"The Answer Came"

TThe Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

"The Answer Came"

   

   The Lord did something for me yesterday that was so obviously personal, so obviously gracious, and so obviously Him.  The details are not important, and you can be sure that if you knew them, would seem ordinary, mundane, and unspectacular to the degree you would wonder why I view them as I do.  Yesterday's Orange Moon devotional regarding the subject of using our understanding without leaning on it served a major role in the matter, which leads to today's consideration.

   "Therefore will I look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation.  My God will hear me" (Micah 7:7).

   When I write these messages, I tend to forget about them after sending them out.  Sometimes people will reference the day's subject, and I have to ask, "Uh, what was it about?"  That being said, there are messages written during these twenty years I do recall, and consider favorites.  Almost invariably, these are written when going through a trial or challenge.  Yesterday's message involved such a matter.  I spent a largely sleepless night perplexed about an ongoing challenge.  "What do I do about this, Lord?"  The question arose in my mind and proceeded from my heart over and over through the night.  I had almost reached a conclusion that would have been the wrong response.  But then, with the dawn, and with writing the devotional, the answer came.  "I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and He heard me out of His holy hill" (Psalm 3:4).  That which had been vague and even undesired in my mind became clearly obvious, and attainable through the enabling of Christ.  I can't explain how it happened because I do not know.   I heard no voice, of course, and nothing obviously supernatural occurred.  I just knew that which I had not known before.  A path presented itself to my heart, and the confidence to walk upon it descended to direct my steps.  The decision I made proved to be the right one, leading to actions I know in my heart can only have resulted from the grace and guidance of our Lord.

   I will never forget the night, and even more, the dawn with its devotional message I seemed to have written for my own heart.  They all feel that way, but some far more than others.  Most importantly, I realized again that the challenges of our lives lead us to God and His Truth in ways we would never know without them.  Moreover, those challenges faced with the Lord Jesus enable us to minister His reality to others.  "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body" (II Corinthians 4:10).  I therefore hope the message proved helpful to you.  As for me, I discovered yet again the wonder of God's gracious presence, involvement, and working in our hearts and lives.  A long eternity stretches forth before us to praise and thank Him for such grace.  It won't be long enough, however, and I am more than certain that forever will not suffice in providing enough opportunity for me to remember with adoration and devotion a long night, but far more, a dawn when the answer came.

"I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel; my reins (inward being) also instruct me in the night season."

(Psalm 16:7)

"Order my steps in Thy Word."

(Psalm 119:133)

Weekly Memory Verse

  Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

(I Corinthians 10:31)

  

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