What If God Is Waiting On You?
Good Morning Friends,
One of the hardest things to do is wait. Whether it is stop lights poorly timed, long lines for shopping, information we are seeking or healing, waiting is a hard thing to do. But we are not the only ones waiting and in fact our impatient desire may be delaying the process. People may be waiting for us or the Holy Spirit to move them. But maybe God is waiting too. What If God Is Waiting On You?
Scripture: Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.
Truly, O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you. Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” He will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. On that day your cattle will graze in broad pastures; and the oxen and donkeys that till the ground will eat silage, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. On every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water—on a day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days, on the day when the Lord binds up the injuries of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.
Isaiah 30:18-21, 23-26 (NRSV)
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.
Matthew 9:35—10:1, 5a, 6-8 (NRSV)
Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart,
Jeremiah 29:12-13 (NRSV)
In the path of your judgments, O Lord, we wait for you; your name and your renown are the soul’s desire.
Isaiah 26:8 (NRSV)
Message: Today we explore the implication and possibilities of God waiting. Today we face the reality that the Bible’s view of waiting and our culture’s view are really in conflict. We know that patience is a virtue…that love is patient…but we do not have much of it at the times when we need it the most. Love is after all what we are waiting for in one form or another in our lives. And maybe God is waiting for love too. Hopefully we understand that we will be blessed and happy and even envied if we wait for God’s victory, favor, peace, joy and yes companionship. So, as we wait this season we need to realize that this waiting is getting us positioned for the outpouring of a blessing and perhaps move us to call out for help when our patience wears thin and perhaps even move us to love. That is a different perspective on waiting than what the world offers. I am painfully aware that I am waiting on something. But I am not nearly so aware that God would be waiting or why God would need to wait for anything. But that is the thing. God is waiting for us to ask for help and wake up to love. Thankfully God is longsuffering with the creatures of this world and seeks to help us. That is the heart of this message. God is waiting for us to share the message purposed for us from the beginning of time. And as God waits and we wait God nudges us and reasons with us connecting our story to holy history. We have many scriptural windows into how God waits. Moses had to wait, Joseph had to wait, Jonah had to wait, Mary had to wait. All of Israel had to wait. The whole world had to wait for Jesus. But God the Father has had to wait longer than us all. Thankfully as we wait for Christmas and the second coming, God is actively waiting on us too. God is waiting for us to come around…to seek God’s decisions instead of our own… all the while reasoning and nudging us in a relationship of love.
Pray we are positioned for a blessing. Pray we wait expectantly but also seek God in the waiting. Pray we understand that we usually have something to learn when we are impatient.
Pray we become physically conscious of our degree of surrender to the reality of waiting. Pray we are thankful that God is longsuffering and that we might learn from that. Pray we cultivate patience by renewing our faith and hope. Pray we give thanks for God’s patience. Pray we count patience as our salvation. Pray we understand that God waits for the time to fully come. Pray when God nudges us and reasons with us we respond in love.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 