Dealing With Delay

Trust in the Lord for that peace, that portion, which will be forever. Whatever we trust to the world for, it will last only for a moment; but those who trust in God shall not only find in him, but shall receive from him, strength that will carry them to that blessedness which is forever. Let us then acknowledge him in all our ways, and rely on him in all trials. "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding" (Proverbs 3: 5).

2. Desiring God (v. 8)

Wanting to be closer to God is something that all of us should long. Like a person who has not eaten in a while groans for a good meal, we too should deeply desire to feast on the presence of God. We must desire the divine. But what does that mean? What brings on this type of hunger? What causes us to desire God?

In Exodus 20, God commands the people to love Him. You’d think Israel would’ve felt as if God was forcing Himself upon them as He threatened their lives (and their kids’ lives and their grandkids lives and their great grandkids lives) if they loved anyone but Him. But after all He had done for them, why would he have to ask them to love Him? Wouldn’t it be natural that they would love Him enough that nothing could sway their love? Obviously not, because only 12 chapters later they couldn’t wait 40 days for the Lord before their love grew fickle and they were off making a golden calf to worship.

Also in Mark 12 we see Jesus reinforce the idea that we are not to love anyone beside the Lord. He cannot be compared to anyone or anything. He is the only one that can redeem us, forgive us, remove our guilt, bring us true joy… and the list goes on. And we are to love this God with all our heart, mind and strength.

If we are honest with ourselves I think we would have to agree that we indeed struggle to have a sustaining, focused joy in the Lord. The reasons are obvious; while in these fleshly tents we yet remain stained by sin which hinders our joy in the Lord (Ps. 51: 12), and in our tech-savvy society we have virtually endless distractions - keeping us numbed to heavenly realities and our heavenly calling (Heb. 3: 1). Indeed, we find ourselves lapsing, at times, into a “neutral” state with regard to the glory of God and Christ. But having a spiritual taste for the glory of Christ is not morally neutral. Not to have it is evil and deadly. Not to see and savor Christ is an insult to the beauty and worth of his character. Preferring anything above Christ is the very essence of sin [Mt. 10: 37-39]. It must be fought.

An attraction to personal holiness is another sign of the desire for God. This can be triggered in at least two ways: first, learning about holy people in the past; and second, meeting holy people today. Holiness is naturally attractive, since it is an invitation into the divine. "Deep calls to deep," as Psalm 42 says. Think of the crowds that follow the Dalai Lama or Mother Teresa. But holiness is not reserved for the saints, who were human after all. Holiness always makes its home in humanity.