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Monday, November 1, 2010

Desperate

Wow I went to bed last night with a melancholy heart and confusion in my mind.  Thankfully I have lived long enough to know when I feel this way at night, I must go to bed to rest and deal with it all in the morning.  We find a promise in Lamentations 3:22 "Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassion's fail not.  They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.  Yes, when I awoke this morning...the melancholy was still showing its ugly face, but I was fresh and with the promise of God's mercies being new, I think I am ready to face my problem. 

Friends, how desperate are you for God, not necessary how desperate are you for God to change you.or your circumstances but how desperate are you for God Himself?.  How desperate are you to experience His manifested presence in your life?  How desperate are you to used of God, for His living waters of life to flow out through you to a lost and dying world? If you are in a time of spiritual dryness, confusion, and melancholy, again God's word has the answer.

 "I rise before the dawning of the morning, and cry for help; I hope in Your word." Ps. 119:147
I get myself out of bed!  Let's lay legalism aside and think this through.  "I rise before the dawning of the morning."  Temptation was great this morning to sleep through the alarm.  I anticipated it would be since I went to sleep so blah. I could have justified staying in bed and spending time with the Lord later in the day, after all I don't want to be legalistic about this.  But there are many Scriptures that address this same issue, to rise before the break of day to seek God's face.  So let's be obedient and move on.

Now that I am up, it is time to sit at Christ's feet and cry out for His help.  But here is the problem, many of us cry out for help and then we walk away to begin our day. I know the day must start at some point but I also know it takes time for our hearts to settle down to be quiet enough to hear the Lord speak.  So what we need to do is wait.  To sit at Christ's feet, to read His word, to be desperate enough that we are not leaving until our hearts are one with His. 

Let's look at Psalm 123:1-2 "Unto You I lift my eyes,
O You, who dwell in the heavens. 
Behold, as the eyes of servants look to
the hand of their masters. 
As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
So our eyes look to the LORD our God,
Until He has mercy on us."
Sometimes this will take weeks for God to break through our cold hard hearts, so come each day and allow yourself a little more time in His presence.  He will break through but again I ask how desperate are you for Him.

Since this blog is getting lengthy, let's look at a couple more passages and then call it a day.  Mark 7:24-30.
"Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret.  In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”  “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”  She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone".
 In this passage a Gentile woman is coming to Jesus to heal her child.  She is desperate for this child and will not leave Jesus alone until He grants her request.  Macarthur says, "this indicative of the woman's humble faith and worshipful attitude.  She knew she was sinful and undeserving of any of God's blessing.  Her response was characterized by a complete absence of pride and self-reliance, which Jesus answered by granting her request." 
One more passage, then we quit. Luke 18:1-8
 "Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.  He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.  And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” "

Friend God hears and will answer our cry.  The question is - Are you desperate enough to cry out and WAIT upon Him?

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