Read: Isaiah 40:31 |
W-A-I-T!
Every day of our lives, we are waiting for something!
We cannot wait until:
Everyone regardless of social status, gender, geographic location or any other characteristic waits for something.
Spiritually, it is much the same. We are often waiting on a small or large spiritual breakthrough in our lives. We wait for answers to prayers, situations or circumstances. Once again, no one is completely exempt from waiting. We end up waiting on God, waiting for God and/or waiting with God.
Wait in the Bible
The scriptures provide us with insights and examples we can apply in our lives.
In the KJV version of the Bible, there are 82 occurrences of Wait. At least 28 of the passages that deal with waiting have the Lord as the object waited for and as the confidence of the one waiting.
The most frequently translated Hebrew (OT) and Greek (NT) terms for waiting are:
Waiting is a catalyst for our faith
God uses our waiting as a catalyst for our faith and spiritual growth. By examining scriptures and anecdotal examples, we will review the spiritual principles that motivated believers can learn from waiting. As we submit to Him, we can find:
For a believer, waiting is a bittersweet experience. If we submit ourselves to Christ during our waiting, we grow spiritually and increase our perseverance (Romans 5:3-6).
By waiting with a scripturally correct posture, we learn what it means to have perfect peace that passes all understanding. We also learn to avoid the painful corrections that God sends to get us back on the right path. Our spiritual growth accelerates as we learn that the more we depend on Him, the more dependable we find that He is.
Waiting when I did not want to
While in between jobs in 2002, I was feeling down spiritually because many friends and others in the Church were finding jobs quickly. However, I could find nothing! I kept ending up the # 2 candidate on very promising jobs for the first few months.
I became rationally irrational with God. After all, I was a youth Bible Teacher, attended Sunday School and had led a Bible Study on my old job. Surely, God would help me! Thank God, my wife had the grace to allow me a small pity party!
As I waited and prayed, the Holy Spirit pointed out that I had been neglecting my devotional time. I decided to get up early and spend the equivalent of my commute time studying the Bible each morning. This study on waiting was the first by-product from the crucible of my bittersweet time of unemployment. After approximately nine months, I landed the job God had for me. In hindsight, that job served as a launching pad to where I am now, praise God!
During that time of study, meditation, reflection and some fasting, God blessed me with spiritual insight, invigorated me to establish new spiritual disciplines in my life and initiated spiritual growth within me while I waited for His will in my life.
Over the next few weeks, I hope to unravel what I learned as I stepped through the Bible guided by the Holy Spirit with my Concordance and Commentaries. I will highlight how the key characters in the Bible handled the challenge to wait and unpack the lessons we might learn.
As for me, my time waiting has shaped my mind, my soul and my future to attain insights that I never could have perceived or conceived if I had not waited on God, for God to do His work with me and within me.
See outline for topics on this subject below.
Questions:
1.Discover –
A. It is easier to wait for some events in life than for others. What do you have an easy time waiting for? What is harder to wait for?
B. Why is it easy to wait on some events or things and not on others?
2.Develop –
A. God’s answer to prayer is “Yes”, “No” and “Wait or Maybe”. How do you distinguish the “No” from the “Wait”?
B. When taking a selfie, we cannot wait to see how it turned out. If you took a spiritual selfie of yourself waiting for God, would God be in the picture at all or would you be alone looking stressed and not blessed?
3.Demonstrate –
A. Have you had to wait for something that was very obvious such as a job or answer to something? How did others see you practicing your faith as you waited?
B. In hindsight, would you have waited with more peace and security if you had known how God was going to work things out? Have you had a chance to use your situation of waiting as a testimony to others?
Profiles on Waiting Outline
Overview – Why and How to wait upon/for/with God (link)
Benefits – Why Wait?
1. Discover God’s Purpose (link)
2. Receive Spiritual Adrenaline (link)
3. Win Battles (link)
4. Hear Answers to our Prayer (link)
5. Fortify our Faith (link)
Postures we should adopt when waiting for/with/upon God
1. Wait on Time (link)
2. Watch for Him (link)
3. Wait by walking within Touching Distance (link)
4. Work while waiting upon God’s Answer (link)
5. Willful Waiting does not Wilt (link)
6. Weather the Storms while waiting under His Umbrella (link)
7. Wait with an Unwavering Faith (link)
8. Wait while avoiding the Quicksand of Worry (link)
9. Wait with the Weight on God (link)
10. Waiting leads to a Victorious Solution (link)
