Matthew 24:1 Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple.
Jesus and His disciples were leaving the Temple when they pointed out to Him how impressive the Temple and it’s buildings were.
Matthew 24:2 And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”
This statement immediately brought questions to the minds of His followers. Time passed. They walked from the Temple to the Mount of Olives. Jesus intentionally let His statement of verse 2 just hang there long enough for the disciples to contemplate what He had said.
Matthew 24:3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?
Sometimes God leaves us with a thought or a question for a while because He wants us to think about it. He wants us to meditate on what He says, to masticate and mull over His words from the immediate to the implied, a processing of thought food … thought digestion. Sometimes that long pause in your life, that pause where it seems like God has gone silent might be Him saying, ”I want you to consider what I’ve already told you.”
If you feel like you’re in a holding pattern, could it be that the next move is yours?
I spoke with a married couple one time who stated that they felt like God had quit leading them. I asked, “When was the last time you remember God leading you?” “When He told us to start tithing,” answered one. I asked the obvious question, “Did you?” The answer was telling, “We’re going to.” It suddenly became obvious that God was waiting for that couple to do what He had already told them to do. But what seems obvious from a distance isn’t always so obvious when it’s up front and personal. We can quickly deduce that couple’s failure to follow through with following God’s instruction was the reason they didn’t feel God was leading them, but how’s your own follow through?
A young pastor took over an old church, after the previous pastor went to be with the Lord. The young pastor taught an excellent sermon that first Sunday. The next Sunday, he taught the exact same sermon. After the next two Sundays featuring the exact same teaching, the congregation elected a spokesman who stood up in the next service and asked, ”Do you have any other sermons?” The pastor smiled and said, “Yes, I do, but I’m still waiting for you all to do something with this one.”
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