April 20th, 2022
The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
Does God Forget You?
The man groaned but didn’t budge. The theater usher became impatient.
"Sir, if you don’t get up from there, I’m going to have to call the manager."
Again, the man just groaned, which infuriated the usher who turned and marched briskly back up the aisle in search of his manager. In a few moments, both the usher and the manager returned and stood over the man.
Together the two of them tried repeatedly to move him, but with no success. Finally, they summoned the police.
The cop surveyed the situation briefly then asked, "All right buddy, what’s your name?"
"Sam," the man moaned.
"Where are ya’ from, Sam?"
With pain in his voice Sam replied, "The balcony."
It is difficult sometimes for us to explain to others the struggle we face in life. But the struggle is real. Life may have kicked you in the stomach and you still haven’t caught your breath. When we struggle, we often begin to wonder where God is in all this mess. We can begin to doubt that He notices our plight! When this occurs, we come to a spiritual fork in the road, a time when we question God’s care and sometimes even His existence. The fork in the road leaves us with two options: take the road that sticks to our faith and continues to follow Him anyway or the road of synoecism, negativity and doubt.
In 2 Kings 6 and 7 the Aramean King sent a great military force to surround and lay siege on the Israelite capital city of Samaria. The desperation and starvation were so great that some resorted to cannibalistic activities. When things got so bad, the king blamed God and wanted to kill God’s prophet. The prophet Elisha promised the king’s hit man that by the same time the next day and it was done. God rescued the city because of the faith of one prophet.
The fact that God’s people were in trouble did not mean He had forgotten them. God wanted to remind them that they needed Him. When you are in trouble, when you feel oppressed by life, when your life is in the middle of Satan’s siege, remember that you can still turn to Him for relief. He never forgets His children. His deliverance is always done by His timing and,
God is always right on time.
We had an amazing Resurrection Sunday last week as God blessed us with a great crowd, a wonderful Easter breakfast prepared by some of our men under the guidance of Keith Risdon and Doug McGregor. And, we had a generous 30 Pieces of Silver offering of $3,422 (some folks have indicated that they will be bringing theirs this week so it could go up). The worship service was Holy Spirit led and God brought us some new guests. This Sunday we will return to our sermon series, Agent of Change Elisha – God’s Man of Purpose with a message titled Grace in God’s Time based on 2 Kings 6:24 – 7:20. Be sure to join us and bring your friends, neighbors, family members, and co-workers. God will be here, ready to touch your life.
Trusting Him with you,
Jon
Does God Forget You?
The man groaned but didn’t budge. The theater usher became impatient.
"Sir, if you don’t get up from there, I’m going to have to call the manager."
Again, the man just groaned, which infuriated the usher who turned and marched briskly back up the aisle in search of his manager. In a few moments, both the usher and the manager returned and stood over the man.
Together the two of them tried repeatedly to move him, but with no success. Finally, they summoned the police.
The cop surveyed the situation briefly then asked, "All right buddy, what’s your name?"
"Sam," the man moaned.
"Where are ya’ from, Sam?"
With pain in his voice Sam replied, "The balcony."
It is difficult sometimes for us to explain to others the struggle we face in life. But the struggle is real. Life may have kicked you in the stomach and you still haven’t caught your breath. When we struggle, we often begin to wonder where God is in all this mess. We can begin to doubt that He notices our plight! When this occurs, we come to a spiritual fork in the road, a time when we question God’s care and sometimes even His existence. The fork in the road leaves us with two options: take the road that sticks to our faith and continues to follow Him anyway or the road of synoecism, negativity and doubt.
In 2 Kings 6 and 7 the Aramean King sent a great military force to surround and lay siege on the Israelite capital city of Samaria. The desperation and starvation were so great that some resorted to cannibalistic activities. When things got so bad, the king blamed God and wanted to kill God’s prophet. The prophet Elisha promised the king’s hit man that by the same time the next day and it was done. God rescued the city because of the faith of one prophet.
The fact that God’s people were in trouble did not mean He had forgotten them. God wanted to remind them that they needed Him. When you are in trouble, when you feel oppressed by life, when your life is in the middle of Satan’s siege, remember that you can still turn to Him for relief. He never forgets His children. His deliverance is always done by His timing and,
God is always right on time.
We had an amazing Resurrection Sunday last week as God blessed us with a great crowd, a wonderful Easter breakfast prepared by some of our men under the guidance of Keith Risdon and Doug McGregor. And, we had a generous 30 Pieces of Silver offering of $3,422 (some folks have indicated that they will be bringing theirs this week so it could go up). The worship service was Holy Spirit led and God brought us some new guests. This Sunday we will return to our sermon series, Agent of Change Elisha – God’s Man of Purpose with a message titled Grace in God’s Time based on 2 Kings 6:24 – 7:20. Be sure to join us and bring your friends, neighbors, family members, and co-workers. God will be here, ready to touch your life.
Trusting Him with you,
Jon
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2 Comments
Thank you for this blog, it opened my eyes some to the fact in God's timing not mine, sure miss you and Cheryl love yall.
Thanks, Cheryl. We were sad to learn of you wonderful mom's passing. She was precious to us. I appreciate you comment and was excited to see you join the steam on our Easter Sunday service. I hope to hear from you again.