Title:- The 4th Answer
Isaiah 49:20 The children you will have, After you have lost the others, Will say again in your ears, 'The place is too small for me; Give me a place where I may dwell.'
When we pray, God is usually attributed with giving us three possible answers. Yes. No. Or Wait! Someone however, recently suggested to me that there was a fourth answer, and it’s rather wonderful really, here it is: - “I have something better for you.” It is remarkably clear from the Scriptures that God is more willing to bless than to blast. Indeed, from all that I have seen and heard, there is no doubt that God is essentially good. Not a ‘good ole boy’ kind of good, but a being that is absolutely, astonishingly, essentially and even prolifically, good! Now, combine His goodness with His grace and you then have, even in the most darkest of circumstances, the real possibility of seeing victory from disaster, seeing sunshine after the rain, seeing things transformed, redeemed, reconstructed, reconstituted, and even resurrected! The great thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. The Great Giver however, comes to lavish love, layer upon layer, packed in, pressed down and over flowing with abundant life!
We need to believe it, but friend, it is hard to believe it when you face the ripped and wrecked land after the storm; when you stare at the smug sea after the terrible wreck has strewn your once well ordered beach; or look in the mirror after the chemotherapy; or face the future after the cries of the cemetery. It’s hard isn’t it? Yes indeed, this kind of life-giving, believing hope in the midst of circumstances which give evidence to the contrary of that hope, is found only from the lips and hearts of people who are rooted in the very character of the good and the gracious God.
So, take a moment and listen to the response of your heart right now, when I ask you: “Who is God to you today? An inference? A deduction? A person heard of second hand, from those who do not really know Him either? Who is God to you today? An ideal? An impersonal force decked in cloudy vagueness?” If your heart echoes an affirmation to any of those descriptions then allow me to reply to you with a very solid, "No"! No my friend ! God is a person and a good person at that, even and of course, the very best of a being! Because of this, you can expect His goodness, indeed, you need to both long for it and to look for it. Not because you deserve it, but because of who God is and because of what His son, your Saviour Jesus has done for you. Truly, all the saints can say then, with certain hope as well, even in the darkest of their trials, “Now is the day of my salvation!” However, the saints can only say this with hope and with prophetic declaration, if they truly know Him. Do you know Him then today friend? Do you really know Him?
Listen: - Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight. Let us know, Let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, Like the latter and former rain to the earth. Hosea 6:1-3
“……….All flesh shall know That I, the LORD, am your Saviour, And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” Isaiah 49:26b
Pray: - Be good to me today, oh my Gracious Father God. Brush aside the gossamer webs of all the sometimes seeker sensitive silliness surrounding me and come and rightly sensitize my soul to You; come and set sparks in my spirit; come and revive me O God! Come and stride through my poor pastures and leap upon me, O my Mountain maker, O my mountain mover; come and wrestle me to Your ground and remove the maudlin mask I have had placed over Your fantastic face; come and reveal Yourself to me today! Oh good God! May I at last be the sheep of Your pasture, who truly hears Your voice. Give me that something better today, in Jesus name I ask it, amen.
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