Being a Christian is all about waiting. Justified by the death and resurrection of Jesus to escape the penalty of sin, we are now in the process of being freed from the power of sin. Sanctification is that day by day opening of ourselves to the Holy Spirit to become more and more conformed to the image of Christ. The Christian way is a transition from what we are to what we shall be. And that means waiting is big part of what God wants us to learn. It comes out as a pun in our language: we say that servants wait upon people. The servants of God must learn to wait upon the Lord.
The Scriptures confirm this in so many ways. Here are a few.
- Psalm 27:14
Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage;wait for the LORD! - Genesis 49:18
I wait for your salvation, O LORD. - Psalm 38:15
But for you, O LORD, do I wait;it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer. - Psalm 39:7
"And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you. - Psalm 130:5
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,and in his word I hope; - Lamentations 3:26
It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. - Psalm 31:24
Be strong, and let your heart take courage,all you who wait for the LORD! - 1 Corinthians 1:7
so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, - Numbers 9:8
And Moses said to them, "Wait, that I may hear what the LORD will command concerning you." - Proverbs 20:22
Do not say, "I will repay evil"; wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you. - Psalm 37:9
For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land. - Psalm 37:34
Wait for the LORD and keep his way,and he will exalt you to inherit theland;you will look on when the wicked are cut off. - Isaiah 26:8
In the path of your judgments,O LORD, we wait for you; your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul. - Isaiah 33:2
O LORD, be gracious to us; we wait for you. Be our arm every morning,our salvation in the time of trouble. - Isaiah 8:17
I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. - Exodus 24:12
The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction." - Lamentations 3:25
The LORD is good to those who wait for him,to the soul who seeks him. - Psalm 37:7
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,over the man who carries out evil devices! - Isaiah 40:31
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;they shall mount up with wings like eagles;they shall run and not be weary;they shall walk and not faint. - Zephaniah 3:8
"Therefore wait for me," declares the LORD,"for the day when I rise up to seize the prey.For my decision is to gather nations,to assemble kingdoms,to pour out upon them my indignation,all my burning anger;for in the fire of my jealousy all the earth shall be consumed. - Micah 7:7
But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation;my God will hear me. - Isaiah 49:23
Kings shall be your foster fathers,and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you,and lick the dust of your feet.Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame." - Psalm 40:1
I waited patiently forthe LORD;he inclined to me and heard my cry. - Jude 1:21
keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. - Psalm 33:20
Our soul waits for the LORD;he is our help and our shield. - James 5:7
Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. - Isaiah 25:9
It will be said on that day,"Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation." - Psalm 130:6
my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning,more than watchmen forthe morning.
Waiting reveals and refines. Waiting reveals what we really trust. Waiting shows us what we think is really important. Waiting refines our motives and lets us see in what or who we are truly trusting.
In Acts 1 we are given insight into some of the flesh-driven alternatives to the spiritual discipline of waiting upon God.
Like Judas, we can betray the Lord and trust first and foremost in our own ability to make God's will happen. We can refuse to wait, take matters into our hands, and throw ourselves off the precipice of our own presumption that God helps those who help themselves. Or, like those disciples wondering about the timing of the restoration of Israel's kingdom (v.6), we can shift the focus of our attention away from what God has promised to our tribal traditions. We make of waiting the virtue of commemoration. Instead of rehearsing the promises of God, we invest our energy in protecting tradition. Or, like Peter, we misapply the means of grace, in this case the Scriptures, to justify taking action that seems religiously appropriate even though it stinks of disobedience. Or, like those who stand gazing into heaven, we confuse waiting and thumb twiddling.
Here are three important principles from Acts 1 about waiting on God:
1. We wait as a community, not as solitary individuals. Those first disciples were devoted to each other and to praying together. If God's purpose in waiting is to reveal what we truly trust in, then coming together as a community builds our trust in the Body of Christ to sustain and encourage us. There are resources of spiritual strength that we find only in communion with God's people.
2. God's timing is perfect. Peter rushed ahead to replace Judas with two men of the disciples' choosing. They weren't of God's choosing. Nothing is ever heard of again from Matthias. The 12th apostle Jesus would call would be a Pharisee named Saul, struck down on the road to Damascus. For the entirety of his ministry Saul, who becomes Paul, would struggle to convince believers of his true apostleship, received not from Peter, but from Christ himself. So it is when we rush to solutions. We may inadvertently create barriers to God's work. Whenever we make a prayer request, we put ourselves in God's queue. God promises to answer every prayer, but God is going to work for the good of everyone involved in that situation. We may see only one side of the spiritual battle, but God's answers are strategic and not merely tactical. God's answers see down the centuries and not just around the current corner.
3. We wait in order to truly see. Jesus said, "Wait for the power of the Holy Spirit to be my witnesses..." What is witnessing? It's telling the good news of what Jesus has done for us. But witnessing is also seeing. Those apostles would continue to see the ascended Jesus working in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Waiting is the prelude to witness. Waiting on Christ enables us to more clearly see where His Holy Spirit is moving and when He says Go, to follow Him there.
I was blessed again by this refresher of the discussion on saturday. The reminder that 'God's answers see down the centuries and not just around the current corner' ...which is so often what we are prone to do as we put on our ' blinders'. Thanks for being open with us ' gathering ones' and being God's instrument to teach and instruct us...God bless
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