The Plumbline

The Lord is not being slow in doing what he promised—the way some people understand slowness. But God is being patient with you. He doesn’t want anyone to be lost. He wants everyone to change their ways and stop sinning. (2 Peter 3:9) Is anyone else grateful for God's patience? I know I am! If he held every sin against me, even those committed AFTER I said yes to him, I'd be in a totally miserable place! How about you? Just because you said 'yes' to Jesus doesn't mean you stopped dealing with sin's desires and pulls in your life. In fact, like me, you probably have given in to some of those temptations on occasion. Just like me, you need God's patience and I sure hope you are as grateful for it as I am! On another note, when God delays his answer to us, how do we take that delay? If you are anything like me, you sometimes question if God even heard your cry for help, or request for something to be done in your life. Maybe you went ahead and did whatever it w...

How much longer, Lord, will you forget about me? Will it be forever? How long will you hide? How long must I be confused and miserable all day? How long will my enemies keep beating me down? (Psalm 13:1-2) If you have ever asked, "Are we there yet?", you know the question is not one of patience, but of impatience. We want all the good stuff, but we don't like the time between the vision and its fulfillment. The vision is easy for us to comprehend, but all the stuff that happens between the vision and the fulness of its completion is much harder for us to understand. We want to 'be there', but God has some work to do in us, around us, or through us before we 'get there'. In those 'in between' times while we await the fulfillment of the vision, it is not uncommon for us to begin to question if we got the vision right. In other words, we begin to question God's purpose in the wait. We think he has withdrawn from us, is hiding himself from us, o...

Elkanah had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah did not. So Peninnah would taunt Hannah and make fun of her because the Lord had kept her from having children. (I Samuel 1:2, 6) Hannah was one of two wives taken by Elkanah. She was barren, while Peninnah was not. Yet, her husband loved her deeply - in spite of the fact she could not bear him any children. Hannah lived in anguish because she was barren - for it was the supreme act of a woman to bear her husband children in those days. To be barren meant she was not fulfilling her entire 'duty' as a wife - although she may have been loved very deeply by Elkanah, she felt 'less than' when she considered how the other woman could bring forth Elkanah's progeny. I wonder how many times we consider ourselves 'less than' just because we look at others as the 'standard' by which we measure ourselves and not God's view of us as 'immensely loved and cherished'? It is e...

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal. So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife. (This happened ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan.) (Genesis 16:1-3) Have you ever gotten ahead of God's plan? You know what I mean - anxious for something to happen, so you just 'improvise' a bit to see if you 'can get things going'. Whenever I have done this, things go from bad to worse in no time at all! Why? God isn't in my 'improvisation' - he had another thing planned and I just stepped out of it. The good news is that whenever we make our own plans and take our own steps to see God's will fulfilled, he isn't going to let us muddle in tha...

  God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. (Ephesians 3:20-21) Can God do whatever it is you need done in your life? I bet almost all of us would say, "Of course he can!" I have to ask the follow-up question - do we really believe that about everything in our lives? I think there are a whole bunch of us (me included) who say those words, but they haven't made it into our hearts and minds totally yet. We 'trust' God for the big stuff, but then we diddle around with bringing him the 'small stuff' we think really isn't all that 'significant' in his eyes. The truth of the matter is that we cannot find one portion of scripture to back up the 'belief' that God isn't going to handle the small stuff! Whatever it is you need done - think upon those words a bit longer today...