What’s waiting?
What is faithfully waiting on the Lord?
Here is a Biblical definition of waiting that I found, and it goes like this: “Waiting is being prepared to patiently look towards God for his guidance and accepting the timing he proposes. Waiting on God can lead to an atmosphere of expectation and confidence in God and a realization of the unreliability of one’s own judgment”.
I like this definition because it starts by saying that we need to be “prepared” to wait. We are sinful people. We like things done our way and in our own timing. So how do we wait? We first prepare ourselves, which means praying, seeking God, and asking Him to give us strength to wait.
The book of remembrance
Before the great silence between the book of Malachi and the book of Matthew, God wanted to remind His people that He remembers. He remembers His people. He remembers those who are His.
That’s why Malachi 3:16 to 18 is titled the book of remembrance. Nothing we do for God is ever wasted. No faithfulness ever goes unnoticed in His eyes.
“Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another,
And the Lord listened and heard them;
So a book of remembrance was written before Him
For those who fear the Lord
And who meditate on His name.
“They shall be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts,
“On the day that I make them My jewels.
And I will spare them
As a man spares his own son who serves him.”
Then you shall again discern
Between the righteous and the wicked,
Between one who serves God
And one who does not serve Him”.
God gives these words- that He is a God who remembers as a lifeline for them to hold on to because He knew a time was coming where they will feel as if He had left them. Before God sends you into waiting He gives you a Word, His word.
While we wait, we have to remind ourselves of God’s goodness and faithfulness.
Why do we need God “to show us” that He is faithful when we have His word full of His character? What other proof do we need or what other proof can satisfy our lustful flesh if His word is not enough?
God whispers these last 3 verses before the end of the Old Testament.
“Remember the Law of Moses, My servant,
Which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel,
With the statutes and judgments.
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
And he will turn
The hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
After this verse, we see 400 years of God’s silence. Theologians say that during this time God did not speak by a prophet or to the people.
Nothing. Silence. Crushing silence.
No one knows that day and hour.
What are you looking forward to? What are you looking towards? A better job? A better house? Or the coming of Christ? Beware, the mundane can blind you from the most important thing. “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” Matthew 24:38-39
Will God find your heart ready if He came tomorrow? Or will He find you worrying about your next paycheck, or when you will get married?
Colossians 3:1 reminds us, “if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above…”
If means “in supposition that”. If we supposedly love Christ and have been raised with Him, we MUST seek the things that are above. We don’t seek the things that are above only on Sundays or on the day we have Bible Study and the rest of the week we set our minds on the things of this earth.
When I read Colossians 3:1-11, I picture Paul saying, “listen up, if you love Christ, this is your new reality”. Paul is like the coach who is about to send his players into the field. By God’s grace, as Christians we are the players, and the “field” is the world. When the players are on the field, they don’t go waste time admiring how beautiful the field is, or try to figure out how long the game will last.
Players are on the field with one goal: Play their best and get off the field.
Have we forgotten that this earth is temporary, have we forgotten that God deserves our best? We are quick to give our earthly bosses respect, honor, and our absolute best, but are we doing our ultimate best for God? Oswald Chambers calls this, “doing my utmost for His highest”.
“Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Assuredly, I say to you that He will make him ruler over all his goods. But if that evil servant says in his heart, “My master is delaying his coming” and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth”. Matthew 24:44-51
This act of waiting on our God is not a passive act, it’s an active one. It’s being active in pursuing God. It’s being active in doing what God calls us to do everyday. Everyday is an exercise to practice what you know from His word.
The people you live with, the people you work with, the people you meet with, God wants us to practice His Word. The Spirit He gave is there to enable us to do stuff, to do His will. God didn’t give me His spirit so that I can lay on the couch everyday and just be lazy.
Paul tells the Romans in chapter 12 verse 11: “Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically”. Paul doesn’t say “don’t be lazy”, he says “Never be lazy”.
I pray that God always strengthens us to wait for His will on our lives.
Sending you all His peace, joy, and never-ending love…