Wednesday, November 21, 2012

HIS COMING ACCORDING TO PROMISE


Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord's return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen, James 5:7 NLT."
Wait on God as long as you have to, until He comes according to His promise and takes you out of your suffering. Do not be hasty to take yourself out of trouble. " James 5:7 (AMP) So be patient, brethren, [as you wait] till the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits expectantly for the precious harvest from the land. [See how] he keeps up his patient [vigil] over it until it receives the early and late rains.  8 So you also must be patient. Establish your hearts [strengthen and confirm them in the final certainty], for the coming of the Lord is very near. Although the farmer wishes his corn were already in the barn, he waits for it to ripen in the ordinary course of God's providence. He is glad when the former rain comes, but he wants the latter rain too, and waits for it, though it is long in coming. And have we not all seen that a shower falling close to harvest time brings the ear to its completeness? The fullest mercies are the ones we wait for the longest. Jesus did not immediately supply wine at the marriage of Cana, as His mother had asked, but they had the more for waiting awhile.
Hope assures the soul that while God waits to perform one promise, He supplies another. This comfort is enough to quiet the heart of anyone who understands the sweetness of God's methods. There is not one minute when a believer's soul is left without comfort. There is always some promise standing ready to minister to the Christian until another one comes. A sick man does not complain if all his friends do not stay with him together, as long as they take turns and never leave him without someone to care for him.
We read of a tree of life, "Rev. 22:2 (AMP) Through the middle of the broad way of the city; also, on either side of the river was the tree of life with its twelve varieties of fruit, yielding each month its fresh crop; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing and the restoration of the nations.†. What is this tree but Christ, who brings all manner of fruit in His promises and comfort for all times and all conditions? The believer can never come to Him without finding some promise to supply strength until another is ripe enough to be gathered."
Quoted material from, ”The Christian in Complete Armour Daily Readings in Spiritual Warfare” by Gurnall and James S Bell. http://www.moodypublishers.com/pub_productDetail.aspx?id=41823&pid=53617

No comments: