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[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Daily Devotional by Tommy Tenney, based on his book[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Finding Favor with the King[/FONT]
RSVP (Part 2)
Protocol of the Palace #4
Worship is the protocol that protects the King and qualifies the visitor.
Finding Favor with the King, p. 42
Scripture Reading
Matthew 22:1-14, Jesus tells the parable of a king's wedding for his son. The invited guests prove they are unworthy by refusing to come and are replaced by those brought in from the “highways.” One wedding guest, found without a wedding garment, is expelled into “outer darkness."
“Do you have an appointment?” “Please have a seat. Mr. ______will be with you shortly. ”
Protocols are a part of life. We face them every day in one form or another. From security checkpoints to reception areas, standards and procedures are in operation to screen callers, clients or visitors. This is not only for protection. It is also to help ensure that people with legitimate business get where they need to go and that others are either redirected or turned away.
Just as worship is the protocol that protects the King, it is also the protocol that qualifies the visitor. Remember that worship is based on relationship. In Jesus' parable of the wedding, the king spots a guest who has no wedding garment. The wedding garment was a sign of relationship. It was proof that the guest had been invited and had the right to be there. Somehow an interloper had gotten inside. A “gate-crasher” had invaded the party. When he was unable to answer the king's challenge, he was evicted.
Relationship gives us the right of access to the King. Worship is the garment that gets us through the door.
Part of the protocol for qualifying visitors is the protocol of waiting. As I wrote in Finding Favor with the King (p. 42), waiting is worship . Many of us don't handle waiting very well. This is especially true when we have been praying for something for a while and God seems to be silent. Our fast-paced, microwave-speed, instant-everything society has conditioned us to expect immediate gratification of any desire. Sometimes God lets us wait so that we can learn patience. At other times He delays His answer because He is preparing to give us something better.
Waiting on the Lord rearranges our priorities and reorients our perspective to those of the King. It also gauges how hungry we are for Him. Many would-be visitors to the King's presence disqualify themselves by being unwilling to wait. If their request for an audience is not answered promptly, they leave. They're either too busy or not hungry enough to hang around. And so they miss their opportunity. When their turn finally comes, they are already gone.
Don't let impatience cause you to forfeit your opportunity to see the King. Content yourself with waiting on Him. If you wait long enough your patience will be well rewarded. You will be drawn into an intimacy with the King that is experienced by very few. “ Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!
Prayer Lord, thank You for the garment of righteousness You have given me in Christ that gives me the right to come into Your presence. I know that I sometimes get impatient when You don't answer my prayer right away. Forgive me. Grant me patience that I may learn to wait on You and gain entrance to the inner chamber of deeper intimacy with You.
