Morning Devotionals

by Don Emmitte

 

May 7th, 2008

 

"The Longing of the Lord"

Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. (Isaiah 30:18-19 NIV)

God is waiting so that when the time is right He can bless you abundantly! I’m looking forward to that day. How about you?

When today’s verse says “the Lord longs” I take it to mean this is something He really wants to do. There are many things I “long” to see. When I say I “long” to see these things, I mean it is one of the strongest desires of my heart. I could say “I wish it would happen” or “it would be nice” or “something I’ve thought about”, but it wouldn’t have the same meaning as saying I “long” for them to become a reality.

God longs to be gracious to you. He rises to show you compassion. In other words, He is busy trying to bless you. One of God’s greatest desires, perhaps second only to seeing us glorify Him with our lives, is to bless His children.

You may be wondering the same thing I have wondered. Why, then, if God wants to bless us so much, does He not just go ahead and give us everything we want! I could sometimes go for that, couldn’t you? But would that give God glory? Would it shine the light on Him if we never suffered in need of His care? Would it reflect on Him if we never seemed to go without?

No, it says the “Lord longs to be gracious” and “Blessed are all who wait for Him”, because that points to what God is able to do. There is no mistaking God’s hand in our lives when something is done that only He can do, that we could not do on our own. And, so God waits. He waits for us to wait. He waits to bless us until we are ready to be blessed; until we are ready to give Him all the credit; until we are ready to trust in Him alone; and until we are ready to be further molded into His image.

Our prayer should constantly be, “Oh, Lord, be gracious unto us in your perfect timing! Thank you for waiting until we are ready!” Is it?