Eager Anticipation
What do you have to look forward to?
Verse of the Day
“For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.”
Today’s Devotional
Later. Sometimes I feel like that is when all the good things will happen. Not now, but later. Delayed gratification is not my strong suit. I tend to want things NOW. And I seriously doubt that I am alone in that.
The older I get, the more I realize how slowly and incrementally things change. I can think of nothing good that happens quickly. Waiting is a big part of life, and one that we often struggle with.
When I think about this verse, and ponder God’s anger, I don’t see it as vengeful or smiting. I see it as, “I tried to teach you this lesson, one that you so desperately need to learn to make your life better, but you refused. So now I will have to make things more painful in order for you to learn.” I see God as patient, and wanting so badly for me to “get it”. To understand the spiritual truths that he is writing on my heart. I also know from 1 Corinthians 13 that God is not easily angered. Therefore, any harsh consequences I face I have most definitely earned.
But even if God gets angry with us, it is only because we are hard headed and unwilling to learn, grow, and change. Doesn’t that remind you of parenting? I was only angry or frustrated with my daughter when she refused to listen and obey. But never once have I stopped loving her. And imagine how much bigger God’s love is for us than our love is for our own children.
Now back to delayed gratification and waiting. Joy comes with the morning. We know that the best is yet to come. Jesus will one day return. We will spend eternity with Him. Even here on this earth, God WILL work things out for our good. But not right this second. Right now, I have to choose to trust and obey, even while some things are really hard. And I have to be willing to learn. And grow. And change.
But what if…in the meantime… we could change our attitude to one of grateful anticipation? We KNOW great things are coming, so the burdens of today can’t weigh us down. Think about when you had a really exciting vacation coming up. Even if some bad things happened prior to your trip, you still had an excited, eager anticipation about the vacation and so the problems didn’t seem to affect you as much. They just had to be dealt with so that they didn’t detract from your upcoming adventure. What if we lived our life like that? JOY IS COMING. What if we kept our focus on what we KNOW is coming? Wouldn’t that create more joy today? We can choose to live with the joy of eager anticipation of God’s will for our lives.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
Are you waiting for anything from God today? If so, write to him about it. Then live today with the joy of knowing that he WILL provide what you need (though maybe not what you want).
How have you dealt with God’s anger or discipline in the past?
Do you ever think of the joy of being in heaven forever? Does that change your outlook on today at all?