Have you ever had to wait for something? It’s not easy is it?! We are so used to getting things immediately. Think about it, we live in an ‘instant’ world. We boil our water in electric water cookers that reduces the boiling time to a minute instead of five. We pour that boiling water into our cup of instant coffee and presto, instant hot coffee. We microwave our instant oatmeal. Or break out the instant pancake batter!
We press one button on our iPhones or smartphones and instantly it’s on - and with a couple swipes of the finger, we instantly have the day’s news, weather, traffic reports. We check our emails, Facebook, Twitter and instantly know what others are thinking, doing, saying, reading, watching, listening to, eating, drinking, making or where they are going. We can pick up our iPads (those of you who have one!) and instantly it's on and we can search bing or google and instantly have the answer to virtually any question we can think of. We have Tivo and Netflix and Hulu and whatever else that gives us instant entertainment. In our world, we can instantly have all that we are looking for - answers, knowledge, gratification, satisfaction. Immediately.
And sometimes (perhaps often, at least for me), we want the same from God. When we pray, we want an instant answer. When we have to make a decision, we want God’s direction instantly. We have 1-minute Bibles and devotions because we can't wait and want God to speak to us in that 1 minute. We have 10 minute sermons for the same reasons. We have lost the art of waiting on the Lord.
Here are just SOME of the benefits of waiting upon the Lord…
- Waiting gives us time during which we can trust God and allow Him to work.
- Waiting prepares us to have our real needs met (and they are not always what we started praying for!).
- Waiting allows us the chance to work out our faith, to step out in faith.
- Waiting teaches us to deny ourselves and to seek God and His righteousness and His Kingdom.
‘Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the LORD!’ - Ps 27.14
‘Our soul waits for the LORD;
He is our help and our shield.’ - Ps 33.20
‘Rest in the LORD,
and wait patiently for Him….’ - Ps 37.7a
Next time we'll look a little deeper at what it means to wait upon the Lord. But for now, consider your daily routine - is there time for God? Is there time to wait upon Him? And just that you know, I am just as guilty as the next guy. So maybe this is more for me. But I don't think I am alone....
(to be continued...)
For those who have been asking about the earthquake in Christchurch, here is a quick update. The Calvary down there has been going into the shelters and ministering to people affected by the quake. Just comforting them, sharing with them from God's word and most important, simply listening to the people share about what happened to them. Often that is the best thing to do - simply listen.
