Hosea 12:6 Wait Upon the Lord(Conclusion)
“What are you waiting for? Return to your God! Commit yourself in love, in justice! Wait for your God, and don’t give up on him—ever!” (MSG)
Waiting upon the Lord is a privilege. If I am waiting, then I am expecting Him to do something or tell me something. I am waiting for God Almighty, the creator of the universe, the omnipotent, omniscient, and omni-present one to answer me. Yes, He will speak to me, but when I am waiting upon the Lord, it’s because He will take the time and make the effort to understand what I want or need, and He will answer according to what I ask. He listens to me, and He listens for me. He is eager to hear from me. Even when His answer is not what I expect or what I want, I know that it is the best answer, for He is omniscient and loving.
When we wait upon the Lord, we should do so in hope, the hope of God, not in hope as defined by men. To most men hope means, “I’d like to have that, and I wish I would get it, but I probably won’t.” Hope in God is much, much more than that. In his book, “One Word from God Can Change Your Life,” .page 272) Kenneth Copeland has this to say about hope: “The first thing we can learn about hope from that scripture (Hebrews 11:1) is that faith won’t do us any good without it. Hope serves as the blueprint for faith. Without it, faith has nothing to do. Hope is the plan that faith carries out. It’s the inner image-–the picture that the Holy Spirit paints on the inside of you, a picture that’s based on the Word of God.” When we wait with hope, we gain the confidence that God hears us, and faith that He will answer us.
We’ve learned that being quiet before the Lord, eliminating, as much as possible, the noise of the world and our own thoughts, opens our spirits to the voice of God. Waiting on God assumes that we have prayed and continue to pray. If we plan on hearing from God, we must make prayer a conversation and not a one-sided one. We must quiet our hearts, our minds, and our mouths, and we must purposely open them to Him to hear His still quiet voice. In other words, we must focus on God.
We’ve also learned that we must be patient, realizing that God does not work on our timetable, and adjust our timetable to His. This is one of the most difficult things for me. As an American in today’s society, I want and expect almost instant responses to my questions. Fast food is good when we are in a hurry, but it really doesn’t have the appeal to the pallet of the food that we patiently wait for at home or in better restaurants. Patiently waiting for God’s response makes it more sweet when we receive it.
David’s Psalms often begin in sorrow and end in joy, thankfulness, and trust in God. During the Psalm He goes back to his remembrance of past experiences when God had answered with love that worked through David’s life. Many are the scriptures that show us how to wait upon the Lord, and there are also many scriptures that show us the promises of our Lord that He uses to answer us.
I can think of three personal reasons to wait upon the Lord. First, we wait upon the Lord to learn what He wants us to do next. Second, we wait upon the Lord to give us the skills we need to accomplish the work we are assigned. Third, we wait upon the Lord for resolution of some personal need. I don’t claim that these are the only reasons to wait, but they are the primary personal ones. We also wait upon the Lord when we pray for our families, our churches, and our nation.
Wait Upon the Lord—it’s a great privilege!
In the waiting is the learning and the blessing!
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