“King David rose to his feet and said: “Listen to me, my fellow Israelites, my people. I had it in my heart to build a house as a place of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, for the footstool of our God, and I made plans to build it. But God said to me, ‘You are not to build a house for my Name, because you are a warrior and have shed blood.’ “Yet the Lord, the God of Israel, chose me from my whole family to be king over Israel forever. He chose Judah as leader, and from the tribe of Judah he chose my family, and from my father’s sons he was pleased to make me king over all Israel. Of all my sons; and the Lord has given me many, he has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. He said to me: ‘Solomon your son is the one who will build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. I will establish his kingdom forever if he is unswerving in carrying out my commands and laws, as is being done at this time.’” 1 Chronicles 28:2–7
One of my morning devotionals has been going through the Old Testament with Charles Swindoll. Recently, we have been in 1 Chronicles and we’ve been reading about David and he has been struggling with God and waiting for an answer. Have you been in that season recently; the season of waiting? There are quite a few Haitians waiting for an answer to the challenge of ending the gang presence in their country.
In the above passages, David wanted to build a temple but God did not give him the yes answer that he was desiring. That temple was going to be built by Solomon. David got a ‘no’ and Solomon got a ‘yes’ from God.
Do you, like David and God’s faithful in Haiti, have some cherished desire that isn’t showing yet? I’ve found that usually, it takes getting up higher in years to realize that's going to happen, because the younger we are, the greater our dreams, the broader our hopes, and the more determined we are to make them happen according to our desires. But as we get older, many of us see that some of those great hopes and dreams are never going to be realized by us on this side of Paradise. Perhaps it is a dream of some great accomplishment through a unique kind of ministry. For Haiti, it would be the removal of the presence of gangs. Maybe it is a desire for an unusual career or personal recognition. Maybe it’s the end of a vacancy at your church. Perhaps it's a longing for relief from something in your life that you've had to live with for years. Whatever it is, you may now recognize that it is never going to happen on your watch, and that's a hard pill to swallow. But, like David, it's an opportunity to find satisfaction in what God has allowed you to do. As he reflects on his life and his own unfulfilled desire, David tells shares that he will turn his attention away from what wasn't to be and instead focus on the things God has done.
If you’re in a season of waiting, this is your challenge, isn't it? We can live the last years of our life swamped by guilt or overwhelmed by regrets from the past. We can either ‘eat our heart out,’ or we can say, ‘By the grace of God, I did the best I could with what I had. And I claim His promise that somehow He'll use what I did accomplish for His greater glory.’ We have Hope for tomorrow while we wait. What a wonderful attitude to have as we wait for His answer.
Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you,
Jay