Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

I waited patiently for the Lord;
    he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
    out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
    and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth,
    a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the Lord
    and put their trust in him.
Blessed is the one
    who trusts in the Lord,
who does not look to the proud,
    to those who turn aside to false gods.

• Psalm 40:1-4

After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.
The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.
After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation.

• Job 42:10-16

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

• 1 Peter 5:10

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,

• Colossians 1:9-11

“’We’ll get through this together.’ No matter how much my heart needs those words right now …
Those needs won’t be met tonight. Maybe one day, but not today.
“And that’s what it is like to be so very human—hurting but still hoping.
“Hoping doesn’t mean I put myself in harm’s way. It doesn’t mean I ignore reality. No, hoping means I acknowledge reality in the very same breath that I acknowledge God’s sovereignty,
“And, I’ve learned one more important fact: my hope isn’t tied to my expectations finally being met in my way and in my timing.  No my hope isn’t tied to whether or not a circumstance or another person changes. My hope is tied to the unchanging promise of God.- I hope for the good I know God will ultimately bring from this, whether the good turns out to match my desires or not.
“And, sometimes, that takes a while. Remember what we talked about a few chapters back. God loves us too much to answer our prayers in any other way than the right way. And He loves us too much to answer our prayers at any other time than the right time.”

• Lysa TerKeurst, It’s Not Supposed to be this Way

Lysa TerKeurst then goes on to suggest to God certain friends who are champions of the longsuffering person.  She begs God to give her what she needs and then let the longsuffering champions wait for the fight way to answer the prayer at the right time.  In spite of her begging, that is not the way God works.

Let’s look back at the title of the book, It’s Not Supposed to be this Way.

Her expectations, and ours most of the time, is that I serve a loving God, and it is going to be roses and raindrops, or mint juleps under the shade of the old oak tree, or whatever your idyllic scene looks like.  Frankly, I like it a little cool, so roses and raindrops sounds idyllic.

But we must measure our expectations against God’s expectations.  He can give us more than we could ever dream of, but we settle for earthly pleasures and treasures.  Through all of this disappointment because God did not like our plan is a search for God’s plan, that is, unless you dig in your heals and demand your own plan.

Waiting patiently may be the best plan, but I know of few people who excel in patience.  As Lysa Terkeurst said, she wanted God to swap her situation with someone who excelled in longsuffering.  But we all suffer.  Not everyone gets the idyllic ending that Job got.  We could be like my wife, longsuffering, patient, and then God took her home without seeing any earthly blessing.  But in that ending, her pain is removed, and we have no idea how massive her mansion is in Heaven.  But comparing ourselves to the end of Job, we must compare ourselves to the beginning of Job.  Job was a faithful servant who made daily sacrifices to God.  He was blameless.  And he did all this while God had a protective hedge around him.  Job 1 is where the concept of the protective hedge comes from.  So, with the wealth that would ruin most people today, making them soft, making them feel self-sufficient, Job was making sacrifices to God more often than the common man, focusing his gaze upon God and not his earthly comfort.  If we can do that, we have proven that with a little we are faithful, thus, God will trust us with a lot.  A Job comparison is not fair unless you look at the beginning before looking at the end.

But God is a God of Grace.  With patience and endurance, we can have God’s will revealed to us.  And then, it does not matter where we see treasure, but then it does.  Treasure here is wasted.  Treasure in Heaven will last forever. Our hope lies in what we desire. Do we desire God and His kingdom or earthly things?

Lord, guide me. We have our idea of what we want to do for your kingdom, but sometimes that falls apart.  Help us to be patient and look for where you are leading us.  In Your name I pray.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.