Waiting for His Loving-Kindness

“We wait for Thy loving-kindness, O God.” – Psalm 48:8

Wars and rumors of wars are everywhere now, and we know that dark days are coming on the earth. But through all the thousand clamors that even now we cannot help hearing, these calm words come like the sound of bells through the storm: “We wait for Thy loving-kindness, O God, in the midst of Thy temple.” So within, all is to be peace. “All hail,” said our risen Saviour to the troubled women, “be of good cheer” and “peace be unto you.”

What is around the next corner? We do not know, but we do know that we shall find that for which we wait– the lovingkindness of our God. Things were dark in the political world when Elijah said, “It is enough”, but we know that what was happening in the spiritual world at that moment was that an angel was on his way to support the prophet. Things were dark when Elisha said, “Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?” But in the spiritual world, things were happening, for the Lord made the host of the Syrians hear a noise of of chariots and of horses, even the noise of a great host”, and they were defeated.

Some of Winston Churchill’s words are great for these days for our kingdom work and spiritual welfare: “Let us move of forward steadfastly together into the storm and through the storm, “into and through”, yes, that is it! Be of good courage, be of good cheer.

– Amy Carmichael

“Blessed is he who is not offended in Me”

I have been reading Luke 1. “With God, nothing shall be impossible.” Then I read Acts 12 where James was killed in prison, and then Peter was set free. God, with whom nothing is impossible, did not answer the prayers of those who loved James in the same way He answered the prayers of those who loved Peter. He could have done so, but He did not. “And blessed is he, who is not offended in Me.” These words seem to be written across Acts 12. John the Apostle must have wondered why the angel was not sent to James, or was at least tempted to wonder.

Again and again in Acts, the Lord Jesus seems to say those words under His breath, as it were– “blessed is he who is not offended in Me.” Let us turn all our puzzles and our temptations to wonder why, into opportunities to receive the blessing of the “unoffended.”
Think of this– Now all the grief of those days has been utterly forgotten by those who loved and prayed for James; they have all been together with James in the presence of the Lord now for 1900 years, and the one thing that matters now is how they lived through those days when their faith was tried to the uttermost.
So it will be with any who are longing to see the answer to their prayer for those who are in affliction [and for those who are themselves in affliction] or in any other adversity. In a few years– how few we do not know, but it will be few at most– we shall all be together in joy for eternity. So with us, too, all that matters is how we live through these days while we ourselves are trusted to trust. “Blessed is he who is not offended in Me.”
– Amy Carmichael

Blessed is he who is not offended in me.” Who among us gets upset about how God is running His kingdom? This verse spiritually separates the men from the boys and the sheep from the goats. As Vance Havner paraphrases it, “Blessed is the one who is not dumb enough to get upset about how God is conducting His business and running HIs kingdom.” He knows what He is doing and why, even when we do not, and all we can do is trust God in the dark.
– Mack Tomlinson

Passing Pleasure or Lasting Gain

All that grieves is but for a moment;
All that pleases is but for a moment;
Only the Eternal is important.

Most is  of us know these facts, but I want to remind us of them. The Eternal in anything is the unseen, the spiritual. A trial comes and it will then pass. In a few days, months, or years, we will have forgotten it. But the way we meet that trial– our inner attitude toward it– belongs to the things that are eternal. It will matter ten thousands years from now if we conquered or were conquered by that temptation to impatiencefaithlessness or worry which came when the trial rushed upon us.
It does not seem so now. We feel “If only I could have that— that joy on which my heart is set– then I would be happy.” But these words remind us of something we know is true, and yet often forget– the pleasure will pass; it is temporal. There is nothing abiding in pleasure, but there is something abiding in our attitude toward that pleasure. If we say, “I must have it; I will not be happy if I cannot have it”, then even if we did have it, there would be no lasting, eternal gain, but only a dreadful and eternal loss.
There is a verse about this in the Bible: “He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.” (Psalm 106:15) Let us ask that this word may never be true of us.

– Amy Carmichael