmith…the lady gathered up her things to leave and when she got to the door she turned and asked, in famous Columbo style, “Oh, just one more thing….how do you know when the waiting process is complete?”

The silversmith replied, “That’s the easy part! When I can see my own image in the silver!”

God always has a bigger plan; we just can’t see it ahead of time. But in that waiting season He is purifying us, refining us and making us more like Him.

Hold on, this is just a season but one that is oh, so very important! Let God be God and purify you to reflect His image!

Kingdom2

Seal the stone, set a watch but Jesus is coming!

1 Reply

It’s Saturday…You can read the other posts from the Holy Week series Hosanna, Hanging on His Every Word, Because He Lives, No need for the Sword, Did Jesus really sweat blood in the Garden? and The Friday that was Good.  Be sure and come back tomorrow, and we will wrap it all up. Blessed Easter!

There is not much information given in the Word of God concerning the day after the crucifixion.

But then there is Pilate.

He makes another entrance here, and even though we might not gain much insight as to what the disciples and family of Jesus are doing, we get a good look at those that crucified the Lord:

“Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate,  Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.

Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first.”

Were they really afraid of this teacher? They said they were afraid of His disciples, that they might actually steal the body of Jesus and then present it to the people as if He had risen from the dead. Just like He said He would do.

Pilate was already in. He was in deep. He didn’t originally want to kill this man, Jesus. His wife even warned him of her dream and begged him to spare His life. But Pilate was swayed by the people. He caved, gave them a murderer instead and allowed the crucifixion to proceed.

But now, he cannot afford for anything to go wrong!

 “Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can.”

“So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.” Matthew 27:62-66.

 

Seal the stone, set a watch, make it as sure as you can.

There was no rock heavy enough, no amount of guards strong enough, to keep Jesus in that tomb!

Pilate’s attempts were pointless when it came to keeping Jesus from rising again. Even if he didn’t believe it, if he was convinced that the disciples were the ones to try to move the body, it was all out of his hands at this point. God was in control and His Word had already declared that on the third day He would come up out of that grave!

And today, it is the same.

We cannot prevent the Word of God from being fulfilled. Prophecy has come true for hundreds and hundreds of years, and the last few prophecies will come to pass. Jesus will come again for His people, those that have made themselves ready for His appearing.

Are you trying to control things today? It is useless, friend. God was in control at Calvary, at the tomb and at the ascension. He is still in control of the events of this world today. He isn’t surprised by the pandemic, wars or rumor of wars. We can trust Him with our anxiety. Our hope is in Him and Him alone!

What will you be looking for in the morning?

He will not be on the cross or in the tomb.

“Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.”   2 Corinthians 4:14.

He came out of the earthly grave so that we, too, could triumph over death, hell and the grave! While we await His second coming, He wants us, YOU, to have a relationship with Him here. He wants YOU to come up out of the grave of depression, isolation, loneliness, emptiness and be set free because of Calvary. 

No matter what the soldiers did to keep Jesus from exiting that tomb, He was coming out anyway. Friend, there is no obstacle that God cannot move out of the way for you as well and this Easter weekend is a wonderful time for a total life change. One that matters for eternity.
Be sure and come back in the morning…He is alive! 

 

For the kingdom

The Daniel Fast: What if my prayer isn’t answered?

4 Replies

The Daniel Fast: What if my prayer isn’t answered? How are you doing on your fast? If you have already started your fasting, whether it is a complete fast, a partial fast, juice fast, Daniel Fast, no matter what you have chosen, you have probably already encountered a bump or two in the road. Do not despair! Just keep going, start over, whatever you have to do. God isn’t sitting in Heaven with a ruler in His hand ready to smack you every time you make a mistake. Just determine to stick with it and remember to pray; that is where your strength comes from.

Today, we are talking about what to do when you fast, you pray, you petition God but He doesn’t answer your prayer the way you had envisioned. (Catch up on missed posts here!)

In the 11th and 12th chapters of 2 Samuel, we read the shocking and heartbreaking story of David and Bathsheba. If you aren’t familiar with the story, you can read about it here. The shortened, condensed version is that David had an affair with another man’s wife, Bathsheba, and had her husband killed. He then took Bathsheba as his own wife and that is where we enter the story with Nathan, the prophet, confronting David about his sin:

“Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’’” 2 Samuel 12:7-10 ESV.

King David acknowledged his guilt and Nathan goes on to tell him his sin has been “put away” but the child born out of the sin will die.

What does David do next?

“And the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and he became sick.  David therefore sought God on behalf of the child. And David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. And the elders of his house stood beside him, to raise him from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them.” 2 Samuel 12:16-17 ESV.

David was a man of war, a mighty man of valor but he was also repentant and always readily admitted his sin. He was humble and petitioned for the life of his son even though this child would be a continual reminder of his sin! He knew HE was the reason for the Lord’s displeasure and so he humbled himself with prayer and fasting in the hope that the Lord might change His mind. And, surely, he even felt it was his DUTY to petition on behalf of his son.

David fasted until the seventh day but the baby died.

“Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. He then went to his own house. And when he asked, they set food before him, and he ate. Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive; but when the child died, you arose and ate food.” He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”

The members of David’s household were confused and told him so. David replied that he was hoping the Lord would be gracious, that He would spare the child’s life, yet it was not to be. There was no need to fast once he was gone. Matthew Henry’s commentary says it so well here:

matthew-henry

“Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the Lord, and worshipped…” David worshiped the Lord because He knew that God had spoken, He had answered and He was sovereign. If God does not answer your prayer the way you think it should be answered, and you even accompany that prayer with fasting, it doesn’t mean your fasting was in vain! Remember, we talked about the fact that fasting changes that inner man, it changes YOU (and me!). David knew life was to go on; he had repented, he had prayed, he had fasted and God had answered. Yes, he had sinned but he had found forgiveness and restoration through his repentance and humility.

He fasted and prayed because there was still life and when that life was gone he knew to worship God.

“The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.” Job 1:21 NIV.

Obviously, in this post, we are looking at David’s mistake, his sin that cost him, big time. But your prayer may not have anything to do with your actions. But yet, God’s answer is not what you wanted to hear.

Fasting prepares your heart for God’s answer, no matter what it might be. We may not get the answer we want but we can rest assured God is working all things for our good. If He says, “No”, we can trust Him that He knows what is best, He can see down the road! Remember, we don’t fast to change God, we fast to change US; to make us more like Jesus and cleanse us from things that would hold us back or cause us to stumble.

Fasting brings hidden things to light! And while fasting and praying, God can reveal things to us that may be a hindrance in our walk. Because we are fasting, our mind becomes more clear and nothing is in the way of our hearing His voice.

So be encouraged today, if your prayer isn’t answered the way you preferred, it doesn’t mean God doesn’t love you, in fact it means HE DOES LOVE YOU, He is protecting you, covering you, leading you and He knows that His answer is the best answer. And you will too, one day soon.

Be blessed as you continue to make fasting a regular part of your spiritual walk.

Don’t forget to grab your copy of The Daniel Fast Devotional! Good for any fast, it is a great, easy read with devotions for every day of a three week fast. Get yours on Amazon here!