Waiting on God

Devotion 12 - Strengthen Ourselves Through Waiting on God

Ps.27:4 – “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.”

As a king, David has everything before him to enjoy and demand his attention, yet one thing takes pre-eminence in his life, to enjoy the presence of God!  

Ps.16:8 – “I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.”

 

This Scripture further emphasizes that David was constantly conscious of the presence of God. It seems that one of the major keys that David learned, to strengthen himself in the Lord, was to enjoy and rest in the presence of God.

Oneness with the Lord

Isa.40:30-31 – “Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

This text shows us a contrast between human weakness and God’s strength, and it uses the strongest among men to make the point. The youth and young men are in the prime of their lives physically; they are symbols of strength and vigor. However, the energy levels of these strongest among men, have their limitations and are not endless.  We will see that these men too will grow weary, they will faint and ultimately fall.

In contrast, “The everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary…” (Isa.40:28). The message is clear.  Man, at his strongest is still weak and we need to understand that this physical weakness points to spiritual weakness, the spiritual weakness of our Spirit man.

The word ‘wait’ carried different definitions when traced back to its origin. In Hebrew it means being “gathered together onto God”, referring to a gathering where we are brought into oneness with Him. It expresses union or unison. It is about letting our souls so intertwined with the spirit of the Lord that it allows the life of God to have full sway in our souls, that the Spirit of the Lord may be fully formed within us and that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Renewal - Abolished

The other word we want to look at very carefully is the word renew. The word renew in Hebrew has several different meanings. The first meaning is ‘abolished’, and that is the first aspect of what God does to us when we wait on Him. He abolishes the idols and all the inordinate desires in our lives. He removes, He cleanses, He breaks all those things in our lives that need to be broken away from us as we wait and unite with Him.

For that reason, if we do not live righteously or in disobedience to His will, we will find it very hard to be alone and to quieten ourselves in the Lord. For whenever we quieten ourselves, the voice of our conscience becomes too loud for us to bear and it torments us. On the other hand, the righteous and godly will enjoy the beauty of solitude, being conscious of and delighting in His presence. As we wait on the Lord, His Spirit will abolish all insecurity and guilty conscience within us, making us bold and strong in the spirit.

Initially, as we discipline ourselves to wait on the Lord, we may feel all that is within us are very dark and unpleasant; we may even feel ashamed to come before the Holy God. But that is the very reason why we need to wait on God so that we can rest in His marvelous love and trust in His light to expel all the darkness within us, for darkness is never a substance by itself, it is merely the absence of light. As we unite with Him in waiting, His light will slowly but eventually dispel every trace of darkness in our hearts and minds. We cannot seek intimacy with God or attain the abiding consciousness of His presence unless we are willing to abolish all unrighteousness and all ungodly desires and fully surrender our all to His will.  

The discipline of solitude is the strength of the righteous soul. If we have an inner strength within us, we will know how to stand alone, we will not be afraid if people reject us or hurt us, for we will have the emotional resilience from God.

Renewal - Divine Exchange  

Another meaning for the word renew in Hebrew is the word exchange.  It is not refresh or restore, rather, it is an exchange of our weakness for God's strength. That is why the Scripture promises us that “they shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint”. This is because, as we entwine ourselves with the Spirit of the Lord, we do not need to move on with our own strength, we exchange our weaknesses for His strength. We exchange all our limitations for His supernatural infinity. This exchange imparts a fresh stimulant and energy into our lives, enabling us to go forward with new vigor.

With that divine strength, it empowers us to face the daily struggles of life, it strengthens the young people to overcome the peer pressures of the world and deal with the pressure in the workplace.  With that strength, the wife can submit to her husband even though her husband doesn’t love her as he ought to.  With that strength, the husband can love his wife and give himself to his wife, even when she is not so loveable.  With that strength, parents can have the patience and wisdom to discipline their children to walk in God’s ways.  And with that strength, children can face the trials in school and obey their parents, even when their parents are not perfect.  

We need a divine exchange, a new kind of strength; not the physical strength of the youths, not the physical strength of the young men but a renewed strength from God.  Let’s learn to wait on Him to experience the divine exchange so that truly we can mount up with wings as eagles to glorify our God!