At about 6 PM on Saturday evening I set my clock ahead one hour as we do each time this year for Daylight Savings Time. I needed to awake early on Sunday and re-submerge myself in my Sunday sermons for some fine tuning. I had nearly forgotten to set the clock ahead which would have robbed me of a valuable hour the next day, and was especially grateful when it came to mind late in the afternoon on Saturday. Once the clock had been set for the time-change, I rested for a bit before we all went to bed. It was a good thing to have adjusted the clock for the right time. Too bad I failed to set my alarm for wake-up on Sunday. Yep, with all my preparation for the time adjustment I had failed to do the one thing that I do every night which is to turn back on the clock’s alarm after turning it off that morning. Interestingly, at 4 AM on Sunday morning a strange thing happened. A little bird sat directly outside my window and started singing in the morning dark. My mind clicked on as I reasoned myself out of sleep that birds don’t sing in the dark most of the time. Opening one eye at my clock I clearly saw that no alarm had sounded and I was now an hour late for rising. Does it sound too super-spiritual to say that I think God sent the little bird to compensate for my mistake the night before? Does God send sparrows to wake up absent-minded preachers? I’m going to roll with it and say, ‘Yes!’ I scrambled about and headed out the door and began my way down to the church. Below are a couple of verses that I found yesterday after eventually making it in to the office…one hour behind schedule:
“The Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore He exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him…you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as He hears it, He answers you.” – Isaiah 30:18-19 {ESV}
Israel had mightily failed God and would soon experience severe discipline for their sins against Him. Before God sent the discipline, He sent word through Isaiah that was to serve to tell God’s people that the punishment would not linger forever and that, once God humbled His children, He would mightily bless them again. Interestingly, He encouraged them by telling them that He intended to be gracious and merciful and that they would need to wait it out while His chastisement ran its full course. He told them that their weeping would come to an end and, when they cried out to Him in humble repentance, He would immediately hear that cry and answer them. This is an important lesson for us to learn today:
Even when we fail God miserably, His desire is to show grace and act in mercy towards us. Christians, your God will never toss you aside.
Your struggles, weaknesses, indifference, rebellion and sin are not the controlling factors in your relationship with God. The anchor that holds it all in place is who Jesus Christ is and what He has accomplished. You are in Him and therefore a qualified candidate to experience the relentless grace of a merciful God. Truly, God despises our wretched acts of transgression but He has removed them from us so that He now deals with us according to His own attributes and not ours. To put it plainly, we are comprehensively forgiven through the payment of blood by Jesus Christ. God will correct and discipline us but never leave nor forsake us. Let’s keep that in the forefront of our minds this week as some reading this are not faithfully wlaking as they should and, consequently, living at a distance from the God who loves them. Please remember that you have received a pardon from God, not probation. He has chosen to delight in you even as He cannot delight in your misguided activities. Your sin never changes His view of you but it completely warps your view of Him. I write to a select few today who live with shame and are cocooned in guilt, missing joy and forgetting peace. I’m writing to tell you to wake up and hear His voice of reassurance and indomitable love. I’m seeking to plant a seed in your soul which will fruitfully occupy the territory that is now overgrown with thorns and nettles (Proverbs 24:30-31). In essence, I’m a little bird who is singing a song at your window, seeking to awaken you from a spiritual sleep that has gone on too long. Paul shared it best in Ephesians 5:14 when he wrote, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Don’t hit the snooze button any more.
While this blog may be written to people struggling with shame and guilt (I spent many years with that struggle from the wickedness of my youth), I have repented and turned all of that over to Jesus. And what an incredible relief that was! …. I take from this blog the joy that we do not serve a comparative God. My “worth” is not based on how I stack up against others who have a skill or skills greater than mine. God calls me for the specific reason to use the gifts he has granted me to the best that I can and that is always what puts me in the will of God!
I do believe that birds are sent to wake us sometimes….and other times, God uses people (like , ummmm YOU) to wake us and motivate us upward and onward
I think sometimes that I put my mindset on God…thinking He thinks as I do at times. It is such a blessing to know that He is so far above my pitiful thinking and even when I don’t love myself much, He loves me beyond measure. Praise His Holy Name! A great way to start my week.