Taking the name of Christ is a far different thing than taking his nature. Being born again is not first a change of name, but of heart and thus nature. When the new heart and nature is what is vital, how sad it is that so few seek it, but claim the name! "To wash and dress a corpse is a far different thing from making it alive: man can do the one, God alone can do the other." Charles Spurgeon May we each be certain that we have been truly born again, for "Ye must be born again."

Wait

Wait

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried;

Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied.

I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate…

And the Master so gently said, “Wait.”

“Wait? You say wait?” my indignant reply.

“Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!

Is your hand shortened? Or have you not hear?

By faith I have asked, and I’m claiming your Word.

“My future and all to which I relate

Hangs in the balance, and you tell me to ‘Wait?’

I’m needing a ‘yes’, a go-ahead sign.

Or even a ‘no’, to which I’ll resign.

“You promised, dear Lord, that if we believe,

We need but to ask, and we shall receive.

Lord, I’ve been asking, and this is my cry:

I’m weary of asking! I need a reply.”

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate

As my Master replied again, “Wait.”

So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut,

And grumbled to God, “So, I’m waiting… for what?”

He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes met with mine…

And He tenderly said, “I could give you a sign.

I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.

I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run.

I could give all you seek and pleased you would be.

You’d have what you want, but you wouldn’t know me.

You’d not know the depth of My love for each saint.

You’d not know the power that I give to the faint.

“You’d not learn to see through clouds of despair.

You’d not learn to trust just by knowing I’m there.

You’d not know the joy of resting in Me

When darkness and silence are all you can see.

“You’d never experience the fullness of love

When the peace of My spirit descends like a dove.

You would know that I give, and I save, for a start,

But you’d not know the depth of the beat of My heart.

“The glow of My comfort late into the night,

The faith that I give when you walk without sight.

The depth that’s beyond getting just what you ask

From an infinite God who makes what you have last.

“You’d never know should your pain quickly flee,

What it means that ‘My grace is sufficient for thee.’

Yes, your dearest dreams overnight would come true,

But, oh, the loss, if I lost what I’m doing in you.

“So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see

That the greatest of gifts is to truly know Me.

And though oft’ My answers seem terribly late,

My most precious answer of all is still, ‘Wait’. “

-By Russell Kelfer

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