Psalm 27:14 Wait Upon the Lord(2)
“Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord” (NLT).
Waiting sounds like a passive thing, but waiting for the Lord is anything but passive. The Psalmist tells us to “Be patient.” We can be patient and fret. We can be patient and worry. We can be patient and walk the floor. No, we can’t. Fretting, worrying, and walking the floor have nothing to do with the patience of those who follow Jesus. The Psalmist also tells us what we should be doing while we are being patient. We are to gather our strength and be brave and courageous. Being brave and courageous involves straightening our backs and preparing for whatever God provides. So how do we gather our strength?
The first and obvious way is to pray. No, I don’t mean the “Now I lay me down to sleep” prayers. I mean the ongoing conversations we have with our Lord throughout the day—those prayers we pray while we are driving the car or listening to music—those prayers we pray when a problem suddenly appears, and those prayers we pray when we see the hand of God at work. God appreciates and desires all our prayers, even the really short ones, “Help me, Jesus!” or Thank you, Lord.” He just wants to hear from us as often as possible. Remember, He created this entire universe for us, and He walked in the garden with Adam and Eve daily. His desire to hear from us has not lessened over the centuries.
Praying while we are waiting on God is vitally important, but if we are waiting for His help, our prayers must be two-sided. We have to take the time to listen. He placed the Holy Spirit inside of us as a counselor, so it is obvious that He wants to speak with us and help us. As mentioned in an earlier blog, we need to shut out the clamor of the world while we wait on God, but we also must shut out the clamor inside us that wants to tell God what to do and how to do it. I’m pretty sure that omniscient means that He is smarter than I am, so I need to let Him speak. Proverbs 3:5,6 speaks to this, “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” (ESV). When we take the time to listen, we must believe that He will answer. No maybes about it; He will answer, but we must also remember that we have different perspectives on time. It’s been said, “God is never late. His timing is perfect.” Sometimes it is hard to be patient while waiting on the Lord, but He expects us to exercise patience and not let doubt sneak in while we are waiting.
Prayer is certainly a good start, but God has provided other resources for our use while waiting on Him.
More to come next time.
Psalm 46:10 Wait Upon the Lord
“Be still and know (recognize, understand) that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth” (AMP).
It may appear to be obvious, but if we ever hope to hear from God, it is basic and it is important to know, recognize, and understand that the Lord is God. That’s who we are waiting for, that is the one we want to hear from. God is almighty, He is all knowing, and He is everywhere all the time. He hears us when we pray, when we take the time to talk with Him; He knows what is best for us whatever the situation, and He is certainly able to perform whatever is needed. He will be exalted! He will be exalted by all because He hears the prayers of all of us, and His heart yearns for us to hear Him, believe Him, and trust Him. To do that, we must “be still.” We can’t let the noise and the turmoil of this earth block His voice from our ears and hearts. Elijah was depressed and felt alone. He said to the Lord, “…and I, only I am left, and they seek my life, to take it away” (1 Kings 19:10 KJV). God decided to present Himself to Elijah, and a great wind that broke rocks came by, an earthquake occurred, and a great fire appeared, but God was in none of those. After they passed, there came a still small voice. “And it was so, when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the opening of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, ‘What doest thou here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:13 KJV) Elijah couldn’t hear the voice until God had gotten his attention, and then God spoke in a still small voice. He didn’t yell, He didn’t scream. He spoke in a still small voice.
We get our clue from Elijah. “Be still.” He was still, and He understood the grandeur of God, the power of God, and He was about to experience the love of God. But he had to “Be still.” That’s what we need to do when the world overwhelms us; come away, be still, and understand just who it is that we are waiting for. He will speak, but He wants to know that He has our undivided attention. For what He says may well be life-changing, and we need to understand not only His words, but mainly, His heart. Waiting upon the Lord means just that—we wait until we are quiet enough to hear Him clearly. So, ultimately we are waiting upon ourselves, which is the message that the Lord was impressing upon me when I began working on this. He said to me, “While you are impatiently waiting for me, I am patiently waiting for you. I am waiting for you to understand that you need to be still, and that you need to be able to set aside everything else.” This is the first lesson from God about “Waiting on the Lord.” I know there will be more.
Luke 10:26-28 Responsibility or Privilege
“Jesus replied, ‘What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?’ The man answered, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (NLT).
Okay, that is our responsibility, but isn’t it also our greatest privilege. Aren’t of all our responsibilities also our privileges? Here’s a partial list of our responsibilities:
Thank God.
Love God.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Do unto others as you would have them do to you.
Go into all the world and preach the Gospel.
As much as it is possible, live in peace with everybody.
Represent God on the earth.
Minster to each other.
Gather together.
Praise and worship God.
Pray for each other.
Study the Word.
Discuss the Word with fellow believers.
Speak the Word to unbelievers.
Listen for and to the Holy Spirit.
Pray—have conversations with God.
Do good to all people.
Make God visible and alive with your life.
Preach the Word with actions and words.
This is a good list, but it is not exhaustive. Feel free to add to it. I challenge you to point out one of those responsibilities that is not a privilege. We are privileged to know God, and we are privileged to be trusted by Him to represent Him. What a responsibility and what a privilege! Be privileged today!
Mark 16:15,16 My Responsibility to the World
“And then he told them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned.’” (NLT)
My responsibility to the world, as a Christian, is very simple: JESUS! That’s right, we are told in two places, Mark 16:15-16 and Matthew 28:18-20, to tell ALL THE WORLD the Good News about Jesus, about His sacrifice that guarantees eternal life for all who believe. That’s pretty simple, right? Not necessarily—you see we have an adversary who does not want people to learn about the Good News. He’s been working on this for over 2000 years, and he has developed strategies that help his cause. We need to learn how to frustrate him and his strategies.
God has provided us with numerous ways to show the love of God and to “preach the Good News.” The first one is obvious; tell people what Jesus said about Himself. In John 14:6, Jesus says, “…I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (NIV). To “come to the Father”—spend eternity in heaven—is available to all. Acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior, and ask Him for forgiveness for all our sins.
There it is, but many will not accept that straight forward approach, so other ways have been made available. As one blessed person said many years ago, “Preach a sermon every day. When necessary, use words.” Matthew 7:12, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Luke 10:27, “He answered, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind;’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Matthew 5:44, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Matthew 5:40, “And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.” Romans 12:18, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live in peace with everyone.” (All Scriptures from NIV)
One obvious way to point people to God is to point out the magnificence of creation. The beauty, diversity, and inter-dependence of everything speaks of an omniscient God of creation. This is a good beginning, but it needs to be followed up by discussion of sin and the separation from God.
All of the strategies given in the above two paragraphs are good, but finally the Word must be spoken: Jesus is the only way, and a decision must be made for or against Jesus. The point must be made that it is possible to accept Jesus as Savior anytime up until death. Once that time has been reached however, there is no longer an opportunity to say, “Yes, I choose Jesus.” It will be too late then.
It's not hard to see that our responsibility to the world is immense, vital, and not only life changing, but more importantly, eternity changing. Yes, we are responsible for living in peace with our fellow man, and to treat him well, to care for him, and to demonstrate the love of God through our actions, but our PRIMARY responsibility to the world remains JESUS! May we enlarge the population of heaven by our actions and our words.
Hebrews 10:25 My Responsibility to the Church
“And let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near? (NLT).
We have many responsibilities to our fellow believers, the members of the Church, the body of Christ. We are His representation here on earth, but before we can minister to the world, we need to minister to each other and make certain that we are healthy spiritually, physically, and mentally. Gathering together is the only way in which we will know if someone needs help, or even who can provide help. Soon after Peter’s message that resulted in 3000 people accepting Jesus, we are told that “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer” (Acts 2:42 NIV). I don’t believe this passage means that the entire 3000 did this together, but that they gathered in groups in order to learn, to pray for each other, to fellowship, and to share meals together. Sometimes I think that we do the last, share meals, most eagerly. In any case, it is of great importance that we frequently share time, concerns, ideas, question, and food with our brothers and sisters in Christ. These informal times supply a lot of glue that holds the church together. I’ve learned a lot during these informal times of discussion--different interpretations or emphases from a sermon or passage of Scripture. It is my responsibility to add whatever I can to these discussions.
It is easy to be intimidated by some who speak often or forcibly, but I may have an interpretation or understanding that some others have missed, and by not speaking, I deprive them of it. If our hearts and minds are open to the Holy Spirit, He will give us insight. I believe that to encourage discussion, the Holy Spirit does not give the same insight to everyone. That is part of His ministry—to build relationships within the body.
Galatians 6:2, 10 tells us, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ….Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to the family of believers” (NIV). By frequent fellowship we will learn of the needs of others, and we will have the opportunity to help. As fellowship draws us closer, we may recognize a need that someone is reluctant to share with all, but perhaps will respond to a personal offer of help. Someone’s special skill may be just what is needed to solve the problem.
Receiving instruction from those God has placed over us, those who have chosen to serve Him in a ministerial position, is vital to our growth in the Lord. It also gives us the opportunity to knit together as God’s creation, the Church, His representative in the world today. Meeting together gives us opportunity to learn about and participate in the particular mission of our church. Impetus to go beyond the church into the community is given as we gather. It is our responsibility to respond to the call of God on our church any way that we can.
God created the Church. Let us honor Him by fulfilling our responsibility to the Church.