Waiting

The other day, the devotional from ‘Our Daily Bread’ was titled ‘Going First’ and it spoke of how God loved us FIRST.  About how we didn’t have to do anything, he just loved us!

It was a very good devotional, and it got me to thinking.  About how God did love us first, about how He loved me first, and then He waited for me to return that love.

And He waited . . .

And He waited . . .

He waited through the times that I stole, when I lied, when I dishonored myself.  When I did so many sinful things and I broke so many of His precious Commandments.  Over the years, I have ignored Him, I have denied Him and I have even felt like I had lost Him at times.  Then to add insult to injury, I just didn’t want to believe that He was there.

But He was.

Through all of that He waited on me and loved me through each and every moment.

It was Him that put me upon the path that I am now on.  It was Him that led me to a God-fearing woman like Cindy who has prayed for me for so many years.  It was Him that inspired me to sit down and write these letters.

It’s just like the song says “Without Him, I could do nothing.” 

By myself I am just another sinful man in a world filled with billions of them.  I had no hope.  My life amounted to nothing.  Anything I or any human did is only fleeting.  I am . . . A vapor, soon to be lost in the wind.

James 4:14 NKJV – ‘Where as you do not know what will happen tomorrow.  For what is your life?  It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.’

Once I realized this and how small I really was – how small and insignificant man really was, my whole view changed.  My heart changed.  I immediately felt the presence of the God who had loved me and waited for me so long.  I felt his peace and his comfort knowing that it was not ALL for naught.

And you know what?  He didn’t care how long it took.  He didn’t care what I had done.  He forgave me of ALL of my sins.  To Him they are now as if they never were.

He reminded me of the Gift He had given me so many years ago.  The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, that part of Him that he placed inside of me to remind me and reassure me that “I am Saved.”

John 16:12-15 NIV – “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.  But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.  He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.  He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.  All that belongs to the Father is mine.  That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

The Holy Spirit, this ‘Spirit of truth’ guides me to write this to you.  He has waited for me for most of my life.  He is waiting for you too, and just think . . . He already loves you.