WHILE I WAIT!!!

. . . . A Devotional Meditation for The Single Brother!

Life as a marriageable but single brother, has a very big need . . . . the need of grace to wait and wait patiently! The grace to wait and wait properly! The grace to wait and wait profitably! Every new day, my eyes, in the spirit, strains into the horizon . . . seeking, hoping as my heart does ask voicelessly: "Will the Lord bring that for which I have been looking up to Him, today? Will He end my seemingly endless wait today?" More so, my days of waiting for you may seem longer than that for which other brothers have had to wait. If my hope, still being deferred, will not make my heart sick, then I need a help which others may never ask of Thee, Lord . . . while I wait on Thee and for Thee! And Lord, on Thee and for Thee do I wait all day long!

“Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.”
Ps 25:5.

While I wait on you dear Lord, please lead me in your truth and teach me that which I need to know. While I wait, let it train my faith in thee that my life may serve the purpose for which you created it. While I wait let me not only wait patiently but may I be found waiting properly and profitably.

While I wait . . . At the proper place!
Oh thou Spirit of grace, truth and mercy, there is a place I need to stand and hear what God has to say to me, while I wait. Please lead me to the well Lahairoi, the well of the living God, that there I might meditate on God’s ways; that my wait be not a waste of precious time. O let my location and dwelling place be by this well - the well Lahairoi, the well of the living God who sees me . . . for that was how it was for Isaac.

“At that time Isaac was living in the southern part of Canaan near a place called "The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me."”
Gen 24:62 –CEV

Nnhmm! What a dwelling place for a brother – by “The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me!” What a dwelling place for Isaac while he was yet single!! While yet in this dispensation of life as a single brother too, may I realise that my mother’s tent may not be the right abode for me now. Though it has become vacant and available for me to move in, yet, it might hold too many rooms for me. And since there is no void in nature, I might fill it with what it’s not meant for. This might only end up as a ‘nest’ with too much temptation than I can bear.

If I begin to move in the vacant rooms of submission to authority, which my mother's "death" has seemingly left for me to do as I like, and I am not moving in with another assigned mother to constrain me, I will only grow untamed into an unplanned recklessness. If I begin to explore the vacant rooms of "the need for feminine affection", which Mother's voice and cuddling used to provide, I will only lay myself wide open for flames of passion to consume. If I begin to fill mother's vacant kitchen table with "food flasks" of strategising ladies, I may only end up on the laps of a strange Delilah who has no better interest than to cut the locks of anointing which mother spent her whole life to cultivate to maturity!

This was the unfortunate situation thrust on Jacob as he had to flee home, where mother was, to go fend for himself and pick a wife for his future. God's grace in response to the blessing of a father eventually got him the will of God in Leah but his reckless flames of passion got him a Rachel along and his strategising wives complicated his future with two housegirls more, as wives. (Gen. 28-31).

Isaac’s place of residence by ‘The Well of The Living One Who Sees Me’ was therefore written for my own example and admonition. O that my heart will agree to dwell by my well Laharoi!

While I wait . . . For the greater profit!
While I wait in God's presence, things can only get better, I can only reap the benefits. When a man waits patiently in God's presence, it can only be for his greater good. No evil can sneak in here to ruin me because I live by The Living One Who Sees Me! The emotional flames that threaten my soul are easily quenched by the Water from ‘The Well of The Living One Who Sees Me.’ This is a place of maximum security for my life and future because in it I am fenced in by the presence of The Living One Who Sees Me.

For as long as I make this my dwelling place, I shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, my fruit shall never miss its season, my leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever I do shall prosper, because my dwelling place is by ‘The Well of The Living One Who Sees Me.’
No wonder Isaac was never agitated, though Rebecca came only after he was forty years of age. By ‘The Well of The Living One Who Sees Me’, agitation cannot find a foothold because meditation is the order of the day and communion with the Holy one is the life there. He that is planted here shall make no haste, though the Lord may seem to tarry, for he knows that his Father doth spend the time to undertake for him.

He knows, he shall not need seven years of labor to secure his Rebecca; neither can he be tricked with a Leah instead of a Rachel, for the eyes of The Living One Who Sees him goes ahead of him.

Oh my Father and my God, while I wait here for you, please send your Spirit to where the damsels are learning to draw water from the well of life. Cast the lot Yourself that will secure the Rebecca for my life. Speak to her and those that have custody of her life . . . and relieve me of the dangerous assignment of choosing by myself at the wells of life. Bargain for her on my behalf and overcome all the delay tactics of reluctant in-laws. Who else but You can know on whom You have placed the same blessing that You already have pronounced on me? Together we shall possess the gate of our enemies and cause the purpose of our God to prosper in our generation. My waiting shall never be in vain. It was designed to bring me much profit.

While I wait . . . For the Proper Lessons!
Dear Lord, while I wait, may I learn my lessons and learn the principles that makes for a Godly union and home. While I wait, may I receive truths that You have kept for my future and my coupling. While I wait, may my spirit acquire the grace of the husbandman that will deliver me from being a mere "horseband". While I wait for, and on the Lord now, may I learn how I shall bring her into my mother’s tent. Open my understanding that I may learn how to dwell with her with wisdom.

Help me now, so that when she comes, I may take her, this Rebecca and not another; take her for who she is, for what she is and for all that is in her. Thou God who is Thyself ‘LOVE’, create in me now, the heart that will love, even this your Rebecca for my life.

Lord, now, before her arrival, may I truly know the "death" of my mother. May she be permanently gone from the tent she occupied in my heart; for there is no way this Rebecca will come as a comfort, while ‘Sarah’, my mother lives, still in her tent within me. May I wait, learning and growing in this necessary death that will ensure that proper cleaving will ever take place.

"For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery…"
Ephesians 5:31, 32

And as for me, Oh Lord, let this no more remain a mystery, but make it a life for me while I wait for, and on you. Amen. Let me not live to see my Rebecca struggle with my Sarah for space and attention in my heart while I watch, helplessly torn between two bosoms that I have come to love.
Lord, while I wait, let me learn how to recognise her when she comes. Let me know her before I know her. Let me be one with her in the spirit, lest I be confused by the dressing of prettier girls. When your Rebecca for my life comes, let not the Camels become my attraction, nor the myriads of ladies riding alongside her, lest I miss the real help meet for my life.

And when you come! . . . with her in hand, may joy unspeakable make me rise in divine recognition to joyfully receive her without doubt or struggle from Thy loving outstretched hands. May Grace within spring up to apply without a fault, all the lessons that the days of my waiting have quietly imparted to me.

Even so, Lord Jesus. Amen!

MY PATH TO GLORY

The path to glory is not necessarily glorious.

It hardly ever is. The path to fulfilling purpose and succeeding in life is often lined with trials, sufferings and contradictions. The path to glory is not the glory, it is simply a path, a route, a means to an end . . . and therefore it is not the focus.

Jesus, Master, you are the end that justifies my path in life. You are the glory, you are the ultimate. Becoming as you please is the glory! Oh Lord, please help me to focus on you and not the twists and turns on my path to becoming your will in life. Oh please help me take heed to myself, and to my expectations in treading this path to glory. For my path to glory may not lie in situations that look glorious!

My path to glory, like it was for David the son of Jesse, may lie in running mere errands of bearing victuals to those who hate me. Having to labour and sweat in order to see to the wellbeing of those who feel I will amount to nothing. The opportunity of triumph in battle may lie in agreeing to go on trips that I know my colleagues and elders will certainly misunderstand and misinterpret.

My path to glory, like it was for Joseph the son of Jacob, may lie in being stripped of the garment of love and cast into a dry pit. Sold almost naked, only to be resold like a cheap merchandise from one hand to the other.

The path to glory may make me the object of pity, sympathy and even sorrow . . . mourned, buried and given up as dead in the heart of those who love me. Living as a slave to serve the interest of others, yet witnessing God blessing men through my hands without anything that could be called mine.

The path to glory may see me tempted with sins, day and night, lied against, and even cast into prison without a chance to be heard. Yes, the path to glory may be one drab, dreary and difficult drill of drudgery after another. And I may be tempted to cry out to be delivered to tread an easier and broader path that beckons to me just a little yonder.

Yet, what is the alternative to this my path? To have remained at the vale of Hebron? In my father's favouristic love?

No! Lord, a father’s love and pampering may only ruin my destiny, for I may only but end up between his legs. I may only grow old, an arrogant spoilt brat speaking only of dreams and what I hope to be one day. No! Lord, a father’s love will only peak my life at the limits of what a man can provide.

Again, a master’s openly celebrated blind trust may only earn me the post of a chief servant; cutting me short from reaching the peak of God’s purpose for my life. I may die a household chieftain when the chance to save nations and generations after nourish and sustaining God’s people, awaits me.

So then . . . . the cruelty of even my brethren, the false accusation of a sin I have not committed, the cold floor and chains of a maximum prison; may be but all a divine ladder extended towards me by the hands of mercy, so as to climb to the place of honour and glory.

And I hear the Lord testify to my soul . . .

“Listen son and learn wisdom. Look at me and gain understanding. My path to glory was on the rough sand of suffering. I became the Captain of your salvation by the many things which I suffered on your behalf. My crown was not first that of Gold, but alas, of thorn it was.

I was like a tender plant, like a root shooting out from a dry ground. I had neither form nor comeliness. When men saw me, I had no beauty that should make them desire me. I was despised and rejected of them, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief; they hid as it were their faces from me and lightly esteemed me. But it was their griefs that I bore, it was their sorrows that I carried, yet they did consider me smitten, stricken and afflicted by God for my sins. But the truth is, I was wounded for your transgression, bruised for your iniquities; the chastisement of your peace was upon me; and it was my stripes that got you healed. Do remember son, that like a sheep you had gone astray, you had turned to your own way, but my father laid upon me your iniquity. It was for you I was oppressed and afflicted.

Then was I brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep, silent before her shearers, I did not even open my mouth. I was taken from prison and from judgement; I died without children, as it were, to continue my family. But who among the people realised that I was dying for their sins - that I was suffering their punishment? I did no wrong. I never deceived anyone; yet I was buried like a criminal, comforted only by a rich man’s grave.

But then . . . .

All of these were God’s good plans to crush me and fill me with grief, so that after my life have been made an offering for sin, I will have a multitude of children, and many heirs to join me in inheriting my Father.

When my Father saw all that was accomplished by my anguish, He was satisfied. So you see, those were the experiences that made me a righteous servant. That was the path I took that made it possible for many to be counted righteous, as I bore their sins. Therefore, I am given, by my father, the honours of one that is mighty and great, because I exposed myself to death. I bore the sins of many and interceded for sinners.

That was my path to glory! Yours may not be too different. Hence, fortify yourself with my grace, and go all through the path I have ordained for to lead you to your own glory with me" Now, here is the tragedy . . . . "not many do find this path to life and glory. Only but few that find it ever arrived safe at its end”

Help me, dear Lord, that I reject not the path you have carefully mapped out for me, no matter how rough it might be. Help me, dear Lord that I mournfully march on, on this my path that is destined to land me in Glory. Help me to accept all that's destined to propel me to life and peace.

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28
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A Poverty of the Heart!

Isaiah 51:7-8
“Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation."
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There is that subtle conflict that faces a man doing his best to follow the ways of righteousness and order his life according to the laws of God.
Deep in his heart he knows that what he is doing is the correct thing. It is the lasting and eternally profitable thing to do. But then the rest of the multitudes around him are making fun of him as if he is the stupid one.
They make him feel as if he doesn't know what he knows. They deride him as if he's behind, he's backward... he's outdated. The pressure often comes from the fact that he is alone and they are a multitude. He alone sees the value of what he is standing upon; all the others see value in something else. Worse still, the multitude can readily point to the benefits of their own way but he has to tell one long, lonely story of someone else, somewhere who benefited from this his own righteous way. And he and his principles look unreal, unreliable and in all sense unreasonable. That is the problem. That is the pressure. That is the source of the "fear" that God was talking about.

Yes, the righteous way is a lonely way.
The godly route is a narrow route, it doesn't accommodate the multitude.
It doesn't, most times, accommodate “collleaguing”! It doesn't allow conferencing!
No! It doesn't allow comparisons and competition with mates and acquaintances. Those that must go that way must look straight on . . . focussed, only on Jesus and His demands. And that is a real pressure on mortal minds like ours.

Many times we wonder if God "understands" this pressure. Many times we wish He will just allow us go the multitude way . . . and, as God, still bring His will to come to pass, after all He can do all things. Can He not?
Why doesn't God work through the normal easy way of least resistance that the world and her multitude normally advocate? Simply because, God is not a man! And he is not like the sons of men that will eventually buckle under pressure! He knows the way of the multitude is the way of man . . . slippery and untrustworthy! He knows that one day, these same confident boasting crowds of men will come around to repent and say "I'm sorry, I goofed, after all, I'm only a man". So instead of bending to our cry to save us from the pressure of shame and kindred resistance, He simply looks us in the face and says . . . .

Isaiah 51:12-13
“I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; And forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?"
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Who are you . . . that you should be afraid?
I think that is where the problem is. I think that is the real issue! Most righteous men do not realise who they are. They probably know the value of the principles they try to live by, but they do not know the real value of being a righteous man!
That's why God asks the question . . . "who are you? Or better still . . . "who do you think you are?" Let's get the question is simpler English . . .

Isaiah 51:12-13 - Bible in Basic English
“I, even I, am your comforter: are you so poor in heart as to be in fear of man who will come to an end, and of the son of man who will be like grass? And you have given no thought to the Lord your Maker, by whom the heavens were stretched out, and the earth placed on its base; and you went all day in fear of the wrath of the cruel one, when he was making ready for your destruction. And where is the wrath of the cruel one?"
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Are you so poor in heart? Are you so unaware of the riches of Grace available to the righteous man? Are you so in disconnect from the reservoir of divine resources available in God and available to whosoever follows Him?

Why are we so poor in heart? . . . And has so undervalued our heritage? Why do we fear the multitude . . .? and shrink under their mockery and reviling? Is it not because we have lost sight of who we are and lost sight of who our God is? Is it not because we have forgotten His antecedents? The Fear of man is poverty of a kind, a poverty of the heart!

Our poverty in heart is a reflection of our poverty of memory.
The simple matter is that we forget.
We forgot our Red Sea and the "standing wall of water" for us to pass!
We forgot that He did it again in Jordan by another way . . . So He can be trusted to do it again and again in a million and one ways, if He says so!
We forgot the Manna which our fathers freely ate and knew not how it came!
We forgot the water flowing from the Rock inside an acclaimed Desert!
We forgot the pillar of cloud by day, for shade; and the pillar of fire by night, for protection!
We forgot, we forget. That's the problem. We always forget! And so we focus on the wrong things and fear the wrong person!

Why fear man if you fear God?!
Why succumb to Man's pressure if you have yielded to God's command?!
Why shrink under the multitude's reproach, if you have accepted God's assurances?!

Our poverty of heart is often also a poverty of faith and confidence in God!
We believe men more than we believe God. We fear more than we have faith.
Meanwhile, Fear is faith in the opposite direction.
Fear and Faith are equal and opposite.
Faith says, "I believe God is able to do what He has promised.
Fear says, "I believe the Devil is able to do what he has threatened.
Fear is the exact reciprocal of Faith.
As Fear is increasing, Faith is decreasing.
As Faith wells up in the believer's heart, Fear ebbs out from his thoughts and emotions! As you feed your fear with the words of men, you starve your Faith of the Words of God. So, really, its up to the righteous man to decide what to allow to fill his mind.

So, let's do a turnaround today!
Lets give honour to WHOM honour is due and fear to WHOM fear is due!
Let's change the focus of our heart and redirect the thoughts of our meditation.
Let's dwell on the law of God hidden in our hearts. Let's dwell on the righteous principles we already know. And the fear and the reproach of the multitude will soon lose their pressure on us.

Isaiah 8:12-14
“Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.
Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem."
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