Why So Long, Lord

Monday, March 21, 2022 Good morning, Lord Verse of the Day: Jeremiah 17:7-8 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit. Memory of the Month: 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Today's reading: JOSHUA 7-9 LUKE 1:21-38 Why So Long Lord? Jeremiah 17:7-8 7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. 8 They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” Psalm 1:3 2But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night. 3He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does. Why, Lord, our Eternal God, does it take us so long to realize the person you want us to be? We read of the Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 years and we still do not listen. We read of the disobedient taking treasure from Jericho against Your command and see Israel defeated in their next battle. Why does it take us so long to see error-to see our own sin? We see the endless faithfulness of Moses and see he did not get to go into the promised land because of his sin and we still waste time. We see King David sin horribly and pay for it and see him become the great King after. We see Paul turn from a relentless pursuer of Christians to a relentless pursuer of You and Your kingdom and we still do not grasp the gravity of personal holiness. We see John exiled for his faith on Patmos and read the words to the churches You spoke to him and remain exiled in our lives of apathy. Lord God, you show us Jesus and how He died for each of our great and small sins. We see Jesus honor You with His life and death. We see your power in raising Him from the dead and His ascending. We see Jesus touch the children and heal the sick and feed the multitudes and somehow go about our daily lives worrying. Why can we not see what being planted by the river really means? Show us how to run our roots down deep. Impress on our hearts what taking up our cross daily means. Plant the burning desire in our hearts to meditate on Your word day and night and to hide as much of Your word in our hearts as we possibly can before we are too old to remember. Set hearts ablaze, Lord. Teach us to seek You above all else-all else. Show us what loving You really means as opposed to where we are in loving You now. Take away our need to 'be' something on this earth and replace it with the humility of the foot-washing servant. Make us the individual parts of Your body You want us to be for Your glory. Let us realize what it means to hallow Your name-to be a living sacrifice with hearts broken for the lost because our hearts are so full of You. Teach us to walk as Jesus walked, always conscious of You, Holy Spirit-always conscious. Replace our sinful, personal pride with Your peace as we live loving the way You love. Forgive us, oh God, with Your endless mercy. I pray this in the priceless name of Christ Jesus, Amen ...because He loves us...