"Larger Purposes"

  "Larger Purposes"   

   

    

     The Old Testament saints prayed for a Messiah who never came during their earthly lifetime.

    "These all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect" (Hebrews 11:39-40).

    God's purposes involve the ultimate and the many as He works to "gather together in One all things in Christ" (Ephesians 1:10).  Our individual needs matter greatly to Him, so much so that "the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matthew 10:30).  Personal interests nevertheless bow before our Heavenly Father's larger purposes as He "worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1:11).  Indeed, many of David's prayers for Israel in the Psalms were not unanswered until centuries after he sought God's help and deliverance, and many have still not been fully realized.  "Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad" (Isaiah 53:6).

    We pray always in the context of God's glory, His will, and "according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:11).  This sometimes means that the Lord seems not to heed the supplications regarding personal matters that seem to vital to us.  They do matter, even more to our Lord than to ourselves  - " Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you" (I Peter 5:7).  However, He knows and we must know that our vital personal interests revolve around issues far bigger than ourselves.   It is best for that God attend to His "eternal purpose in Christ Jesus", even it means that temporal prayers go - for now - unanswered.  Born again believers are part of that purpose, and the fulfillment thereof always serves our greatest benefit.

"Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."

(II Corinthians 4:17-18)

Weekly Memory Verse

   For though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.

(II Corinthians 13:4)