August 20--What Will You Do While You Wait For Your Rescue?

Having a sure-and-certain hope makes waiting for what you want easier, whether you’re waiting for your next meal or miracle. When your hope is in the Rock of Ages, it’s not a matter of if he will come through for you, it’s simply a matter of when.  Today's passages say what we can do while we wait for him:  Esther 8-10, 1 Corinthians 13, Psalm 37:12-19, Proverbs 21:23-24.

Eve reads her Bible journal aloud on this episode.

Click here for the FREE Yearly Bible Reading Plan she uses.  

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:00

August 20. What will you do while you wait for your rescue? I won't be reading the scripture references. For those, please check the written post. I was once stranded at the local pump storage nuclear power plant. For reasons I don't understand, it is great mountain bike trails. There's also a very gentle old lady loop around the reservoir on top, but as I was in my fifties and trying very hard to prove I still had what it took, I opted for the trails through the woods. I asked the retired attendant at the door giving tours if I was heading in the right direction by which I meant toward the easy trails. He assured me that I was, but I should have factored in how he'd likely never ridden these trails as he'd had a wonderful forty year career at the Tennessee Valley Authority that built this plant where he now volunteered, but I digress. My story is this. A hundred yards or so in I suspected, but by another hundred I knew that I was on an expert trail. My tip off into certainty was this. This bike path led me over the side of a big barefaced boulder where a native hydrangea grew. I well remember the hydrangea because it was there where a deep crack in the rock opened up and swallowed my front tire, slammed me down, and slid me on my side body to what I assumed was my death. In the nick of time my foot wedged just right in another crack to bring my slide up short, still holding my bike for dear life in one hand and shimmying back to where I could stand, I wobbled off this rock with its smirking, snickering cracks and made my way down the poison ivy infested hillside next to it. At the bottom I realized I'd made a bad call to descend. Retracing my steps to find the easy trail was no longer an option, as the way back was more daunting now than the way ahead. I soldiered on. I was never more glad to be done as I was to get out of the woods and back to civilization. Through the ordeal I'd congratulated myself for not giving up and walking, which I considered, till I realized it would take a lot longer. At my car I looked for my keys on the handlebars where I'd hung them when I started. Of course they were gone after that ridiculous rock, but still I felt surprised, and then the waves of reality came crashing. The spare was at home, the husband was golfing, the wait time would be hours as he was courting new clients. Just after I called him my phone died, which wasn't a loss as I had no thought to be entertained by it. This was when phones made calls only, remember then? I toured the plant with my kids when we homeschooled, which was enough storage plant excitement for one lifetime, so I climbed on my car hood, leaned back on the windshield, and fell asleep. The tour guides woke me to say their goodbyes as they were leaving at five PM. They promised not to lock me in overnight. They'd leave the gate closed but unlatched. Are you very sure he's coming? One asked. Hasn't it been hours? Another commiserated. The truth was, while I didn't know when he'd come, I was certain he would come, and having that rock solid hope meant I was never worried. I was relaxed enough to take a really great nap. I was already enjoying how justified I would feel not cooking supper. I went back a few weeks later and loved writing that uneventful old lady loop around the reservoir. Today's passages point out other ways we can wait for our rescue. The Old Testament chapters are Esther eight to ten. The bad guys are soundly defeated and the good guys are vindicated. The story of Esther Mordecai and the Jews who lived in exile

Esther 8-10

SPEAKER_00 3:58

in Persia, who turned the tables on wicked Haman and the Persians who hated them reads like a fairy tale. In every detail God lavished a rich rescue on his people. It was too good to be true, but this is what life with God is God for you is like, the boomerang effect of evil, a real saving from real villains, and the joy and celebration that come against all odds afterwards. But at the start, it certainly didn't look like a rescue was anywhere in sight. It looked like all was lost because evil Haman was in charge. The laws of the Medes and Persians to exterminate the Jews couldn't be revoked, and no one could come to the king to ask him to make changes without risking his life. No one, that is, except for Esther, the Jewish second wife of the Persian king Xerxes, who, as it turned out, was providentially placed in the king's life to speak on behalf of her people. Mordecai, the cousin who raised her, said she'd come for such a time as this, but he didn't guilt trip her into speaking up to save them. He knew that if she didn't step up, the Jews would be saved by someone else. Who was Esther? Everyone knew she was the favored beauty pageant winner turned queen of Persia, but how she responded to this crisis tells me a lot about who she really was, because she didn't distract herself from what was going on outside her palace with the charming courtiers, fancy food and latest fashions inside it. She didn't hide tail it to the beach for a week with her maids to wait till the storm blew over, and she could have. She was concerned for the Jews who were her people. She took their plight to heart because it was her plight too, and she stuck around to do something about it or die trying. So in fear and dread for the Jews and for herself, in utter weakness and need, she gathered the Jews to fast and pray with her for three days. And then she gathered her courage and took a bold step to approach the king to ask for help, despite what it might cost her, which was forbidden without his invitation. Turned out what it actually cost wasn't much compared to losing her life, just two banquet suppers for King Xerxes and Haman, and in exchange she was given back the lives of every last Jew in the one hundred forty seven provinces of Persia, along with the immediate hanging of Haman, plus every other request she could think of up to half Xerxes' kingdom. Isn't this so like God? The rescue he knows we want he gives, though it might not look the way we want it to look or come the way we think it should, but we can count on it to come in God's perfect timing and exactly as we need it, because he promises that we quote will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, end quote, which means on this earth, not just one day in heaven. David says we're to be strong and take heart as we wait for him. The good life we most need isn't for everything to turn out well, as much as we may think it should. The best life on earth is finding God to be our stronghold, our hiding place, our circle of quiet in the midst of our tumult. This was where Esther was, and this was why she could present herself to King Xerxes, not knowing if she'd live or die, because God was her best good, and she was God strong. In God's safe house nothing that's vital for our thriving can be touched because God himself can't be pried loose from us. He won't allow it. He will never break his covenant promise to be forever and always God for us, God with us, God in us. He is the best life possible, and the best way I know to find him is by suffering. Bumps in the road come, but they don't have to wreck us. They're given to drive us deeper into God, into greater faith and trust than we now know. He longs for us to know him richer and fuller because connecting with him is what we were made for, and we won't know him like this until he's our first and last resort, our only hope. When conflict comes, will we take advantage of it as a fresh opportunity for praying, fasting and seeking him, and even celebrating his rescue before it begins because we're so convinced it's coming? Or will we let it undo us? The King of Kings is more willing and able to help than you are to ask for it. Trust in God to be God for you

1 Corinthians 13

SPEAKER_00 8:31

while you wait for his rescue. The New Testament chapter is first Corinthians thirteen. There are umpteen reasons to harden and hate, grow bitter and resentful, blame shift and defend, and all this in just one ordinary day. Don't choose them, Paul says. Instead bring heaven to earth by loving no matter what. His famous love chapter says love isn't what you feel, it's what you do. In just five verses there are fifteen verbs that describe what love isn't in this chapter and what it is, showing us that love takes action. The Lord of love is as near as thought and breath, and he died and rose to help you love like he does. All it takes is asking and asking and asking for his help. Be a steady

Psalm 37:12-19, Prayer, Proverbs 21:23-24

SPEAKER_00 9:20

love stream, not a sludgy love suck while you wait for his rescue. From Psalm thirty seven twelve to nineteen. David compares the lives of the wicked and the righteous and the bottom line is this the wicked look to other people to find their footing while the righteous look to God, while the wicked are always looking for a fight to prove themselves. The righteous have nothing to prove and are on the lookout instead for God's love. If you're in a negative encounter with the wicked, remember that you don't need their agreement or approval. You have gods. You don't need their good will or grace. You have gods, you don't need their well being or well wishes, you have gods. If you're stuck in a crazy cycle with a raging lunatic, excuse yourself from any and all disrespectful conversations, innuendos, and outright abuse. You do not have to endure mistreatment or suffer the rants and ravings of the wicked. You are God's beloved, and he has far better things for you to do. Let your mind and heart be filled with what God's love for you looks like. In a testy moment it would look like giving you permission to walk away. It would look like recording the abuse. It would look like getting your recording to someone who can help you if necessary. God isn't troubled by bullies and we don't have to be either. They're quote, a joke with no punchline, end quote. David says that one day they'll get their lights knocked out. In the meantime, you can take action to make yourself safe as you pray for the grace to keep your love on for them. Depend on God's love and on those who can help you while you wait for his rescue. Prayer. God, thank you for every hard thing and how it sends me running to you. Thank you for doing the work that needs doing in me when I get there too. It's painful and I hate it, but I'm finding greater love, joy, and peace. So I say, Bring it and give me help as I bear it. In Jesus' name, so be it. From Proverbs 21, 23 to 24. Minding your words will save you a lot of grief. Those who go off at the mouth are hotheads, don't be like them. Passages in Esther, 1 Corinthians, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in the yearly Bible. This is Eve to Bartlebank Roebuck.