January 8, 2010

• We wait on You as You wait to be gracious to us

  John 11: 1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
  2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill.
  3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, Lord, he whom you love is ill.
  4 But when Jesus heard it he said, This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.
  5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
  
  
  Isaiah 30:18 Therefore 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.
  
  19 For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; 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.

  Holy Father,

  We are Your children. We are Your people. We are sick like Lazarus. We are in a state of spiritual malaise. We are helpless. We cannot raise ourselves from the dead. We are stuck in our tombs.

  This sickness, the current state of the Church and the current state of our individual lives, even though our state greatly grieves You, we know this is all for Your glory because all things are for Your glory, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.

  We wait on You as You wait to be gracious to us once again for Your glory.
  Blessed are we as we wait on You.
  
  We come before You and bow and confess our sin before You. We have not loved You or one another as we ought. We do not deserve to come to You except through the blood of Jesus.

  O Lord, You have been gracious to us by saving us and calling us to Yourself.

  O Lord, You have been gracious to us. You loved us first before we loved You.

  O Lord, You have been gracious to us. We had not received Your mercy but now we have received Your mercy.

  O Lord, You have been gracious to us. We were not Your people but now we are Your people.

  O Lord, You have been gracious to us. We were dead but now we are alive.

  O Lord, You have been gracious to us. You have given Your only begotten Son for us.

  We wait on You as You wait to be gracious to us once again for Your glory.
  Blessed are we as we wait on You.
  
  Even though we have sinned and grieved You (and we also are grieved by our sin), we appeal to You by Jesus' oath, covenant and blood, by which we were made Your people, we ask that You hear our prayers to come and revive us, to come and be gracious to us once more.

  We wait on You as You wait to be gracious to us once again for Your glory.
  Blessed are we as we wait on You.

  Just as Jesus loved Mary, Martha and Lazarus, You love us for Jesus' sake. You loved us before we loved You. In Your sovereign love, mercy and grace You chose us and set Your love on us. We know You hear our prayers for Jesus' sake. We know You will never leave us or forsake us. We know that nothing can separate us from Your love for us in Christ Jesus. He is our surety. And You have given us Your Spirit as a deposit, a guarantee of Your promises to us.

  And now You have been calling some of Your children to cry out to You for help. You have shown us there is no help apart from You. We know You have heard the sound of our cry for Jesus' sake. Yet there has been a delay –  just when Jesus waited to go to Bethany after He heard of His friend's sickness, You are waiting to come to us. You know our sickness. You have heard our cry. You knew our sickness before we cried to You. Lord, we know You are sovereign. We trust You are waiting to be gracious to us once more so You might be highly exalted, so You might be glorified and Your blessed Son, our Savior, glorified. All things are for Your glory.

  We wait on You as You wait to be gracious to us once again for Your glory.
  Blessed are we as we wait on You.

  We know these things are all in Your time and in Your hands. You will be gracious to us again when You deem the fullness of time has come, in due time, in the time You alone ordain. Your timing is perfect. Your ways are perfect and Your ways are higher than our ways. We are trusting by faith and anticipating with fervent hope You will come at just the right time to revive us again and be gracious to us for Your Name's sake.

  We wait on You as You wait to be gracious to us once again for Your glory.
  Blessed are we as we wait on You.

  Your time is perfect. That time will be that time when You will be most highly exalted and lifted up. We do not know that time. By faith and patience and great joy and anticipation we look ahead to the day that time will come. We know that in that time You will be glorified and Your Son will be glorified. O, Lord God, exalt Yourself, and show mercy to us.

  We wait on You as You wait to be gracious to us once again for Your glory.
  Blessed are we as we wait on You.

  We know You have already heard our cries and are already moving and acting, even though we may not yet see much evidence. We trust by faith and look forward to that day You will be exalted in a way we cannot even imagine. We look to the day that we will not weep any more (except with tears of joy!). We look with faith to the day we will be revived, restored and renewed, the day Your Church will be a praise in the earth and a glory to You and no longer a reproach, an astonishment, a proverb and a byword. We look forward to the day that the nations will stream to Your house once again and our light will shine brightly to the ends of the earth.

  We wait on You as You wait to be gracious to us once again for Your glory.
  Blessed are we as we wait on You.

  O, Lord, help us to persevere in prayer, by faith and with abundant hope and fullness of joy. May we continue to come to Your throne and appeal to Your mercy and grace again and again until You are gracious to us once again, that day when Your Spirit falls to revive us again, to speak to us so we might come forth from our tombs for Your glory and for the glory of Your Son.

  We wait on You as You wait to be gracious to us once again for Your glory.
  Blessed are we as we wait on You.

  Please add your prayers as the Holy Spirit leads...

  • 6:48 PM
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