Wow, where do I begin... As I look at my Blog that I started almost two years ago and have not posted to it in almost a year now, as I go back and read my posts I am humbled. It is amazing how within just less than a year and in a moment how things in our lives can change. I surely have changed and still am changing daily. I have experienced quite a lot in such a short time. As many may know, this year began to be one of the worst years I have ever experienced. My mother became really ill back in January right after Christmas and was admitted into the hospital. I was faced with the fact that our mortal bodies don't live forever and that I just may lose my mother, my confidant, my counselor, & my best friend. For nearly 5 months my mother was in and out of hospitals. At the same time, my husband who had always had heart problems found out that his heart was blocked and needed another stint put in in February. In March we were told that we had to move out of the house we were renting and I was to start a new job and moved my family closer to where I would be working and we moved into our dream home, with a new dream job and I thought that it was going to be the best time of our lives and that we may be able to recover from all the emotional stress and sickness that our family had been hit with. I just jumped, I didn't pray, neither did we seek & ask God if it was his will. We were impulsive and just needed change and thought that it would be good. We moved, I started my new job, my mother came home from the hospital, the kids were in school, and things seemed to be getting better. I was in expectation of better days ahead. In April, my husband passed away in my arms, my mother went back into the hospital, I lost my dream job, and I lost my dream home. I felt as if I had no one. I struggled with depression, anxiety, guilt, and anger. If it had not have been for my children I would have killed myself. I was in pretty rough shape. Few events in life are as painful as the death of a spouse. I was uncertain if I would survive this overwhelming loss. At times,
I was uncertain if I even would have the energy or desire to try to heal. I was beginning a journey that is often frightening, overwhelming
and sometimes lonely. I went back to the ONE...the one who made me...the one who loved me unconditionally...I knew all these things but for some reason I felt like I could not connect with God. Like He was not hearing my cries. Or either I was not able to hear His voice. Isaiah 40:29 says, "He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases
strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall
exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall
renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they
shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." I couldn't understand why in my weakness He was not there... or at least I didn't feel like He was. Until one day I read the scripture again and again and again and I saw it "they that wait"! I didn't understand waiting, I was so impulsive in anything that I did. If I wanted it I bought it....didn't matter if I had the means to or not I managed to get it. "Wait, you say? What do you think I have been doing all my life? All I know how to do anymore is to wait!" I can see nothing developing but a deferred hope, and my heart has been made sick!
Most have probably been waiting in the manner that this English word implies: "To be in expectation; as, to wait for sunrise. To remain in readiness for some action...." (Webster's Dict.); in other words, to just simply sit back in an easy chair and wait for something to happen whether they have any part in it or not.
The word wait in this verse comes from the Hebrew word qavah which means "To bind together (perhaps by twisting), i.e. collect; (figuratively) to expect" (Strong's). It is the binding together that we want to first take note of, especially with the indication that it is a binding as a result of twisting (Genesius Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament's first word for its meaning is "to twist"). It is akin to chabal (meaning to twist) from which "cord" is translated. It is in this thought, of a cord or a rope, that wait speaks of in the above verse (Isa. 40:31). Genesius also says that qavah means "to be strong, robust (for the notion of binding fast, tying fast, is applied to strength...i.e. ropes...."
We have all been, and some still are, like individual strands of a fiber, dangling freely, and of very little use in God's kingdom, and will remain so until becoming one with Him. Before we wait upon Him, i.e. until we are bound together with Him, we will be void of any quality strength, we will be unable to ascend like the eagles, we cannot run without becoming weary, nor can we walk any distance at all without fainting. We may have been waiting for many trying years for God to do something in our lives, hoping to be liberated from the bondage of flesh and the world. The truth of the matter is, we could wait until the dusty blanket of earth is laid over our faces and skin worms devour our mortal bodies, and we would still remain void of the majesty of Christ Jesus. Simply waiting for it to happen will not produce the overcoming union with Christ that the creation is waiting to see in the Sons of God, that glorious appearing Paul spoke of in Romans 8:19-21. I knew right at that moment what I had to do and why these things were happening to me!
Just like the rope maker, God will firmly place His strong right hand on one end of the rope, and in a vise like grip He will begin to twist the strands in the direction of righteousness. This would not be painful at all, that is, if pressure was not being applied from the other end, and in the opposite direction. You see, in order for the twisting to work, the left hand of the adversary must oppose the Spirit. The circumstances of life that are so tremendously adverse to our comfort and well being are part of the left hand of twisting. The adverse desires, goals, imaginations, lusts of the flesh, or any carnal thing that opposes God will consist of that evil hand.
Our lives, like the strands of a rope, are first soaked in cool, refreshing water. Once we have been made soft and pliable the tranquility comes to an end. We are then jolted to the adverse realities of life as we are subjected to tremendous pressures. On one end of the rope of our lives, the right hand of God takes a firm grip and begins His twisting in the positive direction of holiness, while the left hand of adversity on the other end twists in the opposite direction, toward the negative desires of our lustful flesh and carnal reasoning. There are many other types of pressures that we will not notice; suffice it to say, during the time of our waiting upon the Lord, we may wonder what is happening, for it will seem as if our very life is being wrung out, and it is, but it is necessary for a season.
This, however, is not the end of the process, for once everything that we had cherished so dearly is pressed from us, like the rope, we are then laid upon a hard Rock in order for the burning rays of the Sun to dry us even more. We remain there, and still under pressure, until it is thoroughly dry. Once the rope is parched and seemingly void of life, the pressures of the right and left hands can be removed, for the rope will then hold its form. All THREE STRANDS, the Spirit, the soul, and the body, have been formed into ONE CORD which is not quickly broken. The Master can now use it for the purpose it was designed, and He will have no concern of it breaking or any of the strands unraveling and becoming independent of one another. When it is used in the Kingdom, when it is subjected to heavy loads, we will find that these adversities only cause each strand to draw closer together -- strengthening one other. The purpose it was designed for soon becomes evident, and we rejoice! We then not only know that we can, but we begin to mount up with wings as eagles, we run the race and never grow weary, and we walk the straight and narrowing way without fainting! Praise God for all those who WAIT!
Most have probably been waiting in the manner that this English word implies: "To be in expectation; as, to wait for sunrise. To remain in readiness for some action...." (Webster's Dict.); in other words, to just simply sit back in an easy chair and wait for something to happen whether they have any part in it or not.
The word wait in this verse comes from the Hebrew word qavah which means "To bind together (perhaps by twisting), i.e. collect; (figuratively) to expect" (Strong's). It is the binding together that we want to first take note of, especially with the indication that it is a binding as a result of twisting (Genesius Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament's first word for its meaning is "to twist"). It is akin to chabal (meaning to twist) from which "cord" is translated. It is in this thought, of a cord or a rope, that wait speaks of in the above verse (Isa. 40:31). Genesius also says that qavah means "to be strong, robust (for the notion of binding fast, tying fast, is applied to strength...i.e. ropes...."
We have all been, and some still are, like individual strands of a fiber, dangling freely, and of very little use in God's kingdom, and will remain so until becoming one with Him. Before we wait upon Him, i.e. until we are bound together with Him, we will be void of any quality strength, we will be unable to ascend like the eagles, we cannot run without becoming weary, nor can we walk any distance at all without fainting. We may have been waiting for many trying years for God to do something in our lives, hoping to be liberated from the bondage of flesh and the world. The truth of the matter is, we could wait until the dusty blanket of earth is laid over our faces and skin worms devour our mortal bodies, and we would still remain void of the majesty of Christ Jesus. Simply waiting for it to happen will not produce the overcoming union with Christ that the creation is waiting to see in the Sons of God, that glorious appearing Paul spoke of in Romans 8:19-21. I knew right at that moment what I had to do and why these things were happening to me!
Just like the rope maker, God will firmly place His strong right hand on one end of the rope, and in a vise like grip He will begin to twist the strands in the direction of righteousness. This would not be painful at all, that is, if pressure was not being applied from the other end, and in the opposite direction. You see, in order for the twisting to work, the left hand of the adversary must oppose the Spirit. The circumstances of life that are so tremendously adverse to our comfort and well being are part of the left hand of twisting. The adverse desires, goals, imaginations, lusts of the flesh, or any carnal thing that opposes God will consist of that evil hand.
Our lives, like the strands of a rope, are first soaked in cool, refreshing water. Once we have been made soft and pliable the tranquility comes to an end. We are then jolted to the adverse realities of life as we are subjected to tremendous pressures. On one end of the rope of our lives, the right hand of God takes a firm grip and begins His twisting in the positive direction of holiness, while the left hand of adversity on the other end twists in the opposite direction, toward the negative desires of our lustful flesh and carnal reasoning. There are many other types of pressures that we will not notice; suffice it to say, during the time of our waiting upon the Lord, we may wonder what is happening, for it will seem as if our very life is being wrung out, and it is, but it is necessary for a season.
This, however, is not the end of the process, for once everything that we had cherished so dearly is pressed from us, like the rope, we are then laid upon a hard Rock in order for the burning rays of the Sun to dry us even more. We remain there, and still under pressure, until it is thoroughly dry. Once the rope is parched and seemingly void of life, the pressures of the right and left hands can be removed, for the rope will then hold its form. All THREE STRANDS, the Spirit, the soul, and the body, have been formed into ONE CORD which is not quickly broken. The Master can now use it for the purpose it was designed, and He will have no concern of it breaking or any of the strands unraveling and becoming independent of one another. When it is used in the Kingdom, when it is subjected to heavy loads, we will find that these adversities only cause each strand to draw closer together -- strengthening one other. The purpose it was designed for soon becomes evident, and we rejoice! We then not only know that we can, but we begin to mount up with wings as eagles, we run the race and never grow weary, and we walk the straight and narrowing way without fainting! Praise God for all those who WAIT!
