WAITING & TRUSTING

Waiting stinks. No one's arguing with that one. If anything, we could debate who hates it more - you or me. No one would win the argument. We'd get sick of waiting to come to a conclusion. As Christ-followers though, there is a clear biblical pattern between the TRUST that we have in God and our willingness to WAIT. To go a little further, I'll put it this way: Without TRUST, there is no HOPE. And TRUE TRUST always involves WAITING! With that I'll ask you the question we asked yesterday: What are you waiting on the Lord to do?

Lamentations was written by Jeremiah as he looked back and reflected with a broken heart over the sin of God's people. But one thing that begins to rise and surface through the brokenness is hope. Jeremiah says, "The unfailing love of the Lord never ends! By his mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin new each day. I say to myself, 'The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!' The Lord is wonderfully good to those who wait for him and seek him. So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord." (Lam.3:22-26) Jeremiah doesn't stand alone making this declaration. Dig further:

Isaiah 9:1-7, 40:27-31, 49:8-23
Romans 8:17-25
Psalm 25
Hebrews 11:39-12:13

To quote an old hymn (that NEVER gets old), "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness." Isaiah proclaims, "My only hope is in him!" (8:17) And while many of these prophets and apostles were reaching and searching for the plans and directions the Lord had for their lives, the thing they wanted more than life itself was him. They wanted GOD. Paul wanted what only Christ could give him, but most importantly he wanted CHRIST! (He's pretty blunt about this in Philippians 3:8) So what does all this have to do with waiting? (You're probably sick of waiting on me to get to the point!) Don't miss the connect.

Without trust, there is no hope. And true trust always involves waiting. Therefore - put the pieces together - ANYTHING worth hoping for will always require waiting. And anything worth hoping for is worth the wait. God's will for your life or your situation - what He desires to do in and through you or your circumstances - are worth the wait. And if you truly wait as Paul describes in Romans and David proclaims in Psalms, the thing you will gain is Christ. In the waiting, we find him. And the part of Christ you discover as you "wait for him and seek him" cannot be found anywhere else. Not in lifting your hands and your voice, not in the counsel of others, and not in the busyness of serving. ONLY in the waiting.

Right now, I'm waiting on the Lord to draw my son's heart to Him. I'm praying diligently and constantly that he will come to know Christ and long to give Him his whole heart and life. I'm waiting. And I'm praying. And I'm discovering more of my Savior. 

What are you waiting for the Lord to do?

To listen to the sermon on HOPE from our new series, "The Search For Christmas", go HERE.