30th Mar 26 | 13:54
Studies by Book
Luke 21 10-19 WATCH AND PRAY II 12 Luke 21 19 Resting and waiting
📖 Luke 21:10-19
*FRIEND OF GOD*
22May2021 - *Resting and waiting* - _Luke 21:10-19_ - WATCH AND PRAY II (12) – Bible reading: _Psalms 37:7_
The Lord is calling us to wait and be patient as we watch and pray over our circumstances. Even as the situation around us is becoming boisterous and getting out of hand, we must not be anxious or perturbed but must be rested, waiting on the Lord.
This is great learning that we need these days, which is to learn to wait and learn to be rested in the Lord. The devil’s strategy will be to trouble us and make us be worried but let us not make the mistake of falling into his trap.
_Luke 21:19 By your patience possess your souls._
We are in the habitat of God. So, whatever may be happening around us, we have the basis for being rested in Him and wait but not fret.
We know that we are safe in His hands and we know that our safety *does not mean* that we will all be protected from the virus or we will all be healed from the infection but *our safety is a matter of eternity*, where we will have a heavenly body and we will spend eternity in the presence of the Lord. In this reality, we are safe.
_II Peter 3:3-11 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, (4) and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation."_
_(5) For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water,
(6) by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. (7) But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men._
_(8) But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (9) The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance._
_(10) But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. (11) Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,_
Peter is telling us that there will be scoffers who will say that the world is going on as it has been from the very beginning. They will say that there have been calamities in the past and so this too will pass. They do not want to consider that the Lord will return as the judge.
This is the philosophy of the world. “We are all waiting to come out on the other side of this crisis and continue on in life as it was earlier”.
The world is forgetting that it was by God’s word that the world came into existence, it was by God’s word that the world that then existed, perished at the time of Noah, the world that now stands, stands only by God’s word and it is by the same word of God that there will be fire and judgement.
Timing of all the events that are happening is something that we consider by the way we understand time and history, but for the Lord, time is of a completely different essence altogether. For the Lord, a thousand years equal to one day and one day is equal to a thousand years
*The heart of God is that none should perish in the lake of fire but that all should repent, return and be restored to Him*. This is the reason why God is longsuffering toward His creation.
_Romans 15:4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that *we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope*._
Since we have understood the scriptures and we take in what scripture reveals to us, which is the truth, we have hope. Our hope is the basis for us to wait and be rested in the Lord. This is how we possess our souls with patience. Though satan will buffet us, we will be intentional to wait and be rested in the Lord.
We are not waiting aimlessly or foolishly, for God’s word will never passway. _I Peter 1:25 BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER." Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you._
_Psalm 27:13-14 I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That *I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living*. (14) *Wait on the LORD*; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; *Wait, I say, on the LORD*!_
The Psalmist is assured to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. The land of the living is the eternal sanctum that we have in Christ, which is our inheritance. This is why we can wait and be rested in the Lord during these days of upheaval all around us.
_Psalm 37:7 *Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him*; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass._
*Thought to ponder*
```Waiting and resting in the Lord, is an experience not only in the good times of life but also when ferocious storms are beating all around us.```