“Why would a God that loves me ask me to wait?  How can that be an act of love?  Doesn’t He see that I am desperately hurting—why would God wait?” Aren’t those the questions we ask when we are in the midst of trials and God seems to be silent to our wailing and inconsolable tears.  Let us turn first to John 11 where we may be able to begin to understand, “That it is because He loves us that He asks us to wait.”  I urge you to read the entire chapter very carefully when you get alone and have the time to meditate.  Mary and Martha had sent for Jesus because their brother was sick and dying.  Verses 5 and 6 then say, Jesus loved Mary, Martha, and Lazarus; so He waited.  What?  Because He loved them, He waited.  They wanted Him to come and to heal Lazarus; yet, because He loved them, He waited.  In fact, He waited long enough that Lazarus had died and been buried already 4 days before He arrived.  Mary, Martha and all their friends and family were beside themselves with grief.  Martha went out to meet Him and said, “Had you been here, my brother would not have died.”  She had seen the miracles of healing for others.

Artwork used by permission of Ronald Barba. © 2011 Ronald Barba. This artwork is copyright protected.

“Why would a God that loves me ask me to wait? How can that be an act of love? Doesn’t He see that I am desperately hurting—why would God wait?”

Why didn’t Christ come and heal her brother? Didn’t He love her?  Why would He have waited?  Mary didn’t even want to come to Jesus, He had to call for her.  She was so distraught.  They had wanted Him to come, they had more than Him; wanted His miracles.  Now, it was only Him—He was too late for a miracle and they were sad—they could not see that He was enough.  He had come to give them life and they could not see that He was life.  He had come to display

Continue reading Wait (Part 2) Why would a loving God ask us to Wait →

Wait.  Truly that word is such a simple word; yet, one that causes us to groan.  We hate to wait in line, wait at a stop light, wait at the doctor’s office, wait for the phone to ring, and wait for God to answer.  You didn’t think I was going to admit that last one; but, how often do we try to rush ahead of God, become anxious because He hasn’t answered yet, or begin to withdraw into depression doubting His love for us.  From the time that we are small children, we hate to wait.  We want things now.

photo used courtesy of @istock

We become anxious, worried, and tend to want to find a short cut to avoid the waiting.  Often, our shortcut proves to take longer or to even mess up everything.  Still God calls upon us to wait.

  So let’s look at this idea of waiting upon God.  I think what will help us most is to break this down into at least 3 parts:  What are the promises from God, if we wait?  Why does God ask us to wait sometimes?  What do I do while I am waiting?

What are the Promises from God, if we wait?

Continue reading Wait (Part 1) God’s Promises →

Praise is one of our great privileges.  When we are praising, we cannot help but be filled with joy.  Have you ever been frustrated or sad, then a song comes on the air or you put on music.  It isn’t long until begin to sing along with a song and all the words begin to fill your head.  Sometimes the words get “stuck in your head” and the rest of the day you are singing that song in the recesses of your mind.  What a wondrous gift God gave us in music.   David recognized the importance of music. There were appointed singers and songwriters whose only job was to praise both day and night.  (I Chronicle 9: “³³ And these are the singers, chief of the fathers of the Levites, who remaining in the chambers were free: for they were employed in that work day and night.” Instruments of music were made from the finest wood.  I Kings 10: “¹² And the king made of the almug trees pillars for the house of the Lord, and for the king’s house, harps also and psalteries for singers: there came no such almug trees, nor were seen unto this day.”

Psalm 89 (NIV) ¹ I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever;
with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known
through all generations.
² I will declare that your love stands firm forever,
that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself.

photo courtesy of istock

God’s Great gift of Music can change our hearts from sorrow to joy as we praise Him. 

As with all of God’s gifts we can recognize also how music can also alter our minds to think about sorrow, frustration, and anger driving our minds away from God when we focus too much on music that is not praise or that is in itself filled with hostile lyrics.  I love music and am not saying that we should avoid all secular music—not at all; but, we should when sad, weary, or frustrated turn to Christian music.  What we need to remember that our greatest treasure is God and when we focus on praising Him our whole demeanor changes.  If you are saying, but today it is hard to praise Him, I have so many worries.  Well, perhaps Isaiah can help you

Continue reading Finding Joy-One Song At A Time →

Prayer is our intercession, it is our hope.  So often, we try to go to battle against the flesh and we fail to recognize our need for intercessory prayer.  We forget to pray and we forget the importance of others praying on our behalf.  God did not leave us here on earth to fight this battle alone.  As Christians, we need communion with other Christians.  That perhaps is something that I forget at times.  We need each other.  I must say that it is the intercessory prayer of many dear friends which have carried me through.  Just as Moses stood in prayer while Joshua fought the Amalekites,

we need dear Christians who pray for us.

And as Moses prayed for during this great symbolic battle of flesh against the spirit, his arms were held up by Aaron and Hur. (Exodus 17:8-16) Prayer teams are needed to help us in our battles.  This past year I faced a huge battle for God, fought within my very heart and soul- battle to hold onto God’s truth in the midst of conflict.  I could not have done so without the prayer team from Leading the Way and the prayers of a dear Christian lady, Iris Rice. My other prayer teams included Mom, Millie, John Michael, Delores, Rochelle, and Anne. A special thanks to Millie and John Michael is due as they have been dear accountability partners to whom I could confess all my failures in those times when the battle seemed too hard or I became filled with fear and doubt—without judging they reminded me always of who I am in Christ. God did not leave us here to fight alone.  He is there; He is the victory.  Yet, He has so chosen that we

Continue reading We All Need Intercessory Prayer Partners →

Would I Love You Even More

I felt the searing, pelting rain

Deep within my soul

I was uncertain where to turn

Or what should be my goal

I gazed upon a cross so far

That stood upon a hill

A Lion strong had died a Lamb

He gave His life at will

That I so undeserving be

Might see His face of love

A Glimpse of His true Glory

To fill me with His Love

CHORUS:

Would I love You just the same

When my life is filled with shame

When pain is all I know

Would my love for You still show

Can I show Your Glory still

Accept this as Your will

When my heart is broke in two

Cradled in Your hands, renew

As on Your hope I soar

Would I love You even more?

© 2010 Effie Darlene Barba

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to any brands, products or services that I have mentioned with the exception of my own book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides regarding the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”