Word of Life Word of Life. Benefits of Waiting on God!! “…And therefore the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting, looking, and longing] to be gracious to you; and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving- kindness to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are all those who [earnestly] wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him [for His victory, His favor, His love, His peace, His joy, and His matchless, unbroken companionship]!” Isaiah 30:18 In one of my previous devotion, I shared about waiting on God and we realized that we ought to persevere and wait on him. One thing about God is that he has promised that whoever waits upon him will never be disappointed. Don’t be in a hurry. We must learn to wait upon the Lord. You cannot rush God. He is in no hurry. Why is He not in a hurry? Because He has all of eternity ahead of Him; and when you and I get in step with Him, life will be much easier for us down here. He has his plan laid out well and perfectly. His word is perfect and whatever he has planned and set to do will be done to perfection in his own time and pace. He knows us pretty well; what we need, when we need it and the appropriate time we need it. That’s why Jesus said in Matthew 6:8 that our father in heaven knows what we need even before we ask for it. Thus we need to have confidence that as we wait on him, He will surely fulfill his word, promises unto us and the prayers that we pray unto him. We don’t like to wait and when we think of waiting, most of the time we get discouraged. We always put out a sigh and show as an indicator of the weight the word “wait” has. But then these two words, weight and wait are not always unrelated because one of our needs in waiting on the Lord is the need to cast the weighty burdens of life on Him. Even in our modern age of conveniences, waiting is still a big part of life. When we think of waiting, what comes to mind? We might conjure up visions of an airport terminal, a doctor’s waiting room, the line at the supermarket, or being stuck in rush hour traffic, etc. The simple fact is, in spite of our modern age and our dislike for waiting, life is full of waiting. And one of the most challenging exhortations of Scripture is “wait.” But waiting, despite our impatience and our dislike for it, is a vital element in life. I have discovered that we live in an age and generation that needs instant things. We have fast foods everywhere and thus, no need to cook if you do not feel like. In the supermarkets and malls, you will discover that we have almost everything we need in the shelves and thus, all you need to do is get home, warm a little bit and your food is ready. Indeed, waiting has a number of benefits that we will discover. There are some essential factors in waiting on the Lord that we cannot overlook. Waiting on God: a) Waiting necessitates the passage of time – David writes in Psalm 130:5-6 “I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, and in His word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord More than the watchmen for the morning; Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning,” In this, he was comparing waiting expectantly on the Lord to the night guards of the city who watched the passage of time in anticipation of the coming dawn when they would be released from duty. The coming of the dawn was certain, but not without the passage of time. In our “I want it now generation” we must understanding and accept the fact that waiting on the Lord always involves the passage of time just as it does when we are waiting for the news, a special TV program, for a plane to arrive for a play to start in the theater. Waiting on the Lord inevitably means enduring the passage of time, but the returns are more, much better. b) Waiting means confident expectation – waiting includes the concept of hope. WAITING and HOPING are wound together like the strands of a rope. This is how they are: When you wait to hear whether or not you have been accepted for the job you’ve applied for, you are not only hoping to get the job, you are hoping your credentials and qualifications are more than sufficient. Compare again Psalm 130:5-6 . “I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, and in His word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord…” Waiting involves an expectation of something special. Waiting means anticipation, expectation, confident hope that something that will take place . Ultimately, waiting on the Lord is like waiting on the sun to rise – waiting expectantly for the Lord’s answers to human needs as the sun brings the warmth of the day. c) Waiting involves an expectation based on knowledge and trust - Without knowledge and trust, we simply won’t wait – at least not without a great deal of anxiety and usually not without taking matters into our own hands and carrying out our plan B’s. As the watchman waits for the sun because he knows it is reliable, so was David waiting for the Lord even more because he knew the Lord is more reliable than the rising of the sun. In other words, waiting is fundamentally wrapped up with knowing, trusting, and believing in the Lord and His person (His character) and in His promises . The ability to wait on the Lord stems from being confident and focused on who God is and in what God is doing. It means confidence in God’s person: confidence in His wisdom, love, timing; understanding of our situation and that of the world. It means knowing and trusting in God’s principles, promises, purposes, and power. (Refer to: Psalm 52:8-9; Psalm 62:1-12; Psalm 37:7-9; Psalm 39:7 ) d) Waiting involves negatives and positives – When we think of waiting, we might envision just sitting back, not doing much of anything; just waiting for something to happen. But that is not the kind of waiting God is calling for. Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of waiting is learning to hold the negatives and the positives in proper balance. Waiting involves a passivity and an activity—negatives and positives—things we should do and things we should not do. Waiting involves three things: a. Things we do—doing the right things. b. Things we are not to do—refraining from the wrong things. c. Things that happen to us, in us, and for us in the process of biblical waiting. Read more in Psalm 37:1-9 e) Waiting Involves Seeking the Lord – waiting always means seeking the Lord. When we enter God’s waiting room we are not to just sit as one might in the doctor’s chair. Rather, we need to spend time seeking Him. This means: a. Time in the Word studying, seeking answers, and claiming God’s promises; b. Time in prayer praying about the issues, praying for wisdom and discernment; c. Time meditating on who God is, what He wants to do in us and through us, and on what we need to do by way of answers and direction. There might be need to examine and evaluate our motives and attitudes, our values and priorities, and our goals and objectives in life. f) Waiting involves taking the right action at the right time – There is a time to plow, a time to sow, and a time to reap, but they are never done all together or at the same time. Take an example with a farmer. There is a season for planting and another season for harvesting the crop; but the two seasons are weeks and weeks apart. Take into consideration the time he takes to plough and prepare the land, plant the seeds and then wait for them to grow. From there, there is weeding and maintaining the right atmosphere and condition for the crops to grow well. You will never see the farmer going to plant when it’s time for harvest; no, in every season, he knows what to do. Finally, he harvests his crops. But the whole process involved doing the right thing at the right time. Same for our Christian waiting cycle or process; we need to know the season we are in so that we can do what is expected of us as we wait on God. God is in the business of growing a spiritual harvest in our lives, but this takes time and our cooperation in doing the right things at the right time. g) Waiting means trusting in God and his goodness – Psalm 62:5-8 says “ My soul, wait sin silence for God only, for my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be shaken. On God my salvation and my glory rest; the rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.” If you read more in Lamentations 3:25 and Isaiah 8:17 , you will realize that these verses and many others in the bible teach us that the essence of waiting is trust or having faith in the nature and character of God. No one can wait on the Lord if he or she does not truly trust in God as the rock of their strength and refuge in all of life. Waiting means claiming God’s promises by faith and resting in what God is doing in our lives so we can faithfully follow God’s principles and keep His values, priorities, and pursuits. The opposite of waiting and resting by faith is turning to our solutions of self-protection because of anger, fear, and jealousy. Out of fear of failure or loss, we may compromise our convictions or what we know is right. But fear, which has displaced faith in the Lord, causes us to lean on the arm of the flesh. h) Waiting involves learning to be content with God’s provision and timing – To wait on the Lord means to be content and patient because we are clinging to God and resting in His love and wisdom. This element of waiting, however, is the most difficult aspect of all for two reasons. a. Contentment and patience are difficult because they are so contrary to fallen humanity and how we naturally think even after we are regenerated by the Spirit of God. It takes constant renewal in the Word, fellowship with the Lord, and growth through struggle to change. b. Contentment and patience fly directly in the face of the cunning and constant delusion that Satan seeks to pass off on the human race, that man does not need God and can find security, satisfaction, and significance away from the Lord through his own solutions and human wisdom. Read more in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 and Philippians 4:11-13 . To wait on the Lord means to learn contentment with His provision and timing in any given situation through fellowship with God— knowing Him, clinging to Him, and trusting Him. Once we have known what it takes and involves us to wait on the Lord, we also need know the benefits that we get when we waiting on the Lord. One of the keys to obedience or appropriation of something is motivation. These are just but a few of the great motivations/ benefits that we get when we wait on the Lord: a) We know who God is and what He is able to do – Waiting on the Lord means learning to have a single and consistent focus on God as the source of life because of all that He is as God – holy, just, sovereign, good, righteous, merciful, gracious, loving, all- powerful, all-knowing, all- wise, infinite, truth, and eternality. Jeremiah wrote, “Are there any among the idols of the nations who give rain? Or can the heavens grant showers? Is it not Thou, O Lord our God? Therefore we hope in Thee, for Thou art the one who hast done all these things” (Jeremiah 14:22). b) Waiting Sustains and Satisfies us (or the Lord to do so) – David says in Psalm 145:14-16 that “the LORD sustains all who fall, and raises up all who are bowed down. 15 The eyes of all look to Thee, and Thou dost give them their food in due time. 16 Thou dost open Thy hand, and dost satisfy the desire of every living thing.” We may have fallen, bowed down, but we need to look and wait on the Lord to supply and sustain us for in His season and in His time, He does it! Every time we encounter one of the variegated problems of life, we are faced with a very important choice – to look up and wait, or focus on the problem and choose our own strategy – to worry, to run away, throw in the towel, or run ahead of the Lord. c) Waiting Strengthens and Enables – Isaiah 40:29-31 is a common verse that we know. It says “He (the Lord) gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.” Isaiah is telling us we often grow weary because we fail to wait on the Lord. When we run around in our own strength and operate by our own insufficient resources we are going to sooner or later run out of steam. The key question is; why don’t we wait on the Lord? Often it’s because we do not believe sufficiently in God and all that He is. For some reason, we begin to think and act like God is simply not involved or doesn’t understand. d) Waiting Straightens and Builds Character – when you read the scriptures mentioned below, you will realize that it is more of emphasis on what happens in us and to us as we learn to wait on the Lord. It builds our character because through the process of waiting, we learn to depend on the Lord alone and to find our source of strength, security, and joy in Him. Read Philippians 4:11-13 and Psalm 37:1-11. In psalms, we get three challenges: a. Look Ahead – Vs 2, 9a, and 10 are absolutely true of everything that is rooted in time and not in eternity. We must learn to wait on God’s time and purposes and turn away from human schemes (vs. 7-9). (Compare with Philippians 3:20 .) b. Look Up – An obsession with problems, with rivals, with painful circumstances and the consequent harmful attitudes and strategies cannot simply be switched off, but they can be exchanged or removed by a new focus which rests and waits on the Lord (vs. 3-8). c. Be Productive - This is put forth both in the positive and in the negative. This is seen in “do good” and “dwell in the land” (verse 3), and in the negatives of verses 1 and 8. e) Waiting Lifts Us Out of Despair and Causes Praise to God – When we are in despair or depressed, we moan and groan, whine and complain. But waiting on the Lord gets our eyes focused on Him and our glorious future. It puts a song in our hearts and praise on our lips. Psalm 40:2-3 “He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay; And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. And He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear, and will trust in the LORD.” Read more in Psalm 42:5-11, Psalm 43:5, Psalm 145:15-21. f) Waiting Encourages Others and Gives Greater Ability to Witness - We must never discount the impact of our lives on others both for bad and for good. It is hard to have a positive word and a positive witness to others when we haven’t been waiting and aren’t resting on the Lord. In Psalm 40:1, 5, 9-10 , David gives a testimony of what the Lord has done for him. This is what he says: “ Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders which Thou hast done, and Thy thoughts toward us; There is none to compare with Thee; If I would declare and speak of them, they would be too numerous to count. … I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation; Behold, I will not restrain my lips, O LORD, Thou knows. I have not hidden Thy righteousness within my heart; I have spoken of Thy faithfulness and Thy salvation; I have not concealed Thy loving- kindness and Thy truth from the great congregation.” Read more in Psalm 119:43-44, 74. I don’t know what you may be going through at the moment, but whatever it is the challenge of Scripture is to wait on the Lord because, unlike temporal man and the fleeting world in which we live, the sovereign Lord of the universe loves us with a steadfast love and personally cares for us like a father. Read the words David wrote in Psalm 103:13-19 . Moreover … “Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the LORD. ” (Psalm 27:14) Amen!!
Posted on: Wed, 28 Aug 2013 11:50:56 +0000
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