This summer has been a waiting and learning summer in so many ways for us. Memorial Day weekend, we were sent to the emergency room to find my gallbladder was so filled with stones it looked like a golf ball. Labor Day is thought of as the traditional last hurrah of the summer. We've come full circle this weekend with my husband just finishing his first week at a job he neither applied nor looked for. In between has been the waiting on many, many other things. Waiting...is not a strong point for me.
"Those who wait on the Lord soar with wings like eagles; those who wait on us get chomped." This is the strange, rhythmic cheer the 5 and 6 year olds chant before every soccer practice. Their name is the Green Alligators.
"But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." -Romans 8:25
Is all our earthly waiting reminding us that we have a heavenly hope? What are we waiting on? I like Liz's cheer, it reminds me if we wait on the world we will be defeated. Its when I'm not filled to overflowing with his spirit, I'm more likely to "show my teeth." Maybe not on the outside but on the inside.
I think of Jesus actions towards Judas. The fact that he walked where Jesus walked (at least physically) for three years. How Jesus washed his feet. I think of how John and Peter reclined against their Lord's chest in loving affection. I see Jesus showing the same affection to a man he knew would betray him. Had Judas given Jesus a "kiss" a hundred times before that moment, Jesus looking on sadly grieved for Judas' soul yet never loving one bit less. When Jesus looked on Judas, only love was there. I don't understand it.
I truly believe we are living in the end times and one of the primary signs the Bible talks about is that our love has grown cold.
And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. -Matthew 24:12
Lord, please empty us of all the garbage of the world so we have room to be filled fully with your Spirit. Let us pour out a love that might witness to the outside world in these last days. Let us truly live the words we confess with our tongues.
Posted by
Julia M. Reffner
1 comments:
I am agreeing with you in your final paragraph prayer.
This summer I've seen a couple of Christian marriages around me fall apart in shockingly dramatic ways, it just reinforces the need for me and my house to be fully filled with the Spirit.
Are you going to be at the Women of Faith conference in November?
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