Dear People who Keep Company with God,
There is an old proverb that says “Yesterday’s success can quickly become today’s disappointment”. This is so true in every area of our lives on this earth. How many times have we seen someone get a new job and be so excited with all the new possibilities that lay before them only to hear later how disappointed they had become with their employment? Things do not always turn out the way we expect and if we are not careful we may find ourselves overcome by disappointment to the point of being offended.
John the Baptist had one of the greatest ministries of any man who ever walked this earth; he prepared the way for the first coming of our Lord. When John baptized Jesus he experienced an open heaven; he saw a physical manifestation of the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus and heard a voice from heaven declare the real identity of Jesus as the beloved Son of God (Luke 3:21-22). John had such great expectation in Jesus, but it was not very long after that glorious moment that John was put in prison for challenging Herod’s morality (Luke 3:19).
The longer he sat in prison the more disappointed he became until finally he sent two of his disciples to find out if Jesus was truly the Son of God (Luke 7:19). Yesterday’s success had become today’s disappointment and disappointment has a way of distorting the facts. John had an expectation as to what Jesus would do, he preached that Jesus would pour out his wrath on that generation of vipers and He would cut them down and throw them into the fire (Luke 3:7-9). Those very people John declared Jesus was going to burn up were presently being healed and delivered by Him. In fact that was Jesus’ proof to John that He was indeed the beloved Son of God.
And He answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them. Luke 7:22
All my Christian life I have heard how God is going to judge our nation and I believe He eventually will just as He eventually judged those who rejected Jesus when He walked on the earth, but the truth is God is so much more interested and bringing us into His family. Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? Romans 2:4. It was the goodness of God that made Moses’s face to shine (Exodus 34:5-7). We are seeing the goodness and kindness of God being released in unprecedented ways in the United States yet if we are not careful we could find ourselves disappointed that God is not doing things the way we believed He would.
Here is a real key to staying under His blessings; guarding ourselves from not approving of who God is using, what God is doing, and where He is doing it.
“Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.” Luke 7:23
It is a short step between disappointment and being offended.
Many Blessings, BW