Daily Office Readings for Tuesday of Easter Week: Year 1
Morning Psalm, 103; Evening Psalms 111 and 114;
Isaiah 30:18 to 21; Acts 2:26 to 41; or 1st Corinthians 15:12 to 28; John 14:15 to 31
“Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.” (Isaiah 30: 18)
This sounds like a two-way waiting proposal – an invitation to be patient, for us, created in the waiting Patience of God, to be like God in our own patience. The Lord waits to be gracious to us. the prophet Isaiah says. And then he adds that we are blessed if we wait on the Lord.
Is it easier to wait for the Lord if we know that the Lord is also waiting for us? Which begs the question, what is it about us that the Lord is waiting for? Is the Lord waiting for us to be good and pardoning of one another? Is the Lord waiting for us to acknowledge that God is God alone? The patience and power of God will bring us to tears.
Isaiah says, “He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you” (Isaiah 30:19). I have a saying that “God’s ears, hears tears.” Probably not correct grammar but the point is that God is always attentive when tears roll down cheeks. Such tears make no detectable sound that the human ear can hear. But even through the modern, clanging, busy world of today, God can, and does hear, and respond, to our tears that sound like rushing waters over our face to God. Crying is prayer. And God is all around us, always listening.
“And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.” (Isaiah 30: 21) These directional words may come through unsuspecting people. God uses unsuspecting people to do the work for you that needs to be done. Therefore, we must be ever vigilant in order not to miss the word behind us, directing us about which way to go. At some point we sinners become the unsuspecting saints of God. God knows what it is like to be one of us through God’s own experience in Christ Jesus. We are all called to help one another, with, or without, our awareness. But I appeal to you to let us do this loving work willingly. This is about helping God to help us. Thank You Lord Jesus.
Let us live to love, more than we just love to live, listening to what the Spirit is saying to, and through, the saints of God, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
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