Articles and Testimonies

Waiting on the Lord

Isaiah 40:31 states that, “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.” Many in the Church today have lost the ability and desire to “wait upon the Lord”. In this world of “instant” everything, waiting is not something we excel in. In an age of “instant” global communication, “instant” puddings, microwave popcorn, and drive-thru menu planning, we expect immediate gratification in every area of our lives, including God’s answers to our prayers..

In this 21st century of stress, overload and the prioritization of daily obligations, all too often it’s God who becomes the lowest priority on our “TO-DO” list. At the end of the day, when we are usually too exhausted to focus on God’s Word, talk to Him and listen for His leading, we try to squeeze in 5 or 10 minutes of “QUALITY” TIME with our Creator. (It seems QUALITY TIME has become the buzzword of the baby-boomer generation. QUALITY TIME is, in effect, a term we use to rationalize the little blocks of time we “choose”to spend on the important components of our day.) Often our “leftover” time is spent, not in praising, worshiping, and adoring God, (we seem to have no time for that)... but merely in presenting to Him our wish-list. When we don’t get an immediate response to our petitions, we pout and complain and blame God for not caring. I know...I’ve been there.

Walk a mile in God’s shoes. Look for a moment at how He sees this type of relationship. He sees us as His Bride. So consider that fact in the natural now. How would you feel as a bride or a groom if the only time your spouse desired to spend time with you was when they wanted something from you? At other times, because of the busyness of raising children, meeting job requirements in the workplace setting, and dining out with colleagues, there was just no time left to spend with the one you vowed to love forever. It’s a pretty sad commentary on our Christian attitude towards our Maker.

The bottom line is this...We cannot treat the Lord as an instant ‘-microwavable’- Santa -Claus- God. Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Seek God first...seek out time with Him...stop making Him your least important priority...(He deserves so much more than that.)... Spend time in His presence, even if that means getting out of bed an hour earlier to meet with Him. Believe me, your day will run more smoothly, and your pace will become less frenzied if you will put Him 1st, not last, on your daily agenda. If you will give Him the rightful position He deserves in your day to day agenda, you truly will (as Isaiah 40:31 states) “ run and not be weary, walk and not faint.” If you begin to give the Lord 1st place on your agenda, He will do His part in giving you the strength to deal effectively and joyfully with the other aspects of your day. There is another dimension, however in “waiting on the Lord”. As you put Him 1st on your list of priorities, you will come to a new understanding regarding the meaning of “waiting”. As you learn to “rest” in Him and believe that HE LOVES YOU DEEPLY and will meet ALL of your needs according to His riches in glory, you will come to a realization that His ways are perfect and His timing precise. But you will also learn much more. Ray Boltz wrote a beautiful song called ,“I’ve come to serve you”. It’s a song that beautifully portrays the heart of Jesus as He came to earth to “serve” and not to “be served”...to “wait on”us and not to be “waited on”. It is a song that adds new meaning to the word “WAIT”. In the song Boltz uses the passage in John 13: 4-17 where Jesus, just prior to His death, rises from the table, takes the towel from His waist and washes the feet of His disciples (yes, even Judas Iscariot). I have come to understand that “WAITING” depicts the image of Jesus, the WAITER with a towel laid across His arm offering to serve us the “Bread of Life (Himself). Jesus “served” His disciples as He “served” each of us at Calvary. His only request is that we then do for others as He has done for us. WAITING ON THE LORD takes on a whole new meaning as we come to realize that we are to “wait on Him”, not only in our devotional time, as we “wait on” our answers to prayer, but also in our “SERVING” time. As servants of the Most High God, we are to become God’s hands extended to a lost and dying world. As we serve others in His name, we are in fact WAITING ON HIM. As we feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, care for the naked, visit the imprisoned, God’s Word states in Matthew 25:40 that, “ Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

God bless you all in your “waiting” time.