Waiting

Wait for the Lord – Not Everyone else!

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments

Have you ever noticed how much we allow our decisions to be based on what other people are doing? Now some things should be based on others such as not snapping the ball till the quarterback tells you.

But what about our spiritual life? I thought a few stories from the Bible might illustrate the point. David didn’t wait for his family’s permission to fight Goliath. Mary didn’t check in with Joseph before saying yes to the angel. John the Baptist certainly wasn’t chilling out until Herod gave him a parade permit to hold his meetings and Jesus wouldn’t wait for His disciples to understand before He went to the cross.

Part of our problem is that for the big and eternally important choices in life we wait on every one but God. We ask our friends, family and neighbors what they think about a project but how often have we stayed on our knees waiting on God’s opinion? We boldly sail off to the horizon but end up paddling as fast as we can for home at the first sign of trouble. We lack the courage David speaks of in the second half of the verse because God was not the architect of our planning session. But when we have waited on Jesus He will give us joy for the journey He is sending us on. No matter the storm the hour or the current public opinion, it is always the right time to do His will!

I so loved this simple hymn by Brackin and Lindsay with their boys. It is in that quietness and simplicity that God most often speaks if we will take the time to wait.

Meditations From Psalm 25

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To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me. Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. Psalm 25:1-3 ESV

Last week on Kathy’s Hesaidwhatks Blog she talked about her own experience of waiting with her son Aaron. What got me to thinking of today’s post was her closing thoughts from Psalm 25 on waiting. So yesterday I was excited to look back from the beginning of the Psalm. This is the first of at least two parts on what I found.

“To you O Lord I lift up my soul” Tells us of the direction of David’s prayer. Too often when we are in trouble we turn in every direction except to God. That is not to say we are necessarily praying to another god but that in place of prayer we often turn to every available source before we turn to God. We call up our friends or family. We buy whatever is the latest book on the subject or we even look up remedies on the internet. None of these things is wrong in and of itself but why is it that we exhaust every other resource before we ask Jesus for His help?

The second idea that David tells is to fill God in on all the details. David does more than just ask for God to bless his day; his food and sleep. David starts right out with his problem. While we may not know the exact setting of this Psalm we know that real combat was part of David’s experience. I can picture him peering down to where the enemy troops are camped and asking for God’s help because he is about to charge down the hill into battle.  

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Last David shares with us the answer God gives him even before he takes a single step. “Indeed none who wait for you will be ashamed. David’s waiting for the Lord is akin to William Prescott at the battle of Bunker Hill commanding “Don’t fire until you saw the whites of their eyes” He had learned that waiting on God meant deliverance from shame and that choosing not to wait is treachery.

What about you? What is God asking you to wait for and what battles do you need to begin asking Him to help you with. God is listening and waiting to listen for our cry. Why shouldn’t we learn to listen and to wait on Him?

For more from HesaidwhatKS here is the link