Be of good courage...and wait

Are you good at waiting?  Are you able to wait patiently, to trust that God is doing a good thing when He is silent, when He isn’t answering your prayers?  I’m not sure any of us is good at it 100% of the time.


Yet, we are commanded to wait.  How can we just…wait?  Most of us plead with God, complain to God, maybe even whine a little— or a lot. The truth is that we can’t wait for God, not in our own strength.  And, by the way, God doesn’t expect us to.  He sent the Holy Spirit to indwell us and give us His power to wait.



David says in verse 13:  
I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.

David had faith that God would come through for him while he was still alive.  God had always come through for him in the past.  God hid him in His tabernacle.  He set him up upon a rock so that his head was higher than his enemies.  He could see them coming and had time to hide or prepare for battle.  He was not afraid…but that didn’t keep him from asking God for help.  God wants us to ask.


Maybe you are having trouble waiting for this social distancing exercise to be over, or for the pandemic to subside, or for a loved one to be healed, or for God to change your heart so that you can wait with patience and trust.  So many things require waiting.  So, what is the answer?

Trust. Faith.  Patience.  In short, Surrender.  Falling into the arms of the Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit.



Let’s practice envisioning that for a minute.  Close your eyes.  Feel what it is like to let go completely and fall…and be caught by His strong arms.  There is no time when He will not catch you.  And from the vantage point of lying at rest while He holds you, imagine Him lifting your head, just as He did David’s.  

The experience will change you forever.  Surrender is the ultimate expression of faith and trust, and Christ will never let us down.

Breathe in:  “Lord, I surrender all of me”—Breathe out:  “into Your loving arms.”   Breathe in: “Lord, I can’t” — Breathe out: “but You can.”  Repeat whenever you find yourself worrying.   Let them sink from your head into your heart.  Let them become the rhythm of your days, until you find yourself saying them as you wake up and  you slip into sleep at night.  Open your heart to God and He will gradually change your heart.  Pretty soon, courage and your trust in God will start to replace anxiety and fear. Waiting will become just a surrendered way of being with God.



Psalm 27 (NKJV)

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?

2 When the wicked came against me
To eat up my flesh,
My enemies and foes,
They stumbled and fell.
3 Though an army may encamp against me,
My heart shall not fear;
Though war may rise against me,
In this I will be confident.

4 One thing I have desired of the Lord,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.
5 For in the time of trouble
He shall hide me in His pavilion;
In the secret place of His tabernacle
He shall hide me;
He shall set me high upon a rock.
6 And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me;
Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle;
I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.

7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice!
Have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
8 When You said, “Seek My face,”
My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.”
9 Do not hide Your face from me;
Do not turn Your servant away in anger;
You have been my help;
Do not leave me nor forsake me,
O God of my salvation.
10 When my father and my mother forsake me,
Then the Lord will take care of me.

11 Teach me Your way, O Lord,
And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.
12 Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries;
For false witnesses have risen against me,
And such as breathe out violence.
13 I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.

14 Wait on the Lord;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord!

Here is a song by one of my favorite singers, Laura Story, with an introduction by Joni Eareckson Tada.  This is a song that has blessed me many, many times.  Laura wrote it when her husband was going through cancer treatment (yes, he recovered, but she didn’t know that when she wrote the song).  What a period of waiting that must have been.

Blessings to you in Christ Jesus,
Cindy

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