Saturday, May 7, 2022

Orange Moon Saturday, May 7, 2022 "Longsuffering"

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



"Longsuffering"

   

   No aspect of God's truth and faithfulness seems more apropos to my experience than the Psalmist's affirmation...

   "But Thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth" (Psalm 86:15).

   In particular, "longsuffering" serves as the perfect description for our Heavenly Father's personal working in my heart and life.  He has indeed suffered long with me as He fulfills His promise of grace: "He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).  

    I recall a noted seminary professor who felt the same.  "Professor, how would you like to be remembered?"  The professor answered, "As a man who has had a merciful and patient Lord."  How I know that feeling!  The longer I walk with the Lord, the more His abiding faithfulness to me shines as an ever brighter light in my heart.  By all rights, I would have given up on me a long time ago.  God doesn't work by "all rights," however, but by His trustworthiness and absolute devotion to the promises that flow from His holy fount of perfection.  "Great is Thy faithfulness!" declared the prophet (Lamentations 3:23).  How it must be, according to my experience of our Father's abiding trustworthiness.

   God always finishes what He starts (Ecclesiastes 3:14).  The more we know this blessed truth about what He has started in us through the Lord Jesus, the more we will be filled with wondering awe and adoration.  We will also find ourselves more motivated and empowered to arise and walk in devoted response.  Our faithfulness ever proceeds from our Lord's faithfulness, that is, the more we realize His unending devotion to our hearts, the more we will find our feet walking and our hands working for the glory of the Lord Jesus.  "God is faithful" declared the Apostle Paul to the wayward Corinthians, rightly believing that greater realization of their Lord's trustworthiness would result in repentance and the determination to walk in genuine faithfulness (I Corinthians 1:9).  It did, as confirmed by Paul's commendation in his second epistle to the Corinthians (II Corinthians 7:8-10).

    "Longsuffering."  Of the many streams that flow from the wellspring of God's heart, none have sparkled more brightly or been more vital in my experience than this wondrous patience of grace.  The professor was right.  We serve a merciful and patient Lord.  Such knowledge will go far in our hearts, hands, and feet, and in a genuine response of love for so faithful a God, so redeeming a Savior, and so persistent a Holy Spirit.

"The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all His works."
(Psalm 145:8-9)

 Weekly Memory Verse
    O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!
(Romans 11:33)





























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