“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.”
I need to confess from the outset that waiting is not exactly one of my virtues. There is a joke in our family that daddy or granddaddy always wants to beat the crowd. It is just something that I have to deal with. I will let you know however that I have learned the value of waiting on the Lord. Life itself has taught me that there is great value and great power in waiting on the Lord. One of the reasons that I have learned to wait patiently upon the Lord is because I have no choice. The Lord moves in His own time and with His own timing. He knows the exact time that things should happen, and He will make whatever it is happen when the timing is right. In John’s gospel, we are reminded several times that certain things didn’t happen with Jesus because “the time was not right.” Even the Son of God moved through life on the timing of the Father. You will do yourself a favor by remembering this. There is no point in getting impatient with God, because He will not move on your timing but on His. That is a good thing. Sometimes we might try to push ahead beyond God’s timing, but we find out that it would have been better to wait. Believe me, I know that by experience. Another reason that I have learned to wait patiently upon the Lord is because while I am waiting, He is at work preparing my mind and heart for what it is that He wants. I have found that when I rush into things, I make more errors than when I take my time and measure my actions. We need to remember this when we are replying to people who have criticized us for one thing or another. It takes patience to hold our words until we know what it is that we need to say that will do some good. I think that God’s timing is important to that as well. I know that I have said things while preaching that I did not think through, and the effect was negative. We need to remember this when we are waiting for something to happen at our churches. We know what needs to be done and we feel that God is in what we know, but all concerned will be better off if we just wait for God to do what He is going to do through us. When we rush ahead of God, we make foolish mistakes. Still another reason that I have learned to wait patiently for the Lord is that while I am waiting God is leading me to His purpose for my life at that particular time. This is what we call being in the center of God’s will. God saved us through Christ to use us for His purposes. He takes His time in helping us fulfill the purpose that He has for us. All of Jesus’ early disciples, as well as the Apostle Paul had to wait to follow God’s purpose for them. This is illustrated in Acts during Paul’s second missionary journey. He wanted to go into Bithynia but the Holy Spirit would not let him, because Paul was needed in Macedonia. (You can read about this in Acts 16.) There is a promise in this text that I want to share with you before we close this out: “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.” While we wait we are promised that God will renew our strength and give us the strength that we need to do His will. David mentioned this in Psalm 23:3a: “He restores my soul…” That is why there is power in waiting for the Lord. God’s power is at work where He is at work and our service is more powerful when we are at work where God is at work. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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