This season, we’re blessed with a set of Lenten devotionals by contributing author Lee Hinkle.  Find out more about Lee at the bottom of this article, or at hinkledownunder.com.

Reading

John 2 (ESV)
Isaiah 8:11-22 (ESV)

Meditation

Wait. My time has not come. Not being entrusted to those around him who believed.

Wait. Those around you have no dawn.

Wait. They are thrust into thick darkness.

Wait.

Waiting is hard. We have been doing a lot of it recently in our family. Tomorrow morning between 8 and 9am, the container with our stuff will arrive at our home. The last time I laid eyes on it was the first week of July, 2015. Some of it has been in boxes since September 2014. That is a long time.

But what is in the container is just stuff. Some of you may have felt like you have been waiting for something or someone for longer. You have children, friends, spouses, and you desire to see the truth of God come alive in them – but it just doesn’t seem to be happening. You have spent hours praying for them and there seems to be no direction. Some of you have been praying for healing from ongoing sickness or even a release from constant pain for a loved one. Some of you can’t remember the last time you were not in the fog of despair and you just want one small ray of sunlight.

Not yet. The Lord hides His face and hope is still present. Destruction will come; but rebuilding, resurrection is around the corner. In the darkness this seems to not be enough. In the confusion of life we long for answers. We will look to anything that will promise assurance.

God promises more than assurance. He promises a real and lasting future. He promises the culmination of all things. He promises infinite light. But before we just hope for the future and gut it out on our own, God breaks into our lives- not to explain everything so we can do it on our own power, but to ask us to trust him completely. He then gives us the power to trust.

We might not ever understand the wait. We might be like the disciples who remember what Jesus said and after the resurrection to have an “aha!” moment. But what we do know is that God knows us and will provide what we need, even in the hiding.

Prayer

Father, we do not like being out of the knowledge of what is going on. We do not like to feel out of control. When dread, fear, panic, isolation and darkness hit our lives we find it hard to believe that there is light. You know this because you know all men and what is in our hearts. Please give us what we need, and what you know we can understand.

Be gentle with your love. It can overwhelm us. The power of the resurrection is frightening. Be our dread. Be the only thing we put our eyes to. Be the one in whom we trust and worship.

Jesus, you have entrusted us to yourself. You are our life and comfort. Thank you for making the way for us. Amen.

Lenten Action

Write down your worries and concerns, those places you feel God is hiding from, on a piece of paper. Pray about sharing them with someone, and ask them to consider walking with you in these areas. Ask them to pray about them with you. Ask them to evaluate and see where God may be revealing Himself in ways you are not seeing. Pray that your heart would be receptive to hearing what this dear one will share with you.

• • •

Lee Hinkle is an American pastor who, with his family of 7, felt God’s call to pack up and plant a church in Fremantle, a town in Perth, Western Australia.  Last Summer, the Hinkles left Indianapolis and arrived in Oz to begin their work.  You can follow their adventures at hinkledownunder.com.