Have you ever met anyone who likes to wait? I haven't. DMV lines, traffic jams, and overcrowded restaurants all create feelings of anxiety and the sense that a waste of life is taking place. The feelings of anxiety or loss that are connected with waiting vary in all of us. Patience is not a personal strength for me and our culture does not help the situation as we live in a society that priortizes expediting everything and has forgotten the value of waiting. Today I want to consider a different kind of waiting. Not the I'm bored, tap your foot, stare at your watch as the seconds and hours tick by type of waiting, but an intenional waiting that will cause something powerful to take place in your life!
Looking back, would you agree that the times of waiting have been the seasons of your life that produced something in you that would not have been developed any other way? The Bible calls this "patient endurance" and tells us that we need it.
"So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it bring you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to be God's will. Then you will receive all that he has promised." Hebrews 10:35-36Throughout scripture we are encouraged to "Wait upon the Lord." Here's a sample:
"I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." Psalm 27:13-14This concept of waiting that we see over and over again in scripture is not merely talking about marking time or holding out until God gets good and ready to move on our behalf. But this is an active waiting that will produce something amazing in the one who waits. It's important to understand and apply the meaning of this powerful Hebrew word, qavah, which means "to bind together by twisting, to be bound together with the object of our waiting, and to wait with expectation and hope."
An accurate visual aid for this process would be to imagine a three-stranded rope. One strand represents you, one strand is the Lord, and the third is the higher purposes of God for our lives. As we "wait," we are being twisted together with God's character and purpose for our future. We are becoming one with the object of our waiting! What an amazing picture! This kind of waiting is never a waste of time or a gamble as to whether our waiting will pay off.
As we wait, we have these sure promises:
Psalm 25:3 (AMP)
"Yes, let none who trust and [expectantly] wait hopefully and look for You be put to shame [humiliated or embarrassed] or be disappointed;. . ."
Isaiah 40:31 (AMP)
"But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired."
Lamentations 3:25 (AMP)
"The Lord is good to those who wait [confidently] hopefully and expectantly for Him, to those who seek Him [inquire of and for Him and require Him by right of necessity and on the authority of God's word]."
Today as you wait, expect renewed power and fresh strength. You are being bound with His purpose in such a powerful way that you will never be separated from His destiny for your future! This is the power of waiting. So, let's wait upon the Lord as we PURSUE Him.
Here are a few practical ideas that will help as you spend time in the secret place without becoming distracted or impatient in the waiting:
- COME BEFORE HIM WITH NO AGENDA - We all have our prayer requests, needs, and preessures that motivate us to pray hard. We need help, we need answers, and we need results. Jesus says He knows our needs before we ever ask Him for help (Matthew 6:8). Try this in your PURSUIT time today. Grab your Bible, journal, and a listening heart. Let the Lord know that He is your agenda. You have not come to ask, beg, plead, demand, or get something from Him, but to simply be with Him and hear His heart.
- DON'T SCHEDULE HIM TOO TIGHTLY - God is rarely in a hurry. He is eternal and lives beyond the boundaries of time. But it's more than that. It's the reality that waiting, letting the peace of God rule in our hearts, and time spent alone with the Lord are the accurate weapons to defeat the enemies of worry, hurry, stress, anxiety, and all other distractions that our busy lives are bombarding us with daily. I understand that we all have places to go and people to see but here's the challenge: set aside time where you can pursue the Lord and stay as long as you need to stay. This may require you to set the alarm an hour earlier and starting your day with praise. Remember that power is released in the waiting; the soaring on wings of eagles occurs after the waiting.
- PUSH SOMETHING ELSE OFF THE PLATE - I think this visual might help. Your 24/7 schedule and the realities of time vs. responsibilities and activities and the need for 7-8 hours of solid sleep are a very real struggle and tension. This is your "time-plate." You can cram only so much in that 24-hour slot and everything you commit to, make space for, or allow into your schedule takes up real estate on your 24-hour time-plate. So, in order to clear up some "waiting time" you will have to consider what needs to be pushed off the plate. Ask God to show you what your wasted time looks like, and what could be pushed off the plate to make more time for the secret place. He will be faithful to show you.
- ANCHOR YOUR HOPE TO THE SURE PROMISES OF GOD - Waiting is all about hope. Hoping God will come through, hoping we will find some new paths to walk, answers we are searching for, and the break-throughs we need. Yet waiting with good intentions is not enough to secure the desired outcome. Proverbs 13:12 says "Hope deferred makes the heart sick but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life." Hope can drag on indefinitely only to end in disappointment when our hope is anchored in our own emotions, unsanctified desires, or outcomes that involve the free wills of people who are not interested in the will of God.
The very definition of Biblical hope is "an expectation based upon the reality of who God is and what He has promised." This is why it's so vitally important to make the Word a part of your daily prayer life and pursuit. Get in and stay in the Word as you pray. Read it, study it, meditate on it, listen to it, and memorize it and pray it out loud. This practice will add jet fuel to your prayer life and anchor your hope!
So before you set sail on the seas of new possibilities and faith adventures just be sure to "check your anchors," establishing that they are firmly connected to the bedrock of the unchangeable Word of God and then get on with the business of waiting with expectation.
MEMORY VERSE - "The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him." Lamentations 3:25
PRAYER DIRECTIVE - As you spend time with the Lord, let Him know that there isn't an agenda. You desire to know Him and His greater purpose for your life. Repent of running too fast, asking too quickly, and bowing to the pressure and pace of culture and a lifestyle that has forgotten how to wait. Pray this out loud:
"Father teach me to wait? Today you are all that I need, and all that I want. I have no greater need or desire than to sit at your feet becoming more like you. Today as I wait on you, I want to be aware of, and bound together with, your greater purpose for this season of my life. But more than anything else, I want to spend time with You! You are my reward. I will wait on You. . . In Jesus Name, AMEN!"Consider the words to this song "Nothing Else" by Cody Carnes - perhaps even play it during your time of prayer today:
I'm caught up in Your presence, I just want to set here are Your feet
I'm caught up in this holy moment, I never want to leave
Oh I'm not here for blessings, Jesus, you don't owe me anything
More than anything that you can do, I just want you.Praying God's greatest rewards on you as you wait on Him!
Adapted from PURSUIT, by Dave Patterson, 2019, The Father's House.
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