Still Waiting on God

Micah 7:7 (NKJV)

⁷      Therefore I will look to the Lord;

I will wait for the God of my salvation;

My God will hear me.

Last week we started to look at the idea of waiting on God. I shared the idea of waiting as being like someone positioning themselves and lying in wait for God’s guidance or direction. This is not a passive thing but something that we do even as we live our lives. Today we are going to have a look at another couple of postures that are reflected in the various Hebrew words for ‘wait’.

Firstly, the word for ‘wait’ in our text  carries the suggestion of eager anticipation of hearing something from God. This is again a very focused thing. Imagine that you are in a crowded room there is a lot of background noise as people are talking and joking and enjoying the company in the room. Now add in the idea that Jesus is in the room. He is seated at the opposite side of the room to you and you cannot get any closer to Him. You want to hear everything that He says but He speaks softly and the background noises threaten to drown Him out. He is not going to speak any louder but you will need to get on the edge of your seat and lean forward, straining every muscle in your body to try to hear Jesus. To be so focused that you can hear His still small voice in the middle of your busy, noisy day.

Notice that just like last week we are not just sitting in our recliner waiting for God to drop some message from on high with our instructions for the day. We are engaged in our daily God-given routines, but in our spirit, we are straining to hear from God. Desperate to hear from God. Focusing on Him so that all else is filtered out. Why? Because a word from God can change your life forever.

Waiting on God involves an expectation – we are waiting with a purpose…for God Himself to answer us! We might snicker or shake our heads, but we ultimately envy the amazing Boxing Day deal gotten by those who waited out overnight to be the first in line. They aren’t sitting there doing nothing; they have a purpose and are expectant that in the morning they will receive what they are waiting for. The same is true spiritually with God…

Mark 15:43 “Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body.”

As we wait on Him, God develops in us a boldness to act in our daily lives. This is a beautiful example of faithfulness and courage. It was DANGEROUS for Joseph to ask for Jesus’ body; this would have implicitly but clearly revealed Joseph to be an admirer and follower of Jesus, (who asks for a “criminal’s” body after his execution?). Joseph could easily have been thrown in prison and crucified himself (especially if Pilate had woken up on the wrong side of the bed that morning). But Joseph had a boldness FROM God because he had been waiting ON God patiently and acted in faith when He had His answer to prayer.

To conclude this weeks devotional here is a word from Andrew Murray on the personal application of the text: –

“We have more than once said: Waiting for the answer to prayer is not the whole of waiting, but only a part. Today we want to take in the blessed truth: It is a part, and a very important one. When we have special petitions, in connection with which we are waiting on God, our waiting must be very definitely in the confident assurance: ‘My God will hear me.’ A holy, joyful expectancy is of the very essence of true waiting. And this not only in reference to the many varied requests every believer has to make, but most especially to the one great petition which ought to be the chief thing every heart seeks for itself—that the Life of God in the soul may have full sway. That Christ may be fully formed within, and that we may be filled to all the fulness of God. This is what God has promised. This is what God’s people too little seek, very often because they do not believe it possible. This is what we ought to seek and dare to expect because God is able and waiting to work it in us.”^[1]

‘My soul, be thou still only unto God!’

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^[1] Andrew Murray, Waiting on God! Daily Messages for a Month (New York; Chicago; Toronto: Fleming H. Revell, 1896), 123–125.