Wait On The Lord

​I totally know that this week’s title statement is easier said than done, which is why a reminder is in order for this week.  What are you waiting on the Lord to do?  What have you prayed?  What has He promised you?  2020 has been a trying year for many, but also a year of countless blessings. I began the year with the goal of not starting any new book projects, then later repented of that goal because if He wants to use me to share His message through my writing, then that’s what I must avail myself to do.  He not only gave me a book to write, but the time to complete it.  Amen.  Now I am waiting on a publisher.

According to a study conducted by a group of Psychology students at Queen’s University in Canada, the average person has 6,000 thoughts per day.  Some of us have more, some a few less.  We watch Netflix, the news, we look at social media, we travel, shop, make decisions for ourselves, for our children, we answer emails and texts, we experience emotions.  6,000 may be a bit conservative for some!  Maybe I’m speaking for myself, but a certain percentage of those thoughts are not Godly thoughts.    We are human, and the Bible tells us in Isaiah 55:8, “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord.”

We live in society and are a part of the culture and experience the emotions and desires of the masses, but we must always remember that God is our Creator and “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”  (Ecc 3:11) We can’t get ahead of Him.  Well, I should say, we can get ahead of Him, but it’s never beneficial.  It’s easy to look around and see others being blessed with the blessings we have prayed for and begin to feel as if God is ignoring our prayer.  He’s not ignoring us, He hears every prayer, but answers yes to those prayers that He has already planned for our future, no to those He has not planned.  The other way He answers prayer is wait - and this one is the hardest for us to accept.  

This week, in Bible study we read about Abram and Sarai in Genesis 15 and 16.  God had promised Abram that He would make him a great nation, that his descendants would be more numerous than the stars in the sky. (Gen. 15:4-5)  Abram shared this with his wife, but they couldn’t see how the blessing would be fulfilled because they were childless and up in age.  Ten more years passed and they still did not conceive.  Sarai began to believe that she was blocking her husband’s blessing (Satan probably told her that) and in their culture men were allowed to have more than one wife.  Sarai offered her maidservant, Hagar, to marry her husband and bear a family through her.  (Gen. 16:1-3)  In verse 4 we read, “He [Abram] slept with Hagar, and she conceived.  When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress [Sarai].”  All in the same verse we see people having 6,000 thoughts per day, deciding to help God with His plan, and we see the first baby mama drama.  Wait on the Lord.  

I don’t know about you, but this story convicted me.  I’ve calmed down in the past few years, but the tendency for me to attempt to use some of my 6,000 daily thoughts to plan my own course is reality.  Scripture tells us “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years.”  I get impatient, I don’t have a thousand years!  But if we will just calm down, that same verse continues, “and a thousand years are like a day.”  He can do what we might think will take a thousand years, or think impossible, He can do it in an instant if He says it is to be done.  And He doesn’t need our help!   We might just let those 6,000 thoughts lead us into heartache and pain.  

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:8) Ultimately, man was created to worship the Lord.  We are made in His image and have the ability to think, reason, and plan, but we must always remember that our thoughts, our reasoning, and our plans are not always aligned to His thoughts, reasons or plans.  We must calm down, and let God be God.  We must be obedient acting in faith when He says we should or else we disrupt the plans He has for us.  He wants to give us the desires of our heart, but that requires obedience.  

Ultimately, the Lord wants us to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  He wants us to recognize that we are sinners, repent of our sins, and decide to walk in the Spirit.  We are also to show others the way to Christ.  While we wait for what may seem like a thousand years, this should keep us occupied.  Amen.  Wait on the Lord. 

Isaiah 40:31
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Romans 5:3-4 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,


Thank you for reading!
Happy Thanksgiving to All!
Kim

​