[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Wednesday, June 4, 2014

[Paul via Faith-talk]

Hello and good day to you all on this Wednesday, at least it's Wednesday as this is being written, although for you in Australia and New Zealand it's a very early Thursday morning.  I hope that your day is going well, by God's matchless grace and His providential care.

Frana Hamilton returns once again to grace our screens, Braille displays and screen readers with another of her insightful articles.  Today it's entitled "Come Apart Or Fall Apart," rendered as follows:

Matthew 14:23 records that when Jesus "had sent the multitudes away, He went up into a mountain apart to pray:  and when the evening was come, He was there alone." This is one of many occasions when He went away by Himself to be alone with the Father.

Someone has rightly observed that if we do not come apart to spend time alone with God, we will be in danger of falling apart.

In "The Shepherd of Guadalupe," Zane Grey tells how long hours in the desert alone with the sheep had made the shepherd a thinker.  He goes on to explain, "Solitude and loneliness inspired the mind."  Noise, confusion, and busyness keep us from quiet thinking.

Psalm 1, written by another shepherd, describes for us the man who walks with the Lord, delighting and meditating in His law.

"And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper" (v3).

Jeremiah expands on that thought about the man who trusts the Lord.  "He shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit" (17:8).

Even in drought we, the trees of the Lord, can continue to bear fruit as our roots go deeper and deeper, tapping into the Living Water.

Paul had his desert experience of three silent years near Damascus before God used him so mightily to preach the gospel to the entire known world.

Moses spent forty years in the desert, alone with his God and his thoughts before the Lord used him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

In today's fast-paced, hectic culture we would do well to take time for quiet and solitude.

"It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord," Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations 3:26.

Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 2:2-3 "a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty ... is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour."

It is difficult to slow down and practice quietness, but it is better than being so busy that we are in danger of falling apart.

Well, there you have Sister Hamilton's article which, just like her previous contribution, I trust was a blessing to you.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Lord willing, tomorrow there will be another Daily Thought article for you to ponder.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul