December 22, 2010
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Wait on the LORD (Psalm 27:14)
Psalm 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.Today I find myself waiting. And I have found myself beginning to get anxious. Much like King Saul, I have been just about ready to jump ahead to add onto what the LORD has shown me to do. There is no addition to the revealed commandment of God. The needed thing for me to do right now is to wait. So, so hard! No, not only hard, but impossible – apart from God who strengthens me!
Waiting seems so simple and we know it sounds very romantic – and yet we all know how difficult it is! We would much rather be doing, would be not? We see how throughout the Old Testament so many saints failed to wait for God’s blessings to come in God’s prescribed way and God’s time – and, as a result, there were grave consequences. And I have known that experience in my own life and God has definitely worked to help me to wait on Him, but once more today I must go back to Him and ask for grace sufficient for my need this day because yesterday’s manna and yesterday’s living water will never sustain me for today’s journey.
Our patient waiting, our enduring with longsuffering with all joy (see Col. 1) is God-honoring for it puts us into the place where we are acknowledging God as the sovereign King, the Lord of lords, and in particular the Lord of our own lives. As we trust Him and bow our hearts before Him and say, “Not my will, but Yours, be done,” we are saying to Him, “I am trusting You today, Lord, I am not going to lean on my own understanding, ah, as much as I think I should do such and such, as much as I am tempted to run ahead of You and do such and such, I am trusting Your ways to be best, even though at present I do not understand them and I do not see how this can work out. Give me the eye of faith to see You, invisible God. Give me the heart of faith to trust You, trustworthy God. Your ways and thoughts are inscrutable, they are higher than mine (by definition! You are God and I am NOT!), but they are always pure and perfect and they are always for Your glory, for my good and the furtherance of Your Gospel. Strengthen me as I wait on You. I know I will not be put to shame.” Amen, and Amen.
I love Psalm 27:14 because we don’t often think of waiting as being very courageous, do we, and yet here we have the two linked. And, in the same way, we don’t think of waiting as needing strength, but again we see strength as absolutely necessary so we might wait on the LORD.
Psalm 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.A couple days ago I wrote the following as part of a message to a dear friend in Christ and think it definitely applies to me today:
…we know our God to be faithful and to provide us with the perfect food and drink for our hunger and thirst. HE IS OUR PORTION. OUR PERFECT PORTION. WE SHALL NOT WANT. But yet we must ask, as you say. And there is that being sorrowful and yet rejoicing, because in spite of the pangs and the parching, we KNOW HE will supply all our needs, but the question is how and when. All we can do is wait on Him, like the Psalmist in 131, to quiet and humble ourselves, and to walk by faith and in obedience and trust the River to flow just at the break of dawn! He will never leave us or forsake us, of this we can be SURE! He is our Surety! The Anchor holds! But the mystery and romance becomes, when will He open the floodgates, but of this we can be sure, every moment we wait, He is working an exceeding weight of glory – for HIM and for US!Isaiah 30:18 And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.Blessed are we who wait! He must train us to wait on Him, as Paul had to learn to be content in all circumstances. This waiting is one of the most (THE most perhaps) difficult things in the Christian pilgrimage. We see God’s people being tested. “Will you trust ME? Really trust ME? Or will you grumble & say I am not among you? Will you seek to erect your golden calf? Will you seek to go back to Egypt?” This is the purifying, the trials IF NECESSARY of which Peter spoke, and we know the sifting he underwent – all for his strengthening and for the glory of God, to bring him to his utter dependence on the Lord alone.
We must keep asking Him for sustenance, no matter what our state. Jesus told us to ask for daily bread and that includes our daily spiritual bread. The living soul will hunger regularly and must eat of the Living Bread.
So today I find myself in need of that perfect sustenance, that strengthening, that courage, all so I might wait on the LORD so He might be highly exalted and I am sure to receive His grace and mercy in due time.
Bread of Life and Living Water, draw me to You, so I might eat and drink and be satisfied and be able to wait on You and trust in You and not be afraid and anxious. Amen.
I’m sorry I’ve not had opportunity to update, but I do appreciate your prayers for me. I hope to update in the near future. If I am not in contact again before Christmas, I hope and pray you have a very blessed and joyous Christmas celebration. May our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ receive the preeminence in all things to the glory of God the Father. ~ Yours in Christ, Karen
