Pastor Watts preached an amazing sermon last night and this is just a few notes that I wanted to keep.
I Samuel 30:6 "And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him... but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God."
Here David had followed the Lord's will and led the people of Israel into battle, but now all of their women had just been taken captive. This brought fear among the people and they were wanting to kill their leader because of this terrible captivity that had taken place. David has followed God's will and now his life is at stake by those closest to him. What does David do? He encourages himself in the Lord!
Hebrews 10:35-37
"Cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will NOT tarry."
We follow God's will and fulfill what He asks of us and then others don't like the results so we question ourselves. And so our thinking goes... Did we do the right thing? Did we really hear from God? Are they right, are we failures? We have failed God because now they are trying to persecute us for it. Failure! FAILURE! FAILURE!!! We keep hearing it over and over the dreadful word... failure.
And there God sits just waiting on us to beckon unto Him.... and He says, "CAST NOT AWAY YOUR CONFIDENCE in ME!" Other peoples opinions of you, the outcome you experienced from following MY will (not yours), the after effect of it all is not what you think it should be... God just asked you to follow His will.
Encourage yourself in God and don't lose your confidence! The God who gave you direction before, who brought you this far, who has never left your side. He is still here, patiently waiting for you to put your trust in Him, not wavering but strong in faith. So now He gives you promises and what happens when they aren't fulfilled on YOUR time frame? You question Him, your faith starts to rock, the foundation of trust is starting to shake... but we can not lose our confidence in Him! "For ye have need of patience, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. He will come and NOT tarry."
When I got back home last night and started reflecting on all of these thoughts from Bro. Watts teaching, the Lord gave me this other scripture, "For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him." Isa. 64:4
And with my head on the pillow last night meditating on all of God's Word, I summed it all up with this thought. Patiently wait on the Lord, time has never changed God's promises!
~From a thankful heart of God's amazing awesomeness
