Let’s Hurry Up and Wait!

This sounds a little strange. But waiting on the Lord produces so many benefits, I can hardly wait!

I got up this morning refreshed and flowing with ideas to discuss with the Lord. I have so enjoyed opening my thought life to Jesus, my Wonderful Counselor. I sense His presence and pleasure as I prattle on in my flow of ideas. He listens, affirms, corrects, . . . and waits. Yes, sometimes He graciously waits for me to run out of gas. When I have finished casting all my anxious thoughts on Him, He lets me know He cares for me (1 Peter 5:7). And then I come again to sense He has things on His heart to share with me.

Now, it is His turn. For me to hear what Jesus wants me to know requires that I listen. Listening requires that I slow down, that I stop all other preoccupations, and that I wait.

Waiting on the Lord is a most fruitful discipline. It requires of me to focus on Him, exercising an active faith to interact with the invisible realm where God reigns supreme. I wait until I can cross over into the real, but invisible, realm of my Father’s House. I pray as Christ instructed, “I worship Your holy name, Father. Please let Your heavenly kingdom come down, and let Your will be done here on earth, right here in this little corner of my own temporal, physical reality.” To know His will, I must press in to stand by faith in the courts of heaven itself. Can that be? Yes, if I choose to do so. Read Paul’s instruction below:

Colossians 3:1-3. 1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Waiting on the Lord is so important to how we live in this broken world. Let me select a few of the admonitions to “wait” just so you will know what benefits you are waiting to receive from God:

❑ Let’s wait with patience for God’s omnipotent perspective.

1 Corinthians 4:5. Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's praise will come to him from God.

❑ Let’s wait with prayerfulness for God’s sustaining power.

Isaiah 40:31. 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.

❑ Let’s wait with perseverance for God’s immutable plan.

Romans 8:23-25. 23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see,

with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

❑ Let’s wait with assurance for God’s transforming presence.

Philippians 3:20-21. 20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; 21 who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

Yes, be encouraged as you wait expectantly. God will make all things beautiful in His time.