{"id":3345,"date":"2021-03-27T23:44:37","date_gmt":"2021-03-28T03:44:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=3345"},"modified":"2021-03-27T23:44:37","modified_gmt":"2021-03-28T03:44:37","slug":"the-tension-of-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=3345","title":{"rendered":"The Tension of Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry . . . You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God!”<\/span> (Psalm 40:1, 17)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

David used an inclusion to wrap this psalm. The first and last verses are devoted to the same theme, though they observe it from opposite sides. Verse one is a testimony; verse 17 is a plea. Both regard the timing of waiting on God to act and to deliver. Verse 1 — David was patient and God listened to his prayer, answered him, and delivered him. Verse 17 — David is in trouble again, trying to be patient as he waits on God to act and deliver him.<\/p>\n

This is descriptive of our journey with God in this world, is it not?<\/p>\n

We live between personal testimony and potential tragedy; between answered prayer and anxious prayer; between great deliverance and growing danger; between “God, you did it!” and “God, come do it!”<\/p>\n

“God has acted. He has saved. He has delivered. I will never be the same.”<\/p>\n

“God, I need you! I’m in trouble! Please hurry!”<\/p>\n

Our faith relationship to God in this world will always exist within this tension. Why am I constantly surprised that my faith continues to be stretched and exercised?<\/p>\n

(image: careerbuilder.com)<\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry . . . You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God!” (Psalm 40:1, 17) David used an inclusion to wrap this psalm. The first and last verses are devoted to the same theme, though they observe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[49,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-prayer","post-preview"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgYGxX-RX","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3345"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3348,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3345\/revisions\/3348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}