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 – and 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 also 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?
“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 responds, to our tears, that sounds like rushing waters over our face to God. 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 before 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.
Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia and our schools.
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
onewhoponders 