Wait for the LORD

Read: Leviticus 21-22 & Psalms 27-29

“Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD.” Psalm 27:14

Examine:

To wait on the LORD is to look to Him with dependence and trust, not passivity.

Apply:

The call to wait on the LORD is not an invitation to passivity. Nor is the call to be strong and courageous a license to storm the gates. The call to wait on the LORD is first of all an invitation to learn of God as my defender, protector, and provider. My God is not an abstract concept or philosophy for live. He is alive, active, and absolute. I depend on my own strength, logic, and resources so much that I am often apt to miss out on God. Waiting is not sitting still. Waiting is the gut-wrenching struggle of releasing my expectations, plans, and ambitions to God.

The call to wait on the LORD is second a call to understand the beauty of God. God is captivating. When I stop seeking solutions, benefits, or outcomes and instead focus my energies on discovering His character, majesty, and presence I find a God that is far more captivating than a beach on a summer morning, a mountain rising out of the horizon, or a perfect tee shot that splits the fairway. The beauty of God is an experience unlike any other. Waiting on Him is allowing my heart, mind and soul to be released to be captivated by His glory.

The call to wait on the LORD is finally a call to be submitted to His ways. I can wait on God all day but if I am working against His purposes, living against His ways, or seeking selfish gain I might as well settle in for a disappointing ending. God will never show up and work against His character, will, or ways. My life has to be aligned with His word and my purposes have to be surrendered to Him. Waiting on Him is the daily act of dying to my desires and taking up the ways of the one He sent.

Pray:

The struggle with waiting on You is that it first requires me to follow You into a situation that is bigger than me. Waiting on You demands that I abandon my ways and surrender all to following Yours. This is hard under the best of circumstances, but it is especially hard in light of the broken perceptions I have of You and the twisted theology that I have allowed to set my expectations of You.

Your voice has the power to calm storms, lay mountains low, and shake the heavens and the earth. Your voice also has the power to settle things in my heart, clarify things in my mind, and secure things in my soul. I need Your voice to speak to me today. I need for You to reveal Yourself to me in a way that makes the way I should walk become abundantly clear.

You know me and You know that as best I can from where I am, I have been sitting still and waiting on You. I take courage today in knowing that all I have is released to You, but I also confess that my connection to Your glory, greatness and majesty is not strong enough today. Strengthen my weakness today so that I may stand firm and face the days ahead with courage, persistence, and fulfillment.