Lord,

We call this a season of waiting; of deferring hope and of looking toward your vindication. Yet, are we ready for it? If time were no object, would man welcome your salvation? Or would we, like Lot and his family, be both beggars and choosers; setting the terms of our own deliverance and working our own perverted salvation?

Yet, you also choose to work by man’s will: waiting for the prophet’s prayer to complete Abimelech’s restoration and inviting John to taste the bitter scroll and prophesy again. Even in this, the prophet cannot speak but what you command. When you prepare us for the words of the seven thunders, then will you tell us. Until then, heal us of what plagues us: call wickedness to account until you find none.