Waiting for God

Bible:

For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.

How long will all of you attack a man
to batter him,
like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
They only plan to thrust him down from his high position.
They take pleasure in falsehood.
They bless with their mouths,
but inwardly they curse.

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,
for my hope is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my salvation and my glory;
my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Psalm 62:1-7 ESV

Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:30-31 ESV

Reflection:

There are many things in God’s world that we have to wait for. If we plant a seed, we have to wait for it to grow. If there is a flower bud, we have to wait for it to blossom. When a caterpillar goes into a chrysalis, we have to wait for a butterfly to come out. When a bird lays an egg, we have to wait for it to hatch. Did you know that it takes 21 days for a chicken egg to hatch? What would happen if you broke a chicken’s egg before it was ready? The baby chick would probably die, because it wasn’t time for it to come out. Or if you pulled a flower bud open, would the flower be beautiful? No, it would probably be torn and ugly, and it would turn brown and die quickly.

In Psalm 62, the writer is waiting for God to help him. He knows that he has to wait for God’s best time, but it’s hard for him to wait. Other people are attacking him and trying to make him give up on God. They’re telling him lies and trying to bring him down, but they’re also pretending to be friendly and to bless him. He knows that only God can really help him, and he trusts that God will help him when the time is right. Some problems are so big that only God can help, and if we give up on God and try to fix them in a way that doesn’t please him, we will end up making things worse. It’s always better to wait for God’s best time.

There’s one problem we could never fix on our own, and that’s the problem of sin. We are helpless to fix the problem of sin and death in the world, and the only thing we can possibly do is wait for God to help us. The good news is that God did help us. He sent Jesus, the promised Savior, to take care of the problem of sin. God’s people had to wait for thousands of years for Jesus to come, but God sent him at the right time. Jesus died on the cross and rose again, and everyone who waited for his coming, and everyone who believes in him, receives God’s help and forgiveness. Because God kept his promise to send Jesus, we know we can trust God to help us with our other problems. He will help us when the time is right.

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus, our Savior. Please help us to trust you and to wait for your best time to help us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

The Fragrance of Forgiveness

Bible:

“Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry. You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. There I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household, and all that you have, do not come to poverty.’ And now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth that speaks to you. You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.” Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. After that his brothers talked with him. Genesis 45:9-15 ESV

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:31-32 ESV

Reflection:

Many flowers have a beautiful smell. Roses, lilacs, and lilies all smell wonderful. Their smell is part of the chemistry of the flower. People who make perfumes are able to gather the fragrance of a flower by collecting what is called the essential oil. They can then use this oil to make perfumes. One way to get the essential oil out of a flower is to crush or grind the flower. Even as the flower is destroyed, it gives off a lovely smell that can be gathered and made into perfume.

There’s an old saying that forgiveness is like the fragrance of a flower. Like a flower, forgiveness gives up its sweetest smell to the person who crushes it. When Joseph forgave his brothers, he was a little like a flower. The same brothers that hurt and crushed him now receive his help and care. He promises to take care of them and protect them for the rest of the famine, and tells them to hurry and bring their families to Egypt so he could give them everything they needed. Joseph could not have given that kind of love and forgiveness without knowing the love of God for himself. His troubles in life strengthened his faith and trust in God. He knew God’s love and care, and knowing God was so wonderful that it gave him the love and strength he needed to forgive and help his brothers. He didn’t have to find that strength in himself. It was a gift from God.

We know the wonderful love of God in Jesus. When we look at what Jesus did for us on the cross, we see him being crushed and hurt for our sins. Jesus was truly like the most lovely, fragrant flower there ever was. Even as he was bleeding and dying, he was winning God’s complete love and forgiveness for us. It’s only in and through the love of Jesus that we can forgive people who hurt us. Our love and strength comes from God, and it’s the best gift we’ll ever have!

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for your love and strength and forgiveness. Please help us forgive others who hurt us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Source:

http://humantouchofchemistry.com/how-are-essences-made.htm

A World of Wonder

Bible:

And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:20-25 ESV

“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. I Corinthians 15:55-57 ESV

Reflection:

God made a world of wonder, full of all kinds of creatures–birds and land animals and sea creatures and insects and other bugs. One insect God made is the honey bee. Did you know that honey bees dance? A honey bee colony sends out a scout to find flowers where they can get nectar and pollen. If the scout finds some good flowers or blossoms, it will come back to the colony and move in a figure-eight pattern in a way that lets the other bees know which direction the flowers are. If the flowers are close, the bee will fly in small circles. If they are farther away, the bee will fly in a crescent pattern.

Bees pollinate the blossoms of fruits and vegetables. If they didn’t do that, things like apples, pears, and cucumbers wouldn’t grow. Not only that, bees also take nectar to make honey. Honey is wonderful for making things sweet! God made an incredible thing when he made the honey bee. But there’s bad news about the honey bee, too. Honey bees sting. Have you ever been stung by a bee? It hurts! If someone is allergic to bee stings, it can be deadly if it’s not treated right away.

The Bible talks about the sting of death. It hurts not just people who are allergic to bee stings, but all the people in the world. Sin is the cause of all kinds of stings, bee stings and death and all kinds of hurt in between. But when Jesus died on the cross and rose again, he won the victory over death. Because of Jesus, we look forward to a world where there are no stings–not from death and not from honey bees.

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for making the amazing honey bee and all the other animals in the world. Thank you also for taking the sting of death away when you died and rose again. Amen.

Source:
http://insects.about.com/od/antsbeeswasps/p/honeybeecommun.htm

A World of Beauty

Bible:

And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. Genesis 1:11-19 ESV

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Romans 8:19-22 ESV

Reflection:

If you have a chance to look at the stars on a clear night, away from the lights of the city, you will see incredible beauty. Do you know any of the constellations? If you live in the northern hemisphere, can you find the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper? Flowers, plants, and trees are also very beautiful. Fruit trees are especially pretty in the spring, when the blossoms cover the trees with white or pink flowers. When the blossoms fall off, apples or cherries or pears start to grow. When God made the sun and the moon and the stars, when he made the plants and trees and flowers, he filled his world with beauty and wonder.

Plants also give us food. But sometimes things go wrong. In the 1800s in Ireland a terrible disease happened to the potatoes growing there. The leaves on the potato plants turned black and rotted. The plants smelled horrible, and the potatoes weren’t good to eat. Because most of the Irish peasants depended on potatoes for their food, many people died of hunger.

Because of sin, the beautiful things God created are not always the way he planned them to be. The Bible tells us that the things God created are longing for a better future. They can’t always bring about the purposes the Lord had for them in the beginning. But God will change that in the end. He sent Jesus to make us his children again. Because we are sinners, we will die. But death isn’t the end of the story for us. Someday we will be free from death and live to serve God forever. He will make all of his creation new again, and it will be the way he plans it to be.

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the beauty and wonder of your creation. Thank you that because of Jesus we can look forward to your new creation. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Source:

http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine/begins.htm