THE SHADOW ON THE SUNDIAL

“Behold, I will bring the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward." So the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down.” (Isaiah 38:8)

Hezekiah was a righteous person in the sight of the LORD. Whilst it is true that our righteousness cannot save us, we are required to walk before God blamelessly. In other words, we cannot just say there is grace to cover us when we sin, we must not abuse the grace of God.

Our relationship with God when we think about the relevance of grace is similar to the relationship between a wealthy father and his son. No matter how rich you are, you really do not want your children to waste your wealth. You want them to spend wisely and work hard as well.

The same thing goes with grace. Our heavenly Father loves us to enjoy His grace but not abuse it. He requires us to be righteous. In fact, the Bible states that “without holiness, no-one can see God.” When you do what God requires, you are covered deeply in His grace and you can expect astonishing favours. This is what happens to Hezekiah.

Hezekiah had fallen ill and his illness was terminal. He prayed fervently to God but the reply that God gave him through the prophet Isaiah was very negative: Hezekiah was told that his time was up, he was going to die. What will you do if you wanted good news but got bad news from God?

We can learn from Hezekiah: “Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the LORD, and said, "Remember now, O LORD, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what is good in Your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.” (Isaiah 38:2-3) The bad news only made him draw closer to God. Hezekiah simply persevered in prayer and handed his situation over to God afresh.

Bad news will come our way as the Lord wills, no matter how righteous we are. However, when we draw closer to God despite our pain, He is more than able to reach out and pour His grace into our life afresh.

Each day is a fresh day to draw closer to God. Each situation is a fresh opportunity to hand over our situation to Him. In the letter to the Hebrews, the Holy Spirit encourages us to “…come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)

As Hezekiah prayed, the LORD listened to his pleas and granted him additional years. The LORD told him he was healed. The news was too good to be true – Hezekiah therefore requested some form of assurance that what God had told him would come to pass. He asked for a sign to prove God’s word: he asked for a longer day and God moved the day backwards 10 degrees to assure Hezekiah he was healed.

There is nothing that God cannot do to give glory to His name as we pray. No matter the situation we face, if we can bend our knees and turn our face towards God in prayer, God is more than able to perform an amazing turnaround. The key ingredients are:

1.
Being where God wants us to be – make up your mind to remain where God has called you and do not allow anything to move you out of place. A lot of people get moved out of place, and therefore out of favour, because they want their own way, not God’s way!

2.
Doing what God requires – determine that you will walk in obedience to God. Obedience requires courage and consistency. Obedience requires repentance when you fall short of what God requires. Obedience quickens faith and releases God’s favour.

May the LORD perform a turnaround in your life and bring back the shadow on your sundial. Amen.

Out of the Eater

“So he said to them: "Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet." Now for three days they could not explain the riddle.” (Judges 14:14)

Adversity will never take permission from us before visiting us. Why? Because no-one except a fool will pray to be visited by adversity. Therefore, adversity will come without invitation.

There is truth in the promise that God will protect us to the uttermost and will not permit evil to befall us. However, we must understand also the other side of the coin: we are living in an evil and unfair world, a world that Satan finds easy to deceive and endanger nearly at will. Why? Because there is sin in the world and the simplest example of sin is that many, many people actually reject God.

Clearly, when someone rejects something that is good, what they will choose will be opposite to what is good, and the opposite of “good” is “evil”. Whilst God protects us day and night, He does sometimes allow us to experience some tough situations which, if we handle through faith, will result in the saying: "Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet."

Samson, an anointed man of God in the Old Testament, made this statement to describe his experience. One day a lion jumped out at him and he could have been killed but God came to his rescue and he killed the lion. A few days afterwards, he was passing by the corpse of the lion and was surprised that bees had laid their honey in the carcase of the lion. He was so hungry that he scooped the honey from the dead lion’s carcase and ate it. The honey was very sweet” Hence, his statement: "Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet."

The anointing of God is a very important gift that comes with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. All of us need God’s anointing – without His anointing we are pretty powerless! However, with His anointing, faith works like magic. You can’t explain it but you know deep down in you that you have got the best security in the world, no matter the number of “lions” that jump out at you as you go through life.

No matter how tough life is – and life can be very tough at times – and no matter the moment of disappointment and sorrow, those who carry God’s anointing are pretty strong people. They know deep down in them that everything that happens to them negatively will actually turn out positively to the glory of God!

As long as you are not bringing trouble on yourself through disobedience and ignorance, as long as you are walking in the light of God’s unshakeable word, you can wave your fist in the face of Satan and say: “Go to hell! I am not moved by what you throw at me! The Lord Jesus defeated you comprehensively on the cross of Calvary. He is the One that is living in me. And the One that is living in me is far greater and far superior to you, Satan! Even if I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For God is with me!”

When you carry God’s anointing and you are walking straight with God, ensuring that your life lines up with His word, you have nothing to fear. Every negative experience will soon turn out positive for you. Every sorrow will turn into joy, every tear into laughter! And if, as it can well happen, you did move out of line with the word of God, make sure you repent quickly and step back into God’s favour and keep yourself there. You are greater than an overcomer with God on your side!

May the LORD grant you many testimonies of "Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet" by turning your adversity into prosperity. Amen.

WEEPING ENDURES FOR A NIGHT

“So David went up by the Ascent of the Mount of Olives, and wept as he went up; and he had his head covered and went barefoot. And all the people who were with him covered their heads and went up, weeping as they went up.” (2Samuel 15:30)

Although people can weep for joy, most times weeping is a sign of serious distress, pain, unhappiness, helplessness, loneliness, failure, defeat, disappointment and hopelessness. It is extremely rare to find someone who loves God and knows about His care and goodness, who has never wept. Even Jesus wept!

When you read the Bible you will find several examples of godly people, righteous people, many people with real faith and assurance of God’s unfailing goodness weeping because of their great sadness on particular occasions.

David was a king and a very precious man of God. He had his failings but God gave a testimony concerning David: “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.” (Acts 13:22b) If we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, God has the same testimony concerning us. However, as you can see, despite his successes and many amazing answers to his prayers, David still had many moments of sorrow and unhappiness.

On the outside, people can look as if they have got everything sewn up and nothing is missing. However, actually, all of us as children of God will experience various situations that will make us weep because they make us sad. It is important for us to know that weeping is part of our relationship with God. In fact, it is unavoidable, no matter how close we are to God!

However, when we do weep let us also remember that God has not forgotten us and, in fact, He is closest to us when we are most unhappy! Such was the situation David faced as he fled from his son, Absalom that the Bible recorded that “David went up by the Ascent of the Mount of Olives, and wept as he went up; and he had his head covered and went barefoot. And all the people who were with him covered their heads and went up, weeping as they went up.”

Obviously, as he was going through this painful experience, he was praying his heart out to God. In the battle that followed, God gave him victory. Why? David tells us in Psalm 6:8 - “The LORD has heard the voice of my weeping.” In another Psalm, David noted that “God’s anger is but for a moment, His favour is for life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5)

In another Psalm, David prophesied, saying: “He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” (Psalm 126:6)

When we are sorrowful and distressed it obviously has a great impact on the tender lovingkindness of God. Because He is Immanuel (which means “God with us”), when God allows us to experience pain and disappointment, He is not far away from us: He is actually there with us! He is Jehovah-Shammah (“The LORD is there!”) If we understand this we will use our pain and sorrow as a very strong reason to seek the face of God.

No wonder, the LORD spoke to Jeremiah, the prophet: “My people shall come with weeping, and with supplications I will lead them. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble…” (Jeremiah 31:9

At another time, the LORD told Jeremiah: “Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded…” (Jeremiah 31:16) Which means you have wept enough over this matter, now brighten up, wash yourself, put on your pomade and powder, your perfume and nice clothes, start enjoying your life again. God is still on the throne. He has heard your voice. Your night season concerning this matter is over. This is your morning, and your joy is here! Amen.

WHEN GOD HIDES FROM YOU...

“Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do You hide in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1)

It can be extremely lonely if you trust in God and you are passing through a very difficult season in your life and it seems that God is far away!

We have been taught that God can stand afar off:

If we are constantly rebellious
Rebellion happens when we deliberately go against the word of God. It means to revolt, it means to say that God’s word is not true or that His word is not right. Once we have formed a habit of thinking that the Bible is not a modern book and that we must not take everything it says as relevant in today’s world, we will soon be rebellious. And it will not be too long before God stands afar off.

If we are constantly falling short of God’s requirement
There are times when we sin but we know and accept that God’s word is both true and right. In that case, we will not be described as rebellious in the extreme sense of the meaning of the word “rebellion”. But the Bible teaches us that if we know what is right and we refuse to act in the right way then we have sinned. Now we know that we are not perfect, and all of us will fall short at one time or another. However, if we have developed a habit for sinning again like we were doing before we knew Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, then before too long we will find that God is standing afar off.

If we doubt God’s love and care
Doubt is the opposite of belief. Of course, occasionally, on account of our human nature we can have doubts about God’s love and care, depending on how close we are to God and whether we are growing in His grace as we should. However, when we have unbelief rooted in our spirit, then we will not believe in things like miracles and we will not really feel we can pray to God with great expectations. When we habitually doubt God, it won’t be too long before we feel God is far off!

However, when the Psalmist says: “Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do You hide in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1), it was the prayer of a person who knew he was walking right with God. You know when you are walking right with God – you are not rebellious, you are not consistently falling short of His requirements, and you have strong faith in His mercy and care.

It is not impossible to know how you are doing in your relationship with the Lord. When a child is getting on well with their parent, they know! When you are doing well at school, you know! The same way, when you are walking along with God and growing in obedience and faith, you will know! Therefore when trouble comes and God seems afar off, it can be a most painful experience!

So, what’s God doing “hiding” Himself from you at your most needy time?

Well, the picture is pretty clear in the Bible when you check the experiences of those who trusted in God and who seemed to have gone through difficult times with God “hiding” from them:

Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years before God fulfilled His promise. During that time God was preparing their Isaac!

Joseph spent about 17 years waiting to become the great man that God promised Him he would be. During that time God was preparing him for greatness.

David, the sweet Psalmist of Israel was anointed king when he was about 15 years old. For the next 15 years, he went through many lonely “wilderness” seasons before he actually became king. During that time, God was putting the kingdom together for him.

Is God hiding from you? Something great is coming your way – a blessing that is greater than you can think or ask for! Amen.