Waiting on the Lord

 

In seeking God’s guidance about something on my heart, my first concern is making sure the idea is from God and not selfish ambition on my part. Knowing the difference is important:

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (James 3:13–18)

God keeps His promises and blesses me beyond my imagination. Yet at the same time, my priorities and trust need to be based on what He says, not on my grand ideas. I might want to do great things, but that might not be His choice for me. As David wrote, I need to have this attitude: 

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. (Psalm 131:1–2)

For a weaned child, the hunger is there as is the source to satisfy it, but the child is quiet, not grasping to satisfy self. I often have great ideas yet if they are not from a heart that is content to let God decide, then I’ve not yet been weaned from my selfish ambitions.

Today’s reading points out that David knew that God kept His promises but he also realized that some of His faithfulness depended on keeping his side of the covenant. God does not bless me if I am disobedient, or if I want to do something for my own glory. Piper points to this psalm of David to show my part in doing anything, even if the initial leading is from God. 

“To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust” Trust God and seek Him knowing He will protect me and “Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me” because He is my God and because for Him “I wait all the day long.” David recalls His mercy and love, His forgiveness  and goodness. He knows, “Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way” and that all that happens “for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies. . . . who fear the Lord. . . . “ and that “the friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him” and whose “eyes are ever toward the Lord.” God will deliver and protect him because he “takes refuge in Him” and “waits for Him.” (Psalm 25)

David is certain of God’s promises and that He desires my faith. If I am walking in the flesh, His priority is to correct that. If my doubts come from that Liar, the accuser of God’s people, God knows that too and will protect me. My part is to wait on the Lord and keep my heart soft and trusting Him, not filled with ambitious ‘I wants’ that cloud my judgment, nor let all those fleshy excuses be a reason for not trusting Him or obeying any tall order that He might give me.

This psalm says He will pluck my feet out of the net, turn to me and be gracious to me, bring me out of my distresses, consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins. Hw will also consider my foes, and the hatred of any enemies, guard my soul, and deliver me, let me not be put to shame, and redeem me out of all my troubles. Yet those blessings come only when I fulfill my part in His covenant, even though my salvation is secure because Jesus kept His part in saving me and dying for my sin.

PRAY: Lord, what can I say or do but wait on You to either send marching orders or inform me otherwise. In the meantime, I know what to do next — pray and listen and most of all, obey what You tell me what to do next… 

Waiting. . . . not easy!

We have a loved one who dropped out of our lives a few years ago. It grieved us and even though the Lord didn’t reveal any wrong doing on our part, it has been a troubling rift. Without knowing any details, it seems this was a decision for personal reasons and involved other people too. So we pray and wait.

Last night I dreamt about this person and woke up with tears on my pillow. Thoughts included taking initiative but everything I could think of that I could do seemed more like manipulation than seeking restoration. So I prayed again and asked God what I should do, if anything. As soon as I opened my Bible software, this popped up:

So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God. (Hosea 12:6)

Basically, He is telling me to stick with it, trust Him and don’t stop loving this person. Justice means doing what is right, giving up what I want (my own peace of mind) and trust God to do what He wants done, both in my life and that person’s life. I don’t know the whole story, only my emotional reactions — and they are not a reliable guidance.

The Bible has many instructions to wait. Most of them challenge my impatience. I want it now, like a kid looking at the cookie jar, or worse, like a person in pain who wants the pain to go away. Still, the Word says:

Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord! (Psalm 31:24)
Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. (Psalm 33:20)
I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. (Psalm 40:1)
For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. (Psalm 62:1)

God’s timing is always perfect, even if mine is ‘now’ and I am suffering in the waiting. It is no coincidence that this “Verse of the Day” popped up on the right day in answer to the prayer I said only a few minutes before. 

PRAY: Last night someone notified me that I was missed in the text messages about a meeting that is today. She noticed and sent the information to me so I would not miss it. That is You at work, taking care of me. In the afternoon, I was working on a project and made a mistake, or so I thought. It turned out to be the right thing. That is You at work too. Every day Your timing is right. As the OT prophet said, with Your help I can return to trusting You. I know it is not right to pressure people to do what I want. You will take care of that person, and me too. Enable me to hold fast and be patient as I wait for You.

Jesus knows best

We are spending time with a person whose life has changed. I don't know if it is a "pull up your boot straps" change or a commitment to Jesus. I want to know. Is this an answer to my many prayers? Or do I need to wait and continue to pray?

I asked the Lord to speak about this and Piper’s devotional reading for today says this:

"Nothing you will touch or feel or see or think today is apart from Christ. What can this mean but deep humility before such an all-encompassing, all-sustaining, all-governing person, and, since he loves us, indomitable confidence?"

To put this in my words, He is telling me to remember that He is the Sovereign God. He is in charge of whatever I see or hear today. That means no attempts at manipulation on my part. Instead of anxiety and being eager to know what I want to know, He wants humility and a deeper trust in Him. He knows what He is doing. I don’t and I don’t need to know. Trusting Him is enough.

This is not the answer I wanted or expected — but should have. It echos what He said when Peter asked Him about John:

When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” (John 21:21-22)

PRAY: Thank You, Jesus. This is not what I expected but You gave the right answer. Fill me with Your Spirit that I can do what You say and just trust Your power in that person’s life and I my life as well. You are always wise and always good. Bless Your holy Name.

When the Bible is silent…

 
The Bible is the Word of God, not a book of disjointed slogans or random sayings. The standard illustration of misuse is the person who looks for advice, flips open the Bible and randomly points to a verse that says, “Judas went out and hanged himself.” Not impressed, that person goes on and does it again only to read, “Go thou and do likewise.”

As amusing as that is, people have used isolated texts to sanction things that are totally opposed to the principles of Scripture. This can lead to fanaticism if an isolated text pressures obedience no matter what wrong thing it may lead to. How sad that God's principles are violated by using the excuse of obedience to what His Word says.

And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. (Psalm 9:10)

However, life is filled with decisions and choices on topics the Bible does not address. What then? Yesterday’s post gave three other options. God speaks through creation, circumstances, and His children. Creation tells me He is orderly in randomness. He rarely plants trees in a straight line, yet His work has beauty and is pleasing. Will my decision reflect that?

He also uses circumstances. My sister tells of driving to another city with the intention of sharing the gospel with our uncle who was in the hospital. She prayed, “Lord, if he is not ready to hear it, turn me around.” At that moment, her car hit a patch of ice, did a one-eighty and she was in the ditch facing the other direction. She went home, but visited our uncle the next day. He was ready and professed faith in Christ. He died two weeks later to join His Savior.

God also gives advice through His people. However, this advice must harmonize. God cannot say in one voice that which He contradicts in another. Therefore, if one person gives a view that another contradicts, it is not safe to proceed.

We once were members of a church that would not move ahead with decisions unless the elders all agreed, and they had more than seventy elders at that time. They told of a plan to build a new education center, but one elder voted against it. The others waited and prayed. It eventually became obvious that for various reasons, the building should not happen. The voting changed and all sided with the one who first heard this warning from God.

When it seems God is telling me to do something, I usually see whether or not it fits Scripture. My difficulty is in my motivation. Is this particular opportunity for my benefit, or from a sense of duty, or one of my wild ideas, or does He want me to go ahead? In some instances, the answer is to wait for clarity, or don’t do this now but later. Sometimes in waiting for an answer, I forget all about it. God isn’t in it or He would keep nudging me. I wanted to call a friend this week and only got through when she was home — and I soon realized that was the right time to call. If not sure, waiting is a good idea.

But for you, O Lord, do I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer. (Psalm 38:15)

Another friend told me that she knew God told her three times not to do something, but she did it anyway and lost some money. A second person was told to speak to a certain pastor about God’s love for him and she resisted but eventually went — because that idea passed the biblical test. Afterwards she discovered that he needed to hear what she said because it changed his life and ministry.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3:5–6)

PRAY: Jesus, You are so good to verify what You want from me. I know if any of these tests fail, it is not safe to proceed. I must wait in quiet trust until You show me Your will. You do that when I am yielded, not worried or wanting You to hurry. If something is not Your will You know how to give me a red light. If not, I need to wait for clarity. Thank You for giving me a deep hunger to read Your Word and to know Your voice. You are truly my Savior and my Friend.

Waiting on God to deal with evil . . .

 

READ Amos 6–9

Yesterday I had a lengthy conversation with a Christian about the powers in this world who are governed by greed. He was anxious to ‘do something’ about the corruption yet If humanity could conquer evil, Jesus would not be necessary.

Before Jesus came, God made it clear that He will deal with corruption. It was happening then too. He called Amos, a farmer, to be His prophet to Israel and said:

“Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall . . . .Therefore they shall now be the first of those who go into exile, and the revelry of those who stretch themselves out shall pass away.” (Amos 6:4-7)

The prosperity of greedy people does nothing for them when God determines it is time for judgment. No one can escape the wrath of God against sin: “For behold, the Lord commands, and the great house shall be struck down into fragments, and the little house into bits.” (6:11)

Amos reacted with compassion: “This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, the Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. Then I said, “O Lord God, please cease! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” (Amos 7:4–5)

Not only did Amos plead for the people, he was persecuted by those that God told him to speak against:

Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said, “ ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.’ ” And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”

Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Now therefore hear the word of the Lord. “You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’ Therefore thus says the Lord: “ ‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’ ” (7:10-17)

God was clear. There would be a day when He would make “the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight . . . . turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day” and He would “send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.” (8:9–12)

In those days, they tried to hide from Him but could not. His anger against their sin was powerful:

“For behold, I will command, and shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one shakes with a sieve, but no pebble shall fall to the earth. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’ (9:9–10)

Yet hope was also given. “Behold, the days are coming when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them.” (9:13–15)

It happened. They were exiled. Eventually, they got their land back. This is the same God that promises eternal life to all who trust in Him and the same God who will deal with the greed and evil that now seems so strong in our world, the same God who says:

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth!” (Psalm 46:10)

He is not done yet, and He does have the last word!