Morning  “Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you.” / Isaiah

30:18

God often delays in answering prayer. We have several instances of this in

sacred Scripture. Jacob did not get the blessing from the angel until near the

dawn of day–he had to wrestle all night for it. The poor woman of

Syrophoenicia was answered not a word for a long while. Paul besought the Lord

thrice that “the thorn in the flesh” might be taken from him, and he received

no assurance that it should be taken away, but instead thereof a promise that

God’s grace should be sufficient for him. If thou hast been knocking at the

gate of mercy, and hast received no answer, shall I tell thee why the mighty

Maker hath not opened the door and let thee in? Our Father has reasons

peculiar to himself for thus keeping us waiting. Sometimes it is to show his

power and his sovereignty, that men may know that Jehovah has a right to give

or to withhold. More frequently the delay is for our profit. Thou art perhaps

kept waiting in order that thy desires may be more fervent. God knows that

delay will quicken and increase desire, and that if he keeps thee waiting thou

wilt see thy necessity more clearly, and wilt seek more earnestly; and that

thou wilt prize the mercy all the more for its long tarrying. There may also

be something wrong in thee which has need to be removed, before the joy of the

Lord is given. Perhaps thy views of the Gospel plan are confused, or thou

mayest be placing some little reliance on thyself, instead of trusting simply

and entirely to the Lord Jesus. Or, God makes thee tarry awhile that he may

the more fully display the riches of his grace to thee at last. Thy prayers

are all filed in heaven, and if not immediately answered they are certainly

not forgotten, but in a little while shall be fulfilled to thy delight and

satisfaction. Let not despair make thee silent, but continue instant in

earnest supplication.

 

Evening  “My people shall dwell in quiet resting places.” / Isaiah 32:18

Peace and rest belong not to the unregenerate, they are the peculiar

possession of the Lord’s people, and of them only. The God of Peace gives

perfect peace to those whose hearts are stayed upon him. When man was

unfallen, his God gave him the flowery bowers of Eden as his quiet resting

places; alas! how soon sin blighted the fair abode of innocence. In the day of

universal wrath when the flood swept away a guilty race, the chosen family

were quietly secured in the resting-place of the ark, which floated them from

the old condemned world into the new earth of the rainbow and the covenant,

herein typifying Jesus, the ark of our salvation. Israel rested safely beneath

the blood-besprinkled habitations of Egypt when the destroying angel smote the

first-born; and in the wilderness the shadow of the pillar of cloud, and the

flowing rock, gave the weary pilgrims sweet repose. At this hour we rest in

the promises of our faithful God, knowing that his words are full of truth and

power; we rest in the doctrines of his word, which are consolation itself; we

rest in the covenant of his grace, which is a haven of delight. More highly

favoured are we than David in Adullam, or Jonah beneath his gourd, for none

can invade or destroy our shelter. The person of Jesus is the quiet

resting-place of his people, and when we draw near to him in the breaking of

the bread, in the hearing of the word, the searching of the Scriptures,

prayer, or praise, we find any form of approach to him to be the return of

peace to our spirits.

“I hear the words of love, I gaze upon the blood,

I see the mighty sacrifice, and I have peace with God.

‘Tis everlasting peace, sure as Jehovah’s name,

‘Tis stable as his steadfast throne, for evermore the same:

The clouds may go and come, and storms may sweep my sky,

This blood-sealed friendship changes not, the cross is ever nigh.”