A word fitly spoken is like APPLES OF GOLD in a setting of silver – Proverbs 25v11
The Book of Proverbs mentions 4 amazing things in chapter 30v18 and today we look at the first: the way of an eagle in the sky. Eagles rely on rising air currents to gain altitude which allows them to spot prey on the ground or in the water below with their amazing eyesight. The prophet Isaiah in chapter 40v31 uses the analogy of the eagle to describe what should be our experience. “Those who wait for the Lord – will mount up with wings like eagles”. But if we are honest, waiting is frustrating and irritating. Why are you not answering my prayers Lord – are you too busy? don’t you care?
We often get tired of waiting and we take things into our own hands with lifelong consequences. Instead of soaring like the eagle we are like guinea fowls which make a lot of noise and scratch around for what is easily available on the ground and occasionally when confronted with danger or emotion we flap into the air for a short while. So how do we wait on the Lord? I suggest the answer is found in Ephesians 2v6: “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. Not will seat, but we are seated now – what does that mean? A number of years ago there was a film called Forrest Gump and at a certain point he is seated on a bench telling an older lady who was waiting for her bus his life story – she became so engrossed that she was unaware of her bus arriving and leaving. When Gump stopped his story and told her she had missed the bus, her response was ‘there will be another bus ’. Because we are seated ‘in the heavenlies’ we should be so engrossed in Jesus that we become oblivious of time because we are absorbed in learning more about the Lord by being soaked in His Word, praying without ceasing and fellowshipping in a church community. The chorus says ‘turn your eyes upon Jesus look full in His wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace’.
All we have to do is turn because we are seated next to Him and we see life from a heavenly perspective and are freed from the prison of a secular world view because we are breathing the clean air of a Christ-centred and eternal world view. If we understand this it will change our priorities – change our desires – change our perspective from this world’s selfishness to agape love. However, seating in the heavenlies is not just about taking, but also preparing us so we will fulfil our destiny which is to increase God’s Kingdom – read Ephesians 2v 10 “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do”.
Before we close, a warning from the eagle illustration. Crows and other birds dive bomb and harass the eagle because it is perceived as a danger. Friends if we are waiting on the Lord and soaring like eagles you can be sure enemies will oppose, harass, persecute and distract us from these good works we were made to do.
God Bless
Graeme Greenwood