Delayed, is not Denied!

One of the cardinal rules for effective weight loss is not to look at the scale every day. Monitoring progress once a week is o.k., but there are often daily fluctuations that can cause discouragement and take you off your page. One reason for that is that sometimes you lose water weight and it appears that you are really making much more progress than you are; and then sometimes the converse is true – you may not have dropped the pounds yet on the scale, but by continuing on the plan, they will suddenly drop!

Life can be like watching the scale every day. We are already more than week into the new year and some of us are geeked because we have had “rapid growth,” in our lives – things we were hoping for have gotten off to a great start. Others of us have suffered set-backs, maybe like me, having to stay in because of a cold – or some other situation that completely changed your well-made plans.

It is so good to know that because we suffer delays, that does not mean we are denied! God is faithful to us to know:

6Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: Philippians 1:6 (KJV)

In my Bible reading I read a scripture that got my attention – I don’t have full understanding of why it keeps ringing in my head – but I offer it to you today to ponder as well. Abram was beseeching God for an heir, and in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis God spoke to Abram in a vision – beginning with:

“Do not be afraid Abram, I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward!” (vs 1)

In the (16th vs), after God has told Abram what will happen to his descendants unto the fourth generation(which at this point he does not even have one):

“But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete!” (Genesis 15:16 KJV)

When I looked up the reason why God said that – it was amazing to me the number of sins the Amorites had commited and why God was yet going to hold them accountable! Forgive my elementary logic, but it made me think about these two very different thoughts – just like God remembers the good, God remembers the bad – neither are going to go unrewarded!

That thought may not make your day, but it gave me something to think about – sometimes in life it seems as if the good guys finish last – and you wonder where is justice. God is a God of justice, but He also is a God of mercy. To think that God would wait four generations to really deal with the Amorites, makes me know of the side of God that we sometimes forget about. “God is not willing that any would perish, but that all would come to the knowledge of the truth.” Could it be that God gave the Amorites four generations to repent?

Take heart today that God sees, God hears, God knows, and most of all God cares – as Israel Houghton sings, “I(we) am not forgotten!”

Selah (Take note and think about this)
Maria