Waiting on God

My soul, wait silently for God alone,

For my expectation is from Him.

Ps.62:5

Bible Reading: Psalm 62:5–8 (NKJV)

⁵   My soul, wait silently for God alone,

For my expectation is from Him.

⁶   He only is my rock and my salvation;

He is my defense;

I shall not be moved.

⁷   In God is my salvation and my glory;

The rock of my strength,

And my refuge, is in God.

⁸   Trust in Him at all times, you people;

Pour out your heart before Him;

God is a refuge for us.

Selah

We have spent a little time looking at Bible hope over the past few weeks. There are some other concepts that are very closely linked with hope, faith and patience are the power twins that work together with hope to bring about that favorable outcome. There is a posture that we as believers adopt during this process and that is called waiting on God.

Someone once said that it is hard to tell the difference between a person who is waiting on God and a lazy person. I do not think that that is right. Waiting on God is not a passive thing. Like we just hang around all day doing nothing until we hear from God to tell us what to do. If we do not hear anything, maybe God had nothing for us to do that day, then days, and weeks, even months.

Waiting on God is not like this at all. In Psalm 62:5 the word for ‘wait’, has the sense of lying in wait as you would say stalking an animal.  You know roughly where your target is likely to be, and you keep working to place yourself in a position, with all your senses focussed and ready, to immediately respond when your answer to prayer or your direction from the Holy Spirit arrives. There is an intensity in this waiting, a passion and commitment to be led by God, into the destiny that He has prepared for you.

Even though you are waiting on God, it does not mean that you are not doing anything else. When we read our Bibles about all the great men and women, heroes of faith, they were all given instructions that went along with their walk of faith. This is because faith always moves us to action. So, there is an interesting double-edged thing going on here. On the one side we are waiting on God, in the place where he has put us, ready to move into His plan of action immediately we hear the word. On the other side we are out doing the day to day tasks that are a part of our everyday lives. It takes faith to keep this in balance, a quiet but focussed and intense internal waiting and a busy daily life.

To be clear, God DOES ask us to trust him with the things we cannot control, to be still and know that he is God in the face of struggles and circumstances that are outside our responsibility.

But he also asks us to take action in the things that we can. He asks us to know him, to love him, and to honor him…and then to live confidently in return.

Let’s look at the example of some of our favourite characters: –

Abraham had to sacrifice.

Jacob had to go.

Moses had to obey.

Joshua had to March.

Jonah had to repent.

Nehemiah had to rebuild.

Peter had to follow.

Paul had to proclaim.

Real faith isn’t just about waiting – it’s about living while we wait.

We are called to take action, to make decisions, to live our lives, and to do what it takes to get ourselves where He wants us to be. Our connection with God is a two-way street, and like it or not: WE have a role in this relationship. We have a choice. We have a will. And with that will, we can either say yes or no. We can stop, or we can go. We can stay the same, or we can grow. Live in the old…or awake to the new.

Friends don’t allow your fears, insecurities, and inadequacies to paralyse you in the name of false “faith.” Real faith is alive and active. Real faith takes responsibility and moves forward.

Real faith asks, seeks, and knocks….trusting that when we do, the door will be opened, in Jesus’ name., to live our lives, and to do what it takes to get ourselves where He wants us to be.[1]

⁸   Trust in Him at all times, you people;

Pour out your heart before Him;

God is a refuge for us.

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[1] Parts of this devotional were borrowed from, Debra Fileta;  Is “Waiting on God” an Excuse to be Lazy?; Publication date: April 16, 2015