Trying Times - "Wait" Series

Trying Times - “WAIT”

by

Dr. Gale A. Ragan-Reid (5/29/2013, 6/1/2013, 6/15/2013, 6/18/2013, 6/22/2013, 6/29/2013)

“If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come”

Job 14:14, KJV [Job waiteth for his change].

Greetings in the Matchless Name of Christ Jesus,

HOW ABOUT THAT FAITH? Living a holy life, is hard, when the feelings, in your heart are less than holy and the thoughts, in your mind are less than holy. You must wait on the LORD! Living a righteous life, is hard, when your joy “steals away”(Genesis 31:27-28, KJV, [Laban pursueth Jacob], “Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me; and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, with tabret, and with harp? And hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Thou hast now done foolishly in so doing”).

You must wait on the LORD! Most recently, a friend spoke of her divorced son and the arrangements, for holidays spent with children. A dreadful thought, for most of us, I am so sure, especially, when apart. She said, “...but she put witchcraft on me. And, the way she is on the world wide web is not her true self.” She tried to say the words in her heart to describe the truth she felt and I could hear the raw emotions reverberating the surface of her heart like the sound of a tambourine, tinkling around the boom, each time hurting more than the next, trying to understand the gist of it all. I thought to myself, the same “...but”, meaning everyone on the world wide web, are that way, in some way or another, hard to understand, with troubles, sufferings, issues; someone from one of the baptist churches, I frequent put it this way, 'We all have circumstances and situations'.”

“Yes, that, too.” I spoke to my friend's need for me to affirm what she already knew, in her heart, speaking of the witchcraft issue, that you reap what you sow – it (the witchcraft) comes back to you. Whatever you sow, the same is what you reap. You sow money, you reap money. You sow food, you reap food. You sow services, you reap services. You sow witchcraft, you reap witchcraft. Exponentially speaking, God introduced multiplication to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, 'be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28, KJV [Creation of man]), which answers, “how much” and joins us in prayer, one for another. Of course, you could always stand alone as a lone wolf but it is far better for you than not, to join in prayer, in one body, in Christ Jesus, so that you receive what you prayed for and what you sowed in. For “the woman with the two mites” would not let them definitively say that you will reap, only the amount that you sowed. The amount you reap, whether 30 fold, 60 fold or 100 fold, is a matter of your heart. Sometimes, a sacrifice, as small as it might appear to those, in possession of more than you have, is enough to receive what you prayed for and to make your “cup runneth over “(Psalm 23:5) and to “receive a blessing there is not room enough to receive it in” (Malachi 3:10).

Sincerely, I speak to you, the gospel of Christ Jesus, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23, KJV [The fruit of the Spirit]). A rocket scientist might say, but it does not take a rocket scientist to say, well, if, I sow fruit, in the Spirit, then, I reap fruit, in the Spirit. This means I must sow a contrite heart filled with love to reap a contrite heart filled with love. For is love a fruit of the Spirit or am I still questioning my heart whether I want love or not? Therefore, goodness is leveraged the same way but remember the woman with two mites.

We thank the woman with two mites for change. How much love is in your heart? How much goodness is in the whole of you, heart and mind? What is not answered here, is how long must I wait? You must wait on the LORD!

2

Jesus, in the gospel readings of Mark, spoke plainly to his disciples, about the woman with two mites (St. Mark 12:41-44, KJV [The widow's mites]):

“And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how

the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were

rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and

she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he