Sitting in the silence of an empty Sanctuary 21, before the people start to surface, the homeless, the traveller, the pilgrim and the space seeker, I sit and reflect. I love this time so much.
I have this half hour silence everyday before work starts.
Its a precious space for me.
Yesterday I did some groundwork for my talk sunday night at S21 and this morning in the quietness, I feel compelled to share the scripture with you guys.
Its Psalm 31
I implore you to read the whole of Psalm 31 but I want to kind of highlight verse 24, a verse that is echoing in my heart in the silence this morning.
Here it is:
Be brave, be strong, dont give up. Expect God to be here soon. (Message)
Expect God to be here soon!
My inner soul has been focussed on the word expect since I read this verse.
I have been asking myself the question, do I expect God to move in every situation, in every part of my life?
Yesterday, directly after doing the groundwork for sundays talk, I went and sat with a a few of our really deeply needy young guys who come in off the streets because they are hungry and desperate for company. One of the guys who is selflessly trying to help these needy guys was already sitting with them. As I pulled up a chair the conversation was about whether God exists or not. One of the young men, a young drug addict who has had a hellish life from the start, was vociferously defending the notion that there is no such thing as God. Its not hard to see why when you hear his story. As my friend was skillfully and gently communicating the Gospel, the young man was getting more and more irate. I decided not to offer much to the debate, but start praying. I prayed like crazy that this guy would calm down, especially knowing he has been in prison for seriously wounding someone.
As I prayed, my mind slipped into a bit of a cul de sac. As I looked into the tormented face of this amazing young man, as I looked into his slow reacting eyes, I felt a kind of hopelessness. And I began to think that this guy was unreachable.
But the word expect kept hammering my head.
So I silently prayed OK God, I expect you to do something¡
And I just expected.
From that moment on, I saw a dramatic change. The young guy suddenly became calm and lucid. He lost his aggression almost immediately.
He even stated I wish I could believe in Jesus because I need my life to change.
We ended up praying with him.
Be brave, be strong. Dont give up. Expect God to get here soon.
Do we really expect God to show up?
When we look at the world and see the depths its sunk to, the wars, the greed. The injustice, do we really believe the Spirit of God can rectify, rebalance. Restore and reedeem?
Do we expect him to?
Expectation takes courage and strength.
God can do more than we dare ask or imagine.
He is the change for everything.
The only hope for this world.
I pray today that we will have the strength to raise our expectation levels so that we can experience just what the power of God can and will do.
