My latest read:
10. The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan. Finished reading this last night on the porch of EQ, sun shining bright. Now already on to the third book in series! But…this one was great fun and once again I forgot how many dramatic events happened in this book! Rand’s first real duel with swords(goodbye Turak), Egwene’s experience with the Seanchan(horrifyingly scary), Ingtar’s salvation(“Shinowa and the Light!” …this moment is still one of the most tear-inducing sequences in entire series – no one is so far gone that they cannot yet be redeemed…), the Heroes of the Horn, the Portal Stones, Lanfear’s grand entrance…alright, I’ll stop now since most of you have no idea what any of this means!! Just know it was a brilliantly written book that almost never stopped for breath. Love it. Also sad since this one is the last book we get with relatively “normal” Rand. Now his descent into madness begins…
And since I’m writing, might as well also share my encouragement at my latest readings. Reading Psalm 77 & 78 and then further in Genesis this morning. And I do so love Asaph’s psalms because he is so real and honest about his emotions and how he is feeling. He didn’t always feel the presence of God – just as we don’t always – and sometimes he wondered if the goodness of God was even real. “Will the Lord reject forever? And will He never be favourable again? Has His lovingkindness ceased forever?” And on and on in this vein he goes. And then he pulls himself together and resolves to remember the deeds of the Lord and ponder all the things that God has done in his life…and confidently declares that the way of the Lord is indeed holy. Might we remember this in our dark moments when it seems as if God is not working at all. Meditate on what God has done in your life in days past…and hold on to the truths of who God is. God is faithful and loving and holy and good and sovereign and magnificent and glorious and He is God. And in Psalm 78 we get the counter-example of the nation of Israel…even though they did eat the bread of angels and saw with their own eyes the glories of God, they still committed the most serious sin of unbelief. They did not believe what God had said despite seeing His works with their own eyes. Might we tremble as we think on the fact we have so often failed to believe in God in our own life. Despite the fact that He loved us. He loves us! How can we yet fail and fall so many times. But we do and although it is a terrible thing that we would doubt God…our Lord is loving and faithful to forgive us our sins, because He is our Father who loves us dearly.
And one further reminder of how it is good to be still and wait on God even though we oft don’t believe He is working. Abram received the promise of God that He would have a son from his own seed. And this is a grand promise and one that Abram did indeed believe – “He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.” But later on…did Abram doubt? I think he did. Some time later, he still had no child. And he must have thought – “Well, I suppose God wants me to take matters into my own hands? Maybe I’m supposed to do something different. I’m oh so tired of waiting.” Alright, I’m sure he didn’t put it exactly like that…but when his wife Sarai suggested that he have a child with the maid Hagar instead…Abram agreed. What a terrible idea, right?? “Well, I can’t have a child with my wife…so I suppose I will have one with my wife’s maid instead. That’s surely what God has in mind.” And it is definitely a bad idea and there is much fallout from it yet God uses it as He uses all things.
But don’t we so often do the same thing? We are tired of waiting for God. And we think that if we just took matters into our own hands…then things would work out the way they were supposed to. Right? We rationalize an ill-founded decision because we think it will get us what we want. We stop believing in God. We start believing in ourselves. I will forge my own destiny and I will obtain my heart’s desires. Oh us of too little faith in God and too great of faith in ourselves.
Think and ponder and meditate on the glorious nature of God and on what He has done in your life. Be thankful and rejoice in the works of the Lord in you. And although waiting is irksome and tiring at times, it is good to be still and wait on our Lord. Rest in the knowledge of the most perfect love of Christ. Forever and always.
