Periodically, I will camp out in a certain portion of scripture – or a text. As of late, I can’t get off of Isaiah 30:18 KJV: “And therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgement: blessed are all they that wait for Him.”
The word “wait” here, in Hebrew, means to wait for, to tarry, to wait in ambush, to long for! Did you know our God wants to ambush you? Not in an accusing kind of a way – but with a purely gracious intent. He wants to get to you to extend favor to you! Gracious also means to show direct favor, to have mercy, to show consideration.
He longs to show mercy to you! My take on that is that He sits thinking up ways to get His favor directed into our lives. He sits, having conversations with Jesus, about how He could get His goodness into our lives! From Him comes goodness! Psalms 52:1 says, “…the goodness of God endures continually!” Meaning – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! Morning and evening!
I’m discovering more and more by the day that it’s not about what I can do or can’t do. It’s about who He is and what He’s done in my stead. The more I can focus on that – the more I can live in the place He has called me to live. It’s not about behavior – it’s about blood. His blood. And as I intentionally make this shift of my focus from off of me and on to Him – then He somehow is able to direct His goodness and mercy into my life. Psalm 23:6 says “surely goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life…”
May you learn to be more aware of Him than your circumstances or any other earthly thing that would hinder you from a conscious stream of God’s goodness!
this is really excellent. Especially the next to the last paragraph. Thank you