by Frank Turk
My wife tells the story of how, as she and her brother and sister grew up, and they started to spend time out of the house and without direct parental supervision, her mom would always tell her, "If you don't like it, you call and Daddy will come get you." I am temped to give the invasively-curious a further anecdote on how this has informed my life as her husband and the father of her children. We'll save that for another day.
Yesterday Dan tweeted this:
It probably flew under your radar because you're not following Dan on Twitter even though Twitter takes great pains to remind you (as above) that you shouldn't miss any updates from Dan. That's your loss in general, but today we're going to point out why.
Dan has a spectacular book which almost everyone who has read raves about -- called
The World-Tilting Gospel. You may have heard of it, though not through the normal channels of bloggers well-known for linking to free publisher giveaways and good discounts -- a sociological effect which, frankly, we have our best men working on with no reasonable explanation. And in it, he talks about a specific prayer which, I think, ought to speak to us as we think about Dan's Tweetflection on Isa 62:6-7. Here -- let me quote it out for you:
So in one sense, when the true Israel -- that is Jesus -- prays for God's will to be done, he is the watchman on the wall who gives God the Father no rest until he (God) makes Jerusalem a praise on the Earth. That is, Jesus is doing what God told Israel to do, and of course God does everything Jesus asks.
But think on this, my readers and blog-friends: if God has answered, and is answering, and will answer this prayer from Jesus, it means that God must, therefore, answer your prayers when they are for the same thing that Jesus is asking for here. When you pray for God to glorify the Son, to give over those who ought to be given, and to see that they will keep God's promise (that is: his word), God answers that prayer.
In that sense, when you call him, he will come get you. In fact: he wants you to call on him -- he wants you to remind him and even never let him have rest until he has done what he promised to do. He's your Father and not merely some stoic sky-judge who issues functionary decrees.
Be in the Lord's house with the Lord's people on the Lord's day this weekend, and see how many times he has already done this. It should be an encouragement to you.
