2010-11-28

Today’s Verse:
"I call on you, my God, for you will answer me; turn your ear to me and hear my prayer." – Psalm 17:6

Prayer for Today :

Heavenly Father,

Sometimes we pray and we want Your immediately response. We want to see that You care about us and You love us.

Russell Kelfer wrote a "wait poem" Father, which explained our frustration, disappointment and feeling of defeat when You didn't give us immediate responses.

Father, sometimes we ask for something outside our capabilities without knowing. Maybe we ask for career advancement, maybe we ask for a child, maybe we ask for a relationship to prosper etc. Yet for how many times out of these things did we consider our own ability? Take career advancement for instance, can we do the job? Can we handle the pressure, the workload, the relationship issues etc. which will come with the advancement? There are times when what we ask for doesn't come and we don't understand why God isn't giving us... Then we stumble and fall! Little do we know that in His wisdom, He knows that we need to grow and that we're not yet prepared to receive what we're asking for.

Father, it is important to remember that we give You the control of our lives, so, no matter whether the answer is Yes, No or wait, we should have a submissive heart and we should not loose that quality.

In Christ's glorious Name we pray, Amen.

Note:
Wait Poem
========
Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried;
Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate...
and the Master so gently said,"Wait."
"Wait? you say wait?" my indignant reply.
"Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!"
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By faith I have asked, and I'm claiming your Word.


My future and all to which I relate
hangs in the balance and you tell me to Wait?"
I'm needing a 'yes', a go-ahead sign.
Or even a 'no,' to which I'll resign.

You promised, dear Lord, that if we believe,
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
Lord, I've been asking, and this is my cry:
I'm weary of asking! I need a reply.


Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate
as my Master replied again, "Wait."
So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut,
and grumbled to God, "So, I'm waiting...for what?"

He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes met with mine...
and He tenderly said, "I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run.


I could give all you seek and pleased you would be.
You'd have what you want, but you wouldn't know Me.
You'd not know the depth of My love for each saint.
You'd not know the power that I give to the faint.

You'd not learn to see through clouds of despair;
you'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there.
You'd not know the joy of resting in Me
when darkness and silence are all you can see.


You'd never experience the fullness of love
when the peace of My spirit descends like a dove.
You would know that I give, and I save, for a start,
But you'd not know the depth of the beat of My heart.

The glow of My comfort late into the night,
the faith that I give when you walk without sight.
The depth that's beyond getting just what you ask
From an infinite God who makes what you have last.


You'd never know should your pain quickly flee,
what it means that My grace is sufficient for thee.
Yes, your dearest dreams overnight would come true,
but oh, the loss if I lost what I'm doing in you.

So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see
that the greatest of gifts is to truly know me.
And though oft My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still "WAIT".

by Russell Kelfer