Hi Faith Family,
Praying you are healthy and in good spirits today.
What are you waiting for?
I’m not trying to be cute. What are you waiting for? Car purchase? House? Are you waiting for a job change? Perhaps you are waiting for something in your relationships. Are you waiting for your brother or sister to appreciate or respect you? Are you waiting for your mom or dad to recover from a health issue? Are you waiting for your child to succeed?
Perhaps you are waiting in matters of the heart. Are you waiting for that special someone? Are you waiting to be together with the one you love?
It’s quite a question, “What are you waiting for?”
But it’s a question that begs for a point heavenward. There is a right way and a wrong way to be waiting. The wrong way is to make our plans entrenched in our self-absorbed way, without placing our hopes and plans in the hands of our powerful and loving God. James talks about how foolish and arrogant we can be as we make our plans to go to this city and conduct our business here or there. James reminds us “If it is the Lord’s will,” I will do this or that. The absence of the sentence closer “God-willing” convicts our society and betrays our slick slip down the hill of faithless thoughts and actions.
Such sins of self-trust and lack of dependence on God give evidence to the sinfulness in which we were born and with which we will struggle until our lungs fill no more. Sin is serious. Sin is awful. Sin is damning.
For said sin the Savior surrendered himself. All creation waited until the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman. The Savior waited three decades of his perfect life until he embarked on the mission of sharing himself with the world. His enemies stood at the foot of his cross waiting for him to die. His followers waited in a room locked up tight for three days until the light of Easter morning ushered in an everlasting assurance of sins forgiven—that we are right with God. Whoever lives and believes in him will never die. And so this is what we are waiting for, in a certain sense: The day when our Lord takes us home.
Today may not be that day. Our days continue to string together as we continue to make our plans, hopes and dreams as we wait for the Lord—our souls wait. And this is the right way to be waiting. What are you waiting for? What are your plans, hopes and dreams? Place them into God’s hands by praying about them all. Ask for God’s blessings on what you plan to do. Each of us has an opportunity to conclude our prayers—either by word or thought—as the Savior did: “Yet not my will, but Your will be done.”
How practical and wise it is to dedicate and surrender our will to God's. In this way we become wise waiters. Psalm 33 voices this assurance:
“We wait in hope for the LORD;
he is our help and our shield.
In him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.
May your unfailing love rest
upon us, O LORD,
even as we put our hope in you.”
What a wonderful prayer! Blessing on your week!
--Pastor Dan