Rev. Dr. I. David Byrd April 2019
One Minute Summary
No one likes to wait. We hate waiting at the grocery store, at the doctor’s office and even in the fast food drive-thru. We simply don’t like to wait! Waiting is also one of the biggest challenges to our faith. “Waiting is actively engaging in the shaping of my mind and spirit into what God desires of me.”Regardless of your situation, God has work for you to do in your waiting. The story of Adam and Eve is a story of rebellion against God. Once they believed that God didn’t have their best interests in mind, they decided to go ahead without God and do what they wanted. They became, in effect, their own god. When we commit our waiting to God, we transfer our burdens onto our Father. He has promised to sustain us. That miserable, uncomfortable, sometimes painful state of silence is one of God’s most powerful tools to set us free. When we choose to wait quietly and trustingly, we not only honor God but encourage others to put their hope in him as well. Whoever you are, and no matter what you’re waiting for, remember that life is about so much more than waiting—it’s about living and believing.
April Devotion
“We can pray until our knees are numb, but if our praying isn’t accompanied by acting, then we won’t get anywhere. We need to put feet to our faith. After kneeling down, we need to stand up and step out in faith. If you want to see God move, make a move.”
Mark Batterson
The Personal Challenge of Waiting
No one likes to wait. We hate waiting at the grocery store, at the doctor’s office and even in the fast food drive-thru. We simply don’t like to wait! And waiting for an answer from God can be an even bigger challenge. We know God only lends His name to those things that are in harmony with His character. We feel our prayers are in alignment with His Word and yet we haven’t heard a word about our specific prayers. We’ve prayed and cried; cried and prayed and nothing seems to change. How do we deal with the faith testing time of “waiting” for the answer? Waiting is one of the biggest challenges to our faith. I understand this challenge oh so well. I myself am currently in a stage of waiting. Asking God for direction, looking for answers, and expecting some upcoming changes. Feeling deep, complex emotions while waiting, especially for significant things, is not necessarily sinful in itself. The problem comes when we decide to allow those emotions to overtake us. The hardest part is that things are completely out of our control. For those who like to be in control, that’s not always an easy pill to swallow.
John Piper in Future Grace The Purifying Power of the Promises of God says, “Waiting on the Lord is the opposite of running ahead of the Lord, and it’s the opposite of bailing out on the Lord. It’s staying at your appointed place while He says stay, or it’s going at his appointed pace while he says go. It’s not impetuous, and it’s not despairing.”
When speaking to my mentor John Adams he says, “Waiting is actively engaging in the shaping of my mind and spirit into what God desires of me.”Initially, that sounded contrary to Webster’s definition of waiting. In addition, in the midst of the wait and pressure, it was hard for me to accept this view of waiting. See, this is not a worldview but a spiritual view. Waiting can actually be a positive that God uses to make us more like Jesus. God works on a very different timetable. In his mind, there is nothing wrong with waiting. When God does not seem to be answering our prayers sometimes we stop praying, stop expecting him to act, while giving way to a spirit of cynicism, rather than thanking God for who he is and all he has done for us. While God may not answer in our timing or in the way we expect, he will accomplish his good purposes in our lives when we persevere in prayer and praise. Remember, He works all things together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).
It’s important that we guard our hearts and mind during our time of waiting. As we wait, we should be content in spite of our circumstances. The daily operation of God’s Word involves the mind. I pray you realize it’s an honor and a privilege to actively wait on the Lord. Susannah Spurgeon, the wife of Charles Spurgeon, counseled her own heart with these words:
“The Lord has strewn the pages of God’s Word with promises of blessedness to those who wait for Him. And remember, His slightest Word stands fast and sure; it can never fail you. So, my soul, see that you have a promise underneath thee, for then your waiting will be resting and a firm foothold for your hope will give you confidence in Him who has said, ‘They shall not be ashamed that wait for Me.’”
In Psalms 37, David exhorts us to be patient and guard against cynicism as we actively wait. He realized that in our period of waiting our mind can play tricks on us.
“Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers!”
Psalms 37:1
God knows our minds are tempted to drift while we wait. We can allow our minds to churn with crazy thoughts about others. We live in a world where everyone is always comparing himself or herself to the other person. What they have or what we don’t have. Social media exacerbates this because on Facebook or Instagram it seems everyone has such a great life. We see post of them traveling, doing great things with friends, experiencing only the best of life. As we compare our lives, we can sink into a deeper funk. We might wonder why we have to go through this while someone else seems to be receiving all the blessings of God. I accepted you as my Savior. Why isn’t my life perfect or at least as luxurious?
“Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.”
Psalms 37:3
Regardless of your situation, God has work for you to do in your waiting. Do not let your waiting keep you from being useful. Instead, take whatever comfort you are receiving from God, and begin searching for others who need it. When we serve others it becomes a distraction to our problems.
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Psalms 37:4
When we continue to praise and worship Him, He will help us endure. In the wilderness, Moses reminded the Israelites where their provision came from.
“He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
Deuteronomy 8:3
In your wilderness of waiting, remember God has not left you. He is preparing you to receive His best.
“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.”
Psalms 37:5
When we commit our waiting to God, we transfer the burdens of our waiting onto our Father. He has promised to sustain us. “Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.”(Psalms 55:22) Every time you start to feel burdened, anxious or overwhelmed by something in your life, it is because you haven’t given it over to Him in the first place, or if you have, you don’t want to wait and have tried to take back control. This action will always lead to feelings of heaviness because He never designed us to take on what He has promised to care for.
The Bible Teaches Us To Appreciate Waiting
Perhaps the Bible talks so much about waiting because God wants us to know that waiting is far from a passive activity in which we do nothing. In fact, Scripture teaches us that God wants us to actively participate in the work He desires to accomplish. Waiting strategically can cultivate good fruit in our lives such as patience, perseverance, and endurance. It also draws us closer to our Savior and points those who are watching us as their gospel. James 1:2-8 tells us to, “Consider it all joy when trials come . . .”
The Bible is filled with examples of believers, who waited and held on in spite of their situation. Think about Job, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and David. All had to wait for many years for God’s promises. They held to their faith, even when it seemed pointless and useless. Romans 8:25 – “But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”When they reached their promise, they were blessed beyond measure.
Alternatively, the story of Adam and Eve is a story of rebellion against God. Once they believed that God didn’t have their best interests in mind, they decided to go ahead without God and do what they wanted. They became, in effect, their own god. Too often, this is exactly what we do today. When God tells us to wait, we don’t trust Him, but go ahead and find ways to accomplish what we want to happen. Their decision broke their relationship and fellowship with God. As descendants of Adam, we all now suffer from this separation from God and are considered children of wrath (Eph. 2:1-3).
God wants us to learn how to follow him and put down our demanding, overly anxious, selfish selves. One way He helps us do this is to say, “Wait.” That miserable, uncomfortable, sometimes painful state of silence is one of God’s most powerful tools to set us free. David understood this concept and voiced it in his psalm of praise, Psalm 62:5-8:
5 For God alone my soul waits in silence,
for my hope is from him.
6 He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
7 On God rests my deliverance and my honor;
my mighty rock, my refuge is God.
8 Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us.
How To Actively Wait?
Linda Green, in Unlocking the Bible says, “We can be tempted to put our hope in things that may disappoint us in the end. We can hope a doctor will heal us, a teacher will pass us, a spouse will love us, our employer will reward us, or a friend will help us. But it is only when we put our hope in Christ that we can wait with confidence and know we will not be put to shame. It seems that God allows us to experience disappointments in life to teach us that nothing else will truly satisfy or provide us with a firm foundation to stand upon. God’s Word alone is unshakable. We can wait for the Lord knowing that, no matter how dark the night, His light will break through in our lives, bringing abundant joy through a more intimate relationship with Christ.”
Seasons of waiting reveal where we are placing our trust. Can we resist fretting, refrain from anger, be still, and choose patience (Psalm 37:7-8).
It’s easy to say we trust God, but our response to delays, frustrations, and difficult situations exposes where we actually are placing our hope.
- Are we convinced God is listening?
- Do we believe he’s good?
- Do we accept that our circumstances are ordained of God?
- Do we doubt he really cares about us?
When we choose to wait quietly and trustingly, we not only honor God but encourage others to put their hope in him as well. Yes, someone is watching how you respond. You may be the only Bible they see.
A friend once said, “Have you ever seen a Desert Flower? It grows in harsh conditions, extreme heat and cold and in parched earth. We’ve all been that Desert Flower at one point at work and in life. I’m talking gut-wrenching toxicity. An environment that perpetually calls on you to sacrifice your joy, sleep, inner peace, even your health, and goes against your very values, for people who don’t deserve it.” Like the Desert Flower, if we apply the right Biblical strategies we too can survive.
The Desert Flower survives because its root system has adapted FROM its environment. It has learned succulence, drought tolerance and drought avoidance. For us, our succulence is the Holy Spirit, which sustains us. And just as the Desert Flower stores water to survive, we are called to allow the Holy Spirit to rain on our lives. The Desert Flower is able to withstand desiccation without dying or drought tolerance because their roots are deep and extensive. So are we to be actively deep in our Word, prayer, fasting and praise. Unlike an annual plant that channels all of their energy into the current season, the Desert Flower practices drought avoidance. It understands struggle, waiting and dry seasons will come. We are not to get caught up in bad theology: the belief that as believers we won’t have troubles; Prosperity Gospel, or that we need someone to intercede to the Father on our behalf. We must also understand as believers we are in this world but not of this world. Avoid the droughts that lead to disappointment. The desert environment may seem hostile, but this is purely an outsider’s viewpoint. Adaptation enables the Desert Flower to not merely survive, but to thrive! I beseech you brothers, to understand your environment and adapt FROM it to thrive in your season of waiting.
I look back at the times of waiting, and I see that God was using the waiting to prepare me, to change me and to use me. I am learning the process of waiting has been just as important as the end result. Rather than doing nothing, I wish I had taken a more active approach during this time. Now, while I wait, I’m learning to deepen my trust in Him and to remind myself of His faithfulness. If I could know what He knows, I would choose His plan every single time. The bottom line is that worry equals a lack of trust in God. Do I really trust Him? I want my mind to say yes, even when my heart says no. If God is God, He can be trusted. I want to move in that direction during my times of waiting in my dry and weary place.
Now that I’m waiting again on something different, I am asking God to reveal to me the areas of my life that need work and prepare me for what’s to come; make me like the Desert Flower. I don’t want to waste this time anymore. Right now, through the struggle, through the pain, through the loneliness, through the chaos, through the wait He has already won, and He’s moving me in that glorious direction. No matter where I am, I want a life that’s marked not by waiting, but by worshiping. He deserves that and so much more. Whoever you are, and no matter what you’re waiting for, remember that life is about so much more than waiting—it’s about living and believing.
I ask you to join with me in an April 30-day challenge. Memorize or focus on one of these scriptures for 3 straight days and then move to the next one. These will encourage you while you wait patiently and while you continue praising Him. After 30 days, you will begin to measure the size of your problems by the size of your God:
- Romans 12:12 –“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”
- Psalm 27:14 – “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”
- 2 Peter 3:9 – “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
- Exodus 14:14 – “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
- Isaiah 30:18 – “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!”
- 2 Peter 3:8 – “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”
- Nehemiah 8:10 – “This day is holy to our Lord.Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”
- Lamentations 3:25 – “The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,to the one who seeks him”
- Micah 7:7 – “But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord,I wait for God my Savior;my God will hear me”
- Proverbs 3:5-6 – “Trust in the Lord with all your heartand lean not on your own understanding;in all your ways submit to him,and he will make your paths straight”
With these assurances and understandings of how we actively wait let our good brother Marvin Sapp, a 2009 initiate, encourage you:
Jesus Is The Ultimate Display Of Actively Waiting
Adam and Eve couldn’t wait and separated us from a perfect relationship with the Father. This month as believers prepare to celebrate Easter Sunday; there is no better story of remaining active while waiting than the story of Jesus stepping down from divinity to take on humanity. While He waited He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind. He ministered to those who did not know His father. He lived a life that was an example for all to follow. Yet in His humanity, in the Garden of Gethsemane He became weak and prayed that God would take away what He had to do. But while He waited, He surrendered to the will of God . . . “Not my will but your will be done.”(Luke 22:42) His was for the greatest sacrifice anyone can make. The Bible says, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”(John 15:13) Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. He became human, lived, died and rose again to both reconcile us to God and to demonstrate a new humanity saved from sin and broken relationships. It is now only through God’s grace that anyone can restore his or her relationship with Him.
When Jesus was crucified on Good Friday His disciples must have been very discouraged, confused and grief stricken. It is quite amazing that they did not leave Jerusalem to return to their own homes. Even though the Apostles didn’t completely understand how the Scriptures were to be fulfilled their faith, love, and loyalty, despite their fear, kept them in Jerusalem for three days to witness the Resurrection. Like the disciples, we can be active in the things we know to do while we wait – the rhythms of prayer, evangelism, and discipleship that flow from our faith.
What a moment of sanctifying faith for this small band of believers when Jesus rose from the dead. His promise had been fulfilled. But little did they know that the coming of the Holy Spirit, would equip them in a way that would be even better than walking and talking with Him in person. The Holy Spirit would equip them to be his witnesses to “Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”(Acts 1:8) Next month we will explore the Holy Spirit because Jesus promised He Will Never Leave You Or Forsake You.
Dear Heavenly Father,
Help us to release all our concerns to you. We know that you have promised to take care of us, so we desire to rest in your assurance. We pray for your peace and contentment in spite of our circumstances. Forgive us our sins of impatience, cynicism, anxiousness, doubt, fear or lack of trust. Help us to be like the Desert Flower. We know your Resurrection is our guarantee that justice will triumph over treason, light will overcome darkness, and love will conquer death. So as we wait to hear from you; help us to continue worshiping and praising you because your working things for our good. We praise you in this Easter season. Change our lives; change our hearts that we may maximize every second of the day to be salt and light to others. And to be messengers of Easter joy and hope.
Thank you for your ultimate sacrifice on the cross. Words can’t fully express our gratitude. So we strive to let our actions be our words.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.