Today's  Devotion
 

Wait

by Cathy Vinson

But there is another type of waiting, one hidden into the disgrace of the soul, where the most sincere prayer is seemingly refused. It is lifted up again and again, because it is the prayer closest to the heart. It's the thing you REALLY want. When you experience this type of wait you don't, actually you can't, keep the same heightened expectancy. The perch on the edge of your seat begins to slouch back.

Such was the type of wait for Zecharias and Elizabeth. The angel announced, "Your prayer has been heard!" Prayer...oh, the prayer of their young and energetic youth, the prayer when they and their neighbors looked
on every month for its answer. Yet there had never been a promise, only what they believed to be true about God. With deferred hope after deferred hope, that hope did begin to float into obscurity. The slouch began on their seat, and their hope began to crust over.

What transpires in these kind of years? When your most sincere prayer is refused, what is left? What happens when you "come to a point where what seems to be true conflicts with what you believe about God?"

What happened with Zecharias and Elizabeth was the actions of a devout couple. They walked "upright in the sight of God observing all the Lord commanded." (Lk 1:6) They followed and ministered to the Lord. Somehow they kept themselves from declaring "It's not going to happen," yet must have kept from the question altogether. They hadn't left the Lord, but their demeanor was one of obscured expectancy. They lost themselves in the midst of the years.

At God's time the answer did come. Even with their slouching posture, they were able to RECEIVE the answer. They had persevered. "So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will RECEIVE...." (Heb 19:35-35)

Cathy Vinson©

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~ Pardon Must Be Accepted ~

 

During the presidency of Andrew Jackson, George Wilson, a postal clerk, robbed a federal payroll from a train and in the process killed a guard. The court convicted him and sentenced him to hang. Because of public sentiment against capital punishment, however, a movement began to secure a presidential pardon for Wilson (first offense), and eventually Jackson intervened with a pardon. Amazingly, Wilson refused it.
Since this had never happened before, the Supreme Court was asked to rule on whether someone could indeed refuse a presidential pardon. Chief Justice John Marshall handed down the court's decision: "A pardon is a parchment whose only value must be determined by the receiver of the pardon. It has no value apart from that which the receiver gives to it. George Wilson has refused to accept the pardon. We cannot conceive why he would do so, but he has. Therefore, George Wilson must die." George Wilson, as punishment for his crime, was hanged. Pardon, declared the Supreme Court, must not only be granted, it must be accepted.

George Maronge, Jr., Birmingham, Alabama. Leadership, Vol. 12, no. 3.  

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