WAITING ON THE LORD

“For Your salvation I wait, O LORD.”
Genesis 49:18
“Indeed, none of those who wait for You will be ashamed”
Psalm 25:3
“I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD.”
Psalm 27:13-14
“I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, and in His word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchmen for the morning; indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning.”
Psalm 130:5-6

“There may be a reason for the delay and the waiting may bring a blessing. You will learn that the delay in answer is one of the most precious ways God gives you his grace." Andrew Murray

"When you are waiting you are not doing nothing. You're doing something. You're allowing your soul to grow up. If you can't be still and wait, you can't become what God created you to be." A monk to Sue Monk Kidd from When the Heart Waits

A group of tourists were visiting a picturesque village. As they walked by an old man sitting beside a fence, one tourist asked him in a patronizing way, “Were any great men born in this village?” The old man relied, “Nope only babies.” In every age there comes a time when God raises up people to meet the needs of the hour. Not great men and women, just ordinary people. Every one of you readers have been born in the providence of God and He has sovereignely placed you right here right now as Mordecai told Queen Esther, “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14).

You may not feel that you are great or that your life is great but you are all destined for greatness because of you are children of a great God with great purposes for this generation through ordinary people like you and me. “When David fulfilled God’s purpose for his generation, he died…I consider my life of no consequence except to complete the purpose of God set before me; to testify to the gospel of God’s grace” (Acts 13:38; 20:28).

The nature of the Christian life could be describe as “living on God alone”. We have seen how awareness of our neediness and of God’s sufficiency leads us to the precious place of prayer to God. Prayer primarily involves asking God for help. Psalm 50:15 says, “call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me." After prayer is often times the most difficult aspect of living on God, we must wait on the Lord.

One of the ways that God prepares us for the great things of destiny are the times during which we must wait on the Lord. Waiting for the Lord" is an Old Testament way of describing a willingness to neither run ahead of the Lord nor bail out on the Lord. John Piper describes it as staying at your appointed place while he says stay, and it's going at his appointed pace while he says go.

A great illustration of this is seen in the book of Esther. Between chapters 4and 5 of this ancient book, I find nothing but white space in my Bible, as I'm sure there is in yours. It's a break in time. It's a space of suspense when we don't know what is happening. Nothing is recorded for us to read. All we know is that Mordecai has prophetically and boldly challenged Esther who initially chose comfort, ease, and security over the glory of God and the need of a nation.
"Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14)

God uses Mordecai to encourage and empower Esther to step into God’s purposes and her destiny. Upon Mordecai’s challenge Esther does not immediately race into the king’s presence. Esther’s response: “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish." (Esther 4:16).

So Esther has sent word to Mordecai that she was going to enter the king's presence uninvited, which could mean her instant death. So for three days all of the Jews are fasting and praying calming their emotions, gaining perspective, and placing their problem in the hands of God. There is absolutely nothing else anyone can do but wait. The king has issued an edict influenced by the evil scheming of Haman that all Jews are to be killed. All are waiting, waiting for Esther to try to approach the king, but more so, waiting on God. Esther is waiting and fasting and praying for three days as well. Esther is preparing but even more so, being prepared “for such a time as this” to walk in three days into the presence of the king, not knowing what the future holds except that God holds the future.

To continued...