Today

"If the living God was as moody as the false gods of the Romans and the Greeks, which continually warred with each other, if our Father bent to emotion, out of control, then where would we be?

THE FATHER HAS removed time from the equation. He is aware of it, but not bound by it. We factor it in. He factors without it. He, in fact, created time to end time. Jesus is both the beginning of time and the end of time. He knows when it will end and how and has stated in His Word why and what will happen. The Father is bound by His Word, there is none greater than Him, and He will fulfill His Word completely. He is faithful to it. We make delay. We push things awry with our unbelief, our disobedience, our ignorance and misunderstandings. His desire is always to do for us, to bless us beyond our understanding, but we can cause what He wants to provide to not become through our willfulness, whether sincere from us or not.

“Blessed (happy, blithesome, joyous, spiritually prosperous—with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the meek (the mild, patient, long-suffering), for they shall inherit the earth!” (Matthew 5:5 AMPC)
*The final verse of this chapter tells us these are traits of the Father we are to imitate.

He is longsuffering. My mother always says longsuffering is the opposite of short-suffering. We have a wrong view of longsuffering. Both in the Hebrew and the Greek, it implies being slow to anger. It is patience and longanimity. Another unusual word, which means “patient endurance of hardship, injuries, or offense.” Thinking of the Father, of the Savior and the Holy Spirit, as having hardship is an unusual picture. But it is that they are patient and forbearing in the face of it. Any turmoil which comes before them does not change their nature, character, or methods of operation. Where it makes us restless, anxious, fearful, and angry, they remain the same: meek, mild, and gentle. In spite of people’s animosity, they are loving and kind and exceedingly patient.

Think of it. If the living God was as moody as the false gods of the Romans and the Greeks, which continually warred with each other, if our Father bent to emotion, out of control, then where would we be? No, it is that God’s love is continually wide and deep, eternal, that caused Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. It is that God is powerful and omnipresent and omnipotent, Adonai and Elohim, that caused Him to rise from the grave. What was written at the beginning of time came to place in time because He is consistent.

“Now, trust comes from our understanding with God, because he has demonstrated that he is trustworthy to fulfill what he has promised. And by trusting in him—the one who made the promises—we are confident of what we hope for, and are sure of what we do not yet see.” (Hebrews 11:1, Remedy)

And in this consistency, we can trust completely. Where the enemy lies and twists truth, where nothing man says is reliable outside of Christ in them, and all is smoke and vapors and mirrors, our Father is ever-true. He cannot be untrue. Lying is abhorrent to Him and His toleration for our antics, for our disbelief, our incorrect beliefs, beyond comprehension.

I have told this before. I had an occasion twice to experience the love of God on a scale the natural mind cannot grasp, and as I lay there, surrounded by it, I could not fathom how much God loved people. Where we would “do away” with them, God finds them worth saving, worth loving. Sin is abhorrent to Him, and those cloaked in it are far from His presence, and yet with a word, He is near and all of it is gone. Repentance is such a simple, blessed thing. But that experience, feeling His love as I did, changed me forever. I wish all could see people as He does.

He sees us through longsuffering, not through time. We run around in desperation, a calendar, a clock in our grasp, but He knows the extent of our character, what we can withstand and how we will grow through it, He knows the very thoughts and intents of our heart, the why and how we do things. He knows all the factors around us, our pain and suffering, how much the bills will cost, and He is faithful to supply all our needs. But to see His care of us, to hold onto His love for us, we must first turn loose of the need, of the pain and turmoil, and that is a difficult thing for the human mind to do.

“And who of you by worrying and being anxious can add one unit of measure (cubit) to his stature or to the span of his life?” (Matthew 6:27, AMPC)

I have made this statement before, too, and it comes out of experience – there comes a point where God is our only choice, our only way out. He must be our only choice above all else. Doctors are for our benefit. They are the point of faith for many. But even in this, we must seek God and hold to Him. There is no moment when we can go it alone without Him, when our decision overrides His. And there is no amount of time that outstretches His grasp of us. Time does not make His decisions, so we must trust Him in it. Stop pacing back and forth and live in this day, in this hour before us, and trust Him to bring all things to completion.

Did He not, in making time, in planning the end of time, plan its completion? And in that, we see His victory, not our losses. We see the enemy’s defeat, not our problems. We see death erased and sorrow gone, and that hope holds before us with every breath today.

“And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. (43) And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:42-43)
*A thief condemned to die on a cross found himself at the end of time and yet there, in that instant, in his “to day” was given eternity in the endless grace and goodness of God.

"False God" Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay
Arrows Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com