HH, Sir Godfrey Gregg D.Div
“And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands.” (Acts 12:7).
“And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.” (Acts 16:25-26).
How many of us have found ourselves in a situation and needed some form of help to get out? Consider the man that broke the law and desperately needs a lawyer and as no means to hire one? Those are desperate times and in the Bible, there were those times when desperation took over. I recalled when Abraham was about to make a sacrifice with his son Isaac. The son found himself in that situation when he asked his father for the sacrifice. “The Lord will provide for Himself a sacrifice,” said his father Abraham. They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. The Lord takes us to the place where we will talk to Him in times of desperation. So let us look into the scripture and see the message that God has for us this morning.
This is God’s way. In the darkest hours of the night, His tread draws near across the billows. As the day of execution is breaking, the angel comes to Peter’s cell. When the scaffold for Mordecai is complete, the royal sleeplessness leads to a reaction in favour of the favoured race.
Ah, soul, it may have to come to the worst with thee ere thou art delivered; but thou will be delivered! God may keep thee waiting, but he will ever be mindful of His covenant and will appear to fulfil His inviolable Word.
There’s a simplicity about God in working out His plans, yet a resourcefulness equal to any difficulty, and an unswerving faithfulness to His trusting child, and an unforgetting steadiness in holding to His purpose. Through a fellow-prisoner, then a dream, He lifts Joseph from a prison to a premiership. And the length of stay in the prison prevents dizziness in the premier. It’s safe to trust God’s methods and to go by His clock.
So many times we are in a hurry because we are working by our time. We have to be reminded constantly that our times are in God’s hands. If you can believe it then that is the way the Master leads. We must WAIT WITH PATIENCE on the Lord in all things.
Providence hath a thousand keys to open a thousand sundry doors for the deliverance of His own when it even comes to a desperate case. Let us be faithful, and care for our own part which is to suffer for Him, and lay Christ’s part on Himself, and leave it there. We have to do our part and that is to commit it to the Lord and leave the rest to the Lord then wait on Him to fulfil the promise of His word.
The difficulty is the very atmosphere of a miracle–it is a miracle in its first stage. If it is to be a great miracle, the condition is not difficulty but impossibility.
The clinging hand of His child makes a desperate situation a delight to Him.
