Wait: January 8, 2014

TODAY’S WORD FOR WEDNESDAY JANUARY 8, 2014.

WAIT

DEFINITION:

Stay; linger; remain; delay; expect; look for; to patiently anticipate.

SCRIPTURE:

The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Lamentations 3:25-26.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

In this hurry up world, waiting for anything can cause us to lose our temper and our good sense, more often than we care to admit. We do not like to wait in line, wait at stop lights, even for dinner. We want what we want right now. But the Word of God tells us that we will learn some of life’s greatest lessons when we learn to wait. God will use the times we wait in life to give us rich rewards.

Waiting for the Lord does not mean sitting and doing nothing. Waiting upon the Lord is seeking God’s direction through prayer, reading His Word, and being obedient to what He tells us to do.

When we wait we will discover God’s will for our life. Stop for a moment and think. When we rush through every moment of everyday responding to our whims when does God have time to work in our lives? How can He even get our attention? The verse we have put above from the Old Testament says it clearly. The Lord is good to those who wait. We must keep our eyes on Him and our ears turned to listen for His voice and direction, eagerly anticipating His provisions for us. He is working all things for good for us (Romans 8:28).

When we wait on Him, we will receive supernatural energy and strength. In Isaiah 40: 29-31 we are given a promise: “He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power --- yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.”

Just as God deepens our relationship with Him when we wait on Him, He also increases our energy, faith, endurance and strength. We grow in the likeness of Christ and all of His attributes. These include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Waiting on Jesus is never a waste of our time.

We also win battles when we wait on the Lord. We see the fulfillment of our faith when we wait on the Lord and we see God working on our behalf. When we do things our way we ultimately end up defeated. When we trust Him and obey Him we will see the fulfillment of every hope we have entrusted in Him.

One of the hardest lessons for our family to learn was to wait on God for answers to our prayers. We had a policy that we all were to eat dinner every night as a family without exception. This was our time to be together and talk. There was no TV, radio, cell phones, just us.

Every night we asked all six of our children to tell us how their day went and for people and things to pray for. We then took the time to pray for every need mentioned including hurting families and crises situations. But we all became impatient from time to time because God had not answered our prayer in the next day or two. The result was that we as individuals and as a family needed to learn how to wait.

Waiting can become one of the most difficult things to do in our Christian life but He gives us directions when we wait and He may also change our direction. He gives us instructions and even may change our circumstances while we are waiting. So we need to understand that waiting on the Lord is to our benefit as believers. When we decline to wait we can get ourselves in messes that can have disastrous consequences. When we wait on the Lord we will not get into those messes.

Think of waiting on the Lord as something like planting a garden. You put the seed under the soil and then begin to water it. And then you wait. And wait. And wait. And wait. After the sun and rain nourish the soil you soon see the seeds begin to grow. And finally you begin to see evidence of what you planted.

What if you had grown impatient and dug up your seeds before anything happened? You would have ruined your garden. So all of us need to learn to wait on the Lord and to trust Him and be patient.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in John 15:9.

As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.

PRAYER:

It is my prayer today that You would teach me to wait quietly on You. Keep me patient as I wait for the seeds You plant in me have time to be nourished and to grow. Keep me diligent in seeking You in prayer and in studying Your Word.