Tag: waiting

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Watching and Waiting

Daniel 7-9 Do you find waiting hard? We want it now! Daniel lived and moved in time when life moved at a snail’s pace in comparison to today. He saw kingdoms rise and fall, and he had a front-row seat to it all. He may have wondered, as I often do, why God is delaying His return.

James, the Lord’s brother, understood the impatience of men and told the believers in the dispersion to be patient until the Lord’s return. He used the illustration of a farmer who must wait through the seasons for the fruit he can harvest. Daniel is an example of this kind of patient endurance, and so should we be.

Daniel watched, waited, and studied the prophet Jeremiah’s words. Then he turned his heart to prayer seeking the face of the Lord to understand. O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, pay attention, [Dan 9:19]

Do we spend time in prayer for the things we do not understand? Are we waiting as the farmer for the seasons of change? Is our ground tilled and ready for planting and then harvesting? 

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What is the Right Advice in Times Like This?

Psalm 62  Do you find it hard to wait? David was in a desperate situation. Jesus was nearing the end of his earthly life, and he told the disciples to stay alert and watch lest you fall into temptation. How often do we fail to stay alert and ‘wait?’ How often do we fall asleep like the disciples or try to manipulate circumstances as we see fit? The irony is that God knows our past, present, and future. He knows the very hair on your head, and He knows each heart, whether it is single-minded or double-minded. David was busy waiting, not knowing when his adversaries would arrive on the scene. Like David, Jesus was busy praying, but the disciples were asleep. Is this our pattern too? 

In his waiting, David noted that his enemy was like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence, but God was His stronghold. Years earlier, Nehemiah also heard the taunts of the enemy: “Even what they are building-if a fox should jump on it, he would break their stone wall down!” Neh 4:3 At desperate times, we need to take our concerns to God. David reminded himself: ‘wait in silence for God only.’ 

Therefore Beloved remain steadfast, immovable, always abounding, and focus on the God who never fails.

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Waiting…easy or hard?

Exodus 32 Do you have trouble waiting–especially for God to act, to speak, or “fill in the blank?”

Exodus 32 waiting patiently

Do you become impatient? Do you want to wait, but circumstances take over, and you decide to take matters into your own hands? The Israelites had just said, ‘we will obey.’ Yet when a test came into their lives to wait, their commitment was shallow.  When the people “saw” that Moses still had not returned, they made a decision: Moses’ God wasn’t working on their time table. It won’t be the last time these Israelites have a problem with waiting. They became impatient with Samuel and said you are old and your sons don’t follow, so appoint us a king. King David’s prayer life reveals that he must have had trouble with waiting too, for he wrote three times for God to help him in ‘waiting.’ [Ps 17:14; 37:7, 62:5]

Why do we have a problem with waiting? We misperceive time. The drama of leaving Egypt was still fresh in their minds, and they were anxious to get to the Promised Land, yet God knew that they needed the skill of waiting because time had always been determined for them. Now they were being tested to see if their commitment was real. Sometimes as we wait, we yearn for routine, and we get bored. Without a routine, we get lazy, and we become discontented; we lack a commitment to the cause. Like the Israelites, we do not have perseverance. We think we have the plan all figured out, and we want God to do it ‘now.’ One author put it this way; Waiting reveals the best and the worst in us and also reveals our lack of understanding that God doesn’t work on our time table.

Are you having trouble waiting? Cultivate this skill through prayerful meditation and study.

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Waiting on God!

ImageDevotional for Ps 129-131 There is a familiar hymn many have sung whose first lines go as follows: Speak, Lord, in the stillness, while I wait on thee; Hushed my heart to listen, in expectancy. Little is known about the author, E. May Grimes, other than in 1893 she traveled to S. Africa as a missionary and married Dr. Crawford of the Christian Missionary  Society in British East Africa. Since she wrote this hymn many have clung to it in times of travail and trouble Her words have resonated with many across the many years for it reminds us of our posture when we want to hear from God.

The psalmist wrote in these three psalms of the struggles the Israelites had with bordering nations who harassed them often. It is in this frame of reference that he wrote that he wanted his people to wait on God. To help them he reminds them of God’s character which is righteousness; he alone has the power to vanquish their enemies and he is just.  A principle was brought forth from this psalm by C. H. Spurgeon: “Never has God used a nation to chastise his Israel without destroying that nation when the chastisement has come to a close: he hates those who hurt his people even though he permits their hate to triumph for a while for his own purpose.” This is a good reminder when we face struggles and onslaughts from the enemy himself. Satan is our foe but he is only allowed a certain time and then God will remove his power and his pointed lance.

In the meantime, the psalmist reminds us in Ps 130 that we are to wait upon Him. Other biblical authors have had the same refrain and we would be wise to heed these words. Why should we wait on the Lord? When we step in and seek to corral the enemy we only stop God from accomplishing His purposes and we find that the battle is far more challenging than we had realized. Eph 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.

Today, Beloved Friend, follow the principles given in these psalms: 130:5 I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. His Word is as it says: Heb 4:12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart.

May our prayer be “I Will Wait on Him.” May our posture be: Ps 131:2 “Indeed I am composed and quiet,”

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