Waiting and Listening - Thursday June 18, 2015
For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. Psalm 62:5 ESV
When we live in a situation of loss, we do a lot of waiting and listening. Normally there is so much to be busy with-good things like work, serving people, meeting friends, taking care of the home, doing chores, making meals, running errands. But when someone dies or leaves your life, priorities change. Extra time with God, sitting quietly reading and recording verses, praying, talking with others who share your grief-these activities become a lifeline to God and His character and His ways. The comfort of God becomes more real through His Word and His people.
Hoping for news or connection with those who have left our lives means we always have an ear open. A text, a phone call, an email, a letter, a Facebook post may all mean hope: a change of heart may have occurred, a turning to God. One thinks of the father of the prodigal son. Without all the modern means of communication, the father kept an eye on the road, the road leading home. Always his son was in his mind. So with our wandering children or our lost friends-they are in our minds as we yearn for their being found, their return to God, their salvation. "While [his son] . . . was still a long way off . . . his father . . . ran . . ." The loving father had been waiting and listening for a long time. He did not miss his son's return.
Our Heavenly Father is the same. He waits for us; He listens for our voice. He has been longing from eternity past for each of us to come to Him. And our hope is in Him for our lost loved one's return.
Submitted by:
Dotty Vanderhorst
Cornerstone Community Church
Overland Park, Kansas
One-Year Reading Plan:
1 Kings 19:1-21
Acts 12:1-23
Psalms 136:1-26
Proverbs 17:14-15
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SCRIPTURE REFERENCB-ES: Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible B) The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are from the Holy, Bible, New International Version, copyright B) 1973, 1978, 1984 by InternaB-tional Bible Society; (NKJV) are from New King James Version B) 1982 by Thomas Nelson; (NLT) are from the New Living Translation, B) 1996, Tyndale House Publishers; (ESV) are from English Standard VersionB., B) 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers; (TM) are from The Message B) 1993 by NavPress Publishers.