Thought for the Week

I don’t know if there is such a thing but having lived in farming county all my life I can understand there could be. If you have ever seen a young calf separated from its mother, you understand the calf will do a lot of bawling. It misses its mother and wants to be with her. So, it bawls (calls out in its own language) for her to come and rescue it from its distress and lonely condition. It is hard to distract a calf from doing this. Actually, I suppose many young animals experience the same thing. We just may not be aware. When reading the Psalms, we notice this sort of thing as recorded often by David. He knows he needs his Heavenly Father and calls out to Him for deliverance, assistance, comfort, and a host of things. When fear grips us, we too know we need our Heavenly father. This is a natural and normal response. We can pity the person who does not know the deliverance, assistance, comfort, and the host of things God wants to give to us. We are, after all, His children because He created us to be with Him and have fellowship with Him. I expect some of the feelings David developed came about because spent many lonely hours caring for sheep. David’s character, compassion, and protective nature developed because he understood how much the sheep depended on him. He also knew he depended on God. When David faced danger or crisis he was reminded how God had so often defended and protected him. I feel badly for those people who do not know God. Much of that lack is the fault of the Church, for not doing our job of going to a lost world and telling them of God’s love. They won’t know unless someone tells them. God, through Jesus Christ, has commissioned us to do exactly this. Now, I know farmers must separate the calf from the cow in order for the calf to be weaned. They don’t do this to be mean to the calf. But in our world, we have an enemy, Satan – the devil, and he does try to separate us and keep us separated from God. He is mean. The day will come when Satan will be banished and have no more opportunity to cause trouble he has caused in the past. Those who have called out to God because they want to be with Him will be allowed to be. God has made the way. The Church looks forward to being gathered around the God’s Throne and to be forever in His presence. God’s plan is for all His children to be with Him forever, no more separations. I won’t insult you by telling you to ‘bawl’ but would encourage you to ‘call’ in your own language. Ask God to rescue you from whatever distress you are facing. A Gospel song “Now let us have a Little Talk with Jesus” has a line, “He will hear your faintest cry and He will answer, by and by.” One of my concerns as a newlywed was that if we had a baby, I would not be awakened if he/she needed me in the night. As a boy we lived near the fire house and I often slept through the fire siren. But when that baby came, I even herd the crib creak with the movement of the child. I know God is even more attentive to the needs of His children than I ever was. I certainly do not mean to imply we should call out to God only if we are in trouble. We should spend time with Him, in prayer, getting to know Him and developing the kind of relationship David had with God.

Scriptures to Read

James 1:4 & 4:7-8

II Corinthians 4: 6-14

Psalm 145:8-14

Psalm 46:1-7

Psalm 27:1-8

Psalm 34: 1-8

Ephesians 3:14-22