Skip to main content

In His Own Time

Image
By

“Calm thyself … rest thee, sit thee still and trust. God is working out the plan of thy life, thou canst not hurry Him; it will only expend the energy of thy soul to no purpose, if thou allowest its fever to consume thee… in His own time, the best time, ‘He shall give thee the desires of thy heart’ (Psalm 37:4). 

F. B. Meyer’s words were published in 1910. You would think he was speaking to us right here and now. 

Remember the song, “My Favorite Things”? I can soon be calmed and soothed with my favorite things, even in the bad times, like now, the age of War with The Silent Enemy. My friend, Bonnie, lives some twenty miles away in Greenville. We see each other about every six weeks, and we spend the greater part of the day having lunch and talking until there is no breath left within us. We can’t do that now, so we text and encourage with each other with Scripture and daily thoughts. We talk about politics and food! We have great advice! Too bad nobody is listening, for we could solve the problems of the world. Yesterday, Bonnie baked homemade cinnamon buns. She even went so far as to send me a picture and (like Tom Hanks in “You’ve Got Mail”) she said, “I would send you a bouquet (at least six) of these delicious Cinnamon Buns…” My mouth still waters…

We’re living in some dark days. While we are social-distancing in our own safe places, we constantly receive troubling word from the outside world. We find ourselves comparing this to Moses and God's dealing with Pharaoh, as our own people drop like flies in this awful scourge, somehow forgetting that Paul's beloved son in the faith, told us that "in the last days perilous times shall come" (I Timothy 3:1). I believe they are here!

 It gives us pause to stop and recall how good it used to be to step outside, breathe in some fresh air and do all the things that once came naturally. Visit a friend, a grandchild, physically attend church, shake hands and even hug a loved one. It was nothing to drive to the Mall. What? That Mall is closed? Doors locked! Not Macy’s and Dillard’s and J. C. Penney. Certainly not the food hall, the hair salons, and all the novelty shops. Have we lost control of our lifestyle? Yet how trivial it all sounds now. Our days are condensed to three things unless we get considerably creative. The darkness of the hour drains us of hope if we’re not careful, and we tend to become sinister as we listen to those who would frustrate the Grace of God. Remember, He has the plan. The wicked virus plagues our land; the vicious ones attack our President and those he has appointed to help see us through these hard times, who punch when our people are tired and weary and utter disgraceful threats when they labor to put one foot in front of the other... think not that God is not familiar with this whole scene.  If only we could lay hold on the truth that the battle is not ours. It belongs to Him.

We hear this loud and clear from Psalm 112:  “the desires of the wicked shall perish."

There are those in our country who have chosen this dark hour to work their mischief. The nations, the corrupt politicians are but men. They are not God, neither do they possess the nature of God. They think they do. They have a rude awakening for they cannot win in a fight with our Mighty God and His Plan for our future.

In this darkest hour, be encouraged, my friend, for if you know Him, you can be sure that He is here with us. Not one word of all His good promise has failed (I Kings 8:56).

And it will not be dark forever. King David (Shepherd, Palmist, King) taught us that the Lord God has something fundamentally crucial to offer us in times like these. David said,
For thou wilt light my candle;
The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.
Psalm 18:28

I knew when I read this verse that the answer to our Covid-19 scourge was right here in this Psalm. Not only can we face the darkest hour, but the Lord our God will light our candle. The Light of the Lord Jesus Christ will enlighten the darkness that is all about us. That’s what He does. That’s Who He is. It’s not about us. It’s about Him and what He has for us in these moments. I choose to listen to Him.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It was Over... The South Was Defeated

By
Isaac Payne rode with the last of his company to Appomattox on April 10 with no inkling of what to expect. He waited outside the perimeter. Enlisted men were not allowed to be present on the streets of the Courthouse area. Only commanding officers. Isaac was emaciated, just like all the other southern patriots who leaned hard against the white picket fence that surrounded the township. Tired, empty, and disheartened, they waited to know the end of the story. One man could scarcely be identified from the next. They all looked the same. Withered and wasted. Isaac dismounted and patted Glory. She was his only earthly possession besides his weapons. His only connection to home. He gripped the bridle and pressed his face to her thin neck, unconsciously rubbing his hand over her protruding bones. If he looked up in the distance he might see his father and brother riding the dusty road to Appomattox to join him, but how could that be? They were dead. The thought of their absence and
5 comments
Read more

Upon These Fields of Glory—

By
It was hot and muggy. Historians declare it was steamy . Such is Mississippi in the summertime. From the banks of the swollen Tishomingo River on June 10, 1864, Union soldiers jumped by the thousands to escape the fire of a burning, raging battle in the Northeastern corner of the Sovereign State of Mississippi, in a little community known as Brice's Cross Roads. Confederate Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest pulled out all the stops to pull off one of the fiercest and most strategic battles of the Civil War. He won that battle, hands down. Late spring rains caused the narrow stream of water to overflow its banks. Union troops by the thousands, under the command of Brigadier General Samuel D. Sturgis slogged the gently sloping hills, their wagon trains pulled by mules dotting the landscape like flies on molasses, covering miles and miles of muddy terrain, until that day, untouched except by a few farm houses, a Reformed Presbyterian church, and an old log house, all set beneat
2 comments
Read more

A Proper Welcome Home . . .

By
... After All These Years! My brother was born on May 28, 1945, the year World War II ended. In August of that same year, the Japanese had surrendered unconditionally. Unknown to my brother, who was less than three months old, the winds of war blew fiercely somewhere else on the far side of the earth as the Japanese occupied a spot north of the sixteenth parallel after the War had ended. In September of that year, Ho Chi Minh, leader of the Viet Minh, declared the Democratic Republic of Vietnam before a crowd of some 500,000 in Hanoi. But the major allied victors of World War II— the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union—all agreed the area belonged to the French. As the French had not the wherewithal to retake Vietnam at the time, the major powers agreed that British troops would occupy the South and the Nationalist Chinese, the North. On September 14, 1945, Chinese forces disarmed the Japanese troops north of the sixteenth parallel and the British landed i
3 comments
Read more