To wait on The LORD, what exactly does that mean?
Wow! Words cannot encapsulate the emptions/wants/needs/desires… what does The Word say about my desires? Delight yourself in The Lord, and He will give you the ‘desires’ of your heart. Psalm 37:4.
I dare NOT question The LORD! I am here because of the AMAZING grace of my Creator, my Reason, my Center! Every time I look around, I must give The LORD praise!!!
Yes! Things are different! But… there are NO buts. My always prayer is “Father LORD, Your will be done in my life, I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”
Waiting on The LORD; calls for 100% dependence on God. Points to note, trusting God is a process! Faith is a HUGE part!
What is faith? Why are myself and most people trapped by fears and worries? Because they lack faith! But what is faith? Is it positive thinking? A feeling? One’s church affiliation? The belief that Jesus died for your sins? Confidence? Hope? Or is it something far more?
The Bible states that “without faith it is impossible to please [God]” (Heb. 11:6). This is an incredible statement—yet, it is in the Bible! Take it for exactly what it says. Just think! Anything a person does, in attempting to be Christian, means absolutely nothing, if they lacks faith. For without faith, a person has no hope—no possibility of pleasing God. Any who are not pleasing God are Christians in vain. That is serious! Consider yourself. Do you have real faith? Is it sufficient for salvation? Can you know??? You can!
What about you? Do you lack faith to know that God is with you? To overcome sin and guilt? To be healed of disease? To believe all things in His Word? Do you lack faith that “all things [will] work together for good” if you love God (Rom. 8:28)? To believe God will work out injustices you have received? To believe God will provide for you? To believe that you can endure severe trials and persecution? Or that God will deliver you from them? Do you lack faith to see the soon-coming kingdom of God more clearly and that you can be in it?
The Bible says that you need not lack faith in any of these areas! You CAN develop real faith. However, the Bible says that most people, in the age preceding Christ’s Return, will not have sufficient faith to confidently claim any of these or other promises from God’s Word!
Various Counterfeits
There are several common ideas about faith. If you doubt this, then merely ask a half-dozen people to explain it—to precisely define it for you. Be prepared for just as many different ideas—probably all of them wrong.
I have known many people who believed that faith is an intangible “feeling” that cannot be defined. It is often thought to be personal, mysterious and unique to each person. This feeling usually has no definition, structure, or clear purpose and, inevitably, is whatever people want or need it to be. In other words, for almost every person, there is a different description and definition of faith. It is strange how many people view faith this way, yet the Bible has never said anything of the sort.
Others believe that faith is some kind of “positive thinking.” It is as though as long as people take an optimistic view and remain upbeat about events and circumstances, they are demonstrating faith. The Bible nowhere describes faith with the words positive or optimistic—though these are certainly good qualities of mind.
“substance” is “assurance.” Faith involves an ASSURANCE “of things hoped for.” But, if something is hoped for, that something has not yet been received. Therefore, where faith is involved, there is an ASSURANCE that it will be received!
But how can evidence be related to something that is not seen? Do we not rather think of evidence as involving things that are seen?
In a courtroom, evidence is what can be proven. It involves facts visible to a jury. In other words, evidence only involves things that can be seen or demonstrated. How then can faith involve evidence that is invisible—not seen?
Faith involves evidence in the following way. Real faith, in any promise made by God, is actually the evidence. It is the belief that is the evidence. If God promises to do something, it is impossible for Him to lie (Heb. 6:18). Your evidence that He will perform it is the very unwavering faith that you hold. Do you understand this? Remember, Hebrews 11:1 said, “faith is…the evidence.” If you have true Christian faith, you do not need to search for the evidence—you already possess it!
you would never consider driving a car WITHOUT SIGHT, a Christian is not permitted to walk through life BY SIGHT! This is not a principle that people learn overnight. The very concept of this kind of spiritual understanding is foreign—COMPLETELY ALIEN—to human thinking. Unlearning the wrong idea of faith requires a lifetime of practice.
Prayer, study, fasting and meditation are spiritual activities. God is Spirit and Christ explained, regarding Christians, “They that worship Him [the Father] must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). Of course, people who do not KNOW the truth of all the other doctrines of God, though they may know the truth about faith, cannot possibly worship God “in truth.” They may strive to worship God “in spirit” but it is impossible to worship Him in truth if they are doing it in ignorance of many crucial Bible truths. However, for our purposes here, at least all who read this booklet will no longer be unaware of the truth about the doctrine of FAITH—and how it relates to worshipping God in spirit.
Many wonder why they are never healed—or why their prayers are not answered. They wonder why they are not blessed or are not receiving deliverance from God when it is needed. They lack faith, which comes from the Spirit of God. If they had faith, they would have evidence—assurance—confidence—that they would be healed, blessed, delivered or receive answers to their prayers! They would KNOW that these things were coming, in advance of their arrival.
Christ Had Real Faith
We have already seen that faith is a fruit of God’s Spirit. Obviously, Christ had tremendous faith. Filled with God’s Spirit, and possessing it from conception, Christ was the most converted Person who ever lived. It gave Him tremendous understanding of the importance of the power of God’s Spirit. This is why He said, “I can of Mine own Self do nothing” (John 5:30)! He knew that “the Father that dwells in Me, He does the works” (John 14:10).
It was through the power of God’s Spirit in Him that Christ accomplished everything that He did. He understood completely that it was only the presence of the Spirit of God in Him that allowed Him to perform miracles. He perfectly exercised the fruit of faith present in Him because of the Holy Spirit. No doubt, God gave Him the additional gift of faith (I Cor. 12:1, 7-9) that He would need to endure all He was to face through His sacrifice as Savior of the world.
Christ went on to say in John 14, “He that believes on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do” (vs. 12). All the apostles, evangelists and others (including even deacons) performed mighty miracles after Christ’s Resurrection and the start of the New Testament Church. The Bible records this. Furthermore, these greater works will be done at the time the kingdom of God is established on Earth. Through the power of real faith, ordinary people can do amazing things!
But can you have the same kind of faith that Christ had—or that the apostles had? Do Christians today have a different kind of faith?
“I wait for The LORD, my soul waits, and in His word I hope” Psalm 130:5.
And I pray:
Father in Heaven,
I come before You with my heart filled with so many different thoughts and feelings. I am tense and uncertain about what I should be doing and where I should go. I feel weak and helpless. Powerless. I am worried about what happens next and whether I have the strength to handle it. Deep down I wonder, how long will I be here? Will I be stuck in this place of waiting forever? And why am I here to begin with? What’s happening, Lord? But most of all, I wonder, where are You? Why haven’t You responded to my cries for help?
But even as I pray that, I know you are right where You’ve always said You would be. You’ve never left me and You will never forsake me. You are not deaf to my cries. In fact, You know the thoughts in my heart before I even think them. You know exactly what is happening, why I am here, and what is going to happen next. All things are in your sovereign care and control. Nothing happens outside your knowledge and will. Not even a hair falls from my head without your willing it to happen. Nothing surprises You or takes You off guard. Including this issue right here, right now. You know why I am here waiting and You have promised to use it for Your glory and my good.
Forgive me for all my doubts, worries, and fears. Forgive me for my impatience as I wait in this place. Forgive me for questioning the story You have written for me. Forgive me for not seeking Your face and allowing the struggles before me to seem greater and stronger than Your grace and mercy for me. Cleanse my heart of all that keeps me from You. Help me to see the ways I have tried to be my own god and my own savior. Help me to see the false idols I have erected to worship and serve instead of You. Help me to see the things I am clinging to right now that I think I must have to make me happy and help me to repent and turn from them.
I believe, help me in my unbelief! Help me to remember that it is good to wait for You. As the prophet wrote in Lamentations, “It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of The Lord” (3:26). As I wait, help me to remember and dwell on the salvation You have provided for me through Christ. Help me to remember that the same grace that saved me at the cross is the same grace that sustains me today. And that same grace is at work in me even now, shaping me into the Image of Your Son. And no matter what happens, no matter my current circumstances, I am safe in the shelter of Your wings. There is nothing that can separate me from Your Love. Nothing and no one can snatch me from Your hands.
Grant me the joy that comes from knowing You and being known by You. Fill my heart with gospel joy. Strengthen me by Your Word. May the words of the Psalmist be true of me, “I wait for The LORD, my soul waits, and in His Word I hope” (Psalm 130:5).
Help me to remain faithful in this place of waiting. Help me to serve You and live for You even in this crossroad of my life. Help me to wait as long as it takes.
I pray all these things because of Jesus and in his name,
Amen.