Spiritual Disciplines:The Way of Waiting
Waiting is something we don't do well anymore as a society. Even waiting in the drive-thru is too much for us! Waiting in traffic, waiting for someone, waiting to hear if you were accepted into a school or society. Life is full of waiting. Waiting for the promotion, waiting for the BIG trip, waiting to move, these are just some of the things I have had to wait for lately. It makes us anxious, and the unknown is full of questions. Will I like where I'm going? What if? Am I really going to be able to pay my bills? Things aren't all flowers, rainbows, and unicorns at work with that promotion, now what? Do we run to the next thing? Do we stay where we are forever with no vision for life and doing the things God planned for us to do? This is nothing new on God. He has been through this already thousands of years ago with those children HE delivered out from Pharaoh. In fact it has happened to every human being, in every generation since Adam and Eve.
Psalm 106 (Click this link to read if you don't have your Bible near, I don't want to post the entire chapter!) is a historical book in the book of songs and poetry. I think it's beautiful that the writer book-ended with "Praise the Lord!" It's a remembrance of all God has done, that He still loved and provided for His children though He "abhorred" them and His wrath was against them when they forgot all about Him. Some key verses to note from this chapter:
Verse 8
Nevertheless He saved them for His name’s sake,
That He might make His mighty power known.
Verses 13-14
They soon forgot His works;
They did not wait for His counsel,
But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness,
And tested God in the desert.
Verses 19-22
They made a calf in Horeb,
And worshiped the molded image.
Thus they changed their glory
Into the image of an ox that eats grass.
They forgot God their Savior,
Who had done great things in Egypt,
Wondrous works in the land of Ham,
Awesome things by the Red Sea.
Verses 24-25
Then they despised the pleasant land;
They did not believe His word,
But complained in their tents,
And did not heed the voice of the Lord.
Verses 36-39
They served their idols,
Which became a snare to them.
They even sacrificed their sons
And their daughters to demons,
And shed innocent blood,
The blood of their sons and daughters,
Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;
And the land was polluted with blood.
Thus they were defiled by their own works,
And played the harlot by their own deeds.
When we are unwilling to wait on God we become full of lust, we test God, worship idols, exchange the truth for a lie, and complain! That doesn't sound like us at all does it?! No! It explains us perfectly! When we take a minute to think about the goodness of God and His mercy in our life, there should be no anxiety or worry. But there is! Maybe that's why God has us in waiting rooms sometimes, a room of reflection. Where we sit and remember all He has done before we see the other side of the door. On the other side of the door to the "better," will we still remember Him? We want what we want, and we want it now! We call children like that brats. We start throwing tantrums, thinking God has left us and doesn't care and push the line with Him. It's all down hill from there. These times of waiting are meant to show us that Jesus is all we need. Our faith is being tested, built, and strengthened, rather than we testing God. Jesus loves us, but our idols don't. When did a lie ever become better than the truth? Romans 1:24-25 says, "Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen." Paul tells us under the inspiration of The Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 10 that the history of the Old Testament in the Bible, like we just read in Psalm, was given to us as an example. Specifically, verse 11 points out, "they were written for our admonition" meaning instruction, a key word for this series. It was written for our hope and comfort to know that, He is truly our Salvation, He is full of forgiveness, compassion, faithfulness, longsuffering, with us to endure what life throws at us.
There are many Psalms and scriptures that talk about waiting for the Lord. There is one Psalm and one Proverb that are the perfect pictures of what waiting on God looks like, you are most likely familiar with them.
While these verses seem cliche, really study it against what these scriptures laid out this evening. The more you study the Word, the more you see patterns, themes, and connections. If we wait on God, we will be blessed, take matters into our own hands, there's a forecast of trouble! The prophet Isaiah proclaims in 64:4 of his book, "From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him." Discipline yourself, and wait.
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