Waiting.
No word could better capture the current season God has me in. It's a season of waiting. For the next doctor visit, the next scan, the next blood test, the next diagnosis. I feel like life has been on hold. Questions about school linger, pending on what my health looks like over the next couple of months. And God has told me to wait. To not pursue answers, but to let HIM be the answer to it all. He knows the diagnosis. He knows the plan. He knows each of my days. He knew them before any of them came to be (psalm 139). And that keeps my heart at peace through it all. That doesn't mean I never question or complain, but it means that I have surrendered my heart, my life, my all to my Lord who is in complete control. He is sovereign over every pain, every cough, every twist and turn on this journey. I can trust Him to lead me, and so I do.
Today, I want to begin walking through Psalm 40, starting just with the first few phrases. Here we go.
I waited patiently for the LORD;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the pit of
destruction, our of the miry bog...
I love the phrasing of the psalmist's waiting. He is waiting "for the Lord." I don't think we ever say that. I'm pretty sure we always say, "I'm waiting on the Lord." But the more I meditated over this tiny phrase today, I got increasingly wary of that little word, "on." On, to me, denotes a sense of uncertainty: Is God here yet? Or are we waiting on Him to arrive into our circumstances? I also get a hint of impatience in the word. I picture someone walking on through their daily grind, yet silently longing for things to get better.
But with the word "for," my picture changes. I see a person on hold, stopping in the middle of all the chaos and confusion, sitting down, and saying, "Lord, I can't do anything else like this. It's Your move." I picture this because of...
A) How he waits: "patiently." He slows down, calms his heart, and quiets his mind. He does not rush the Lord's timing, nor question His seeming inaction in it all. He stops trying to make things happen or act on his own feelings. He matches his own pace with God's, and waits for the Lord to make the next move.
B) God's response:
Notice that His first response is not one of action. But it is one of love. God cares for us, and desires us to cry out to Him no matter what we are facing. He longs to hear our voice, for us to tell Him of our hurts and cares, our joys and complaints. We so often doubt that He is listening to us, just like the Israelites when they were slaves in Egypt. And from that dangerous doubting, we refuse to be vulnerable with our God, our Father. That is such a scheme of Satan. He would rather us be over-vulnerable with so many people around us who can do nothing than be vulnerable with the One who can do EVERYTHING. We can trust Him.
How do we know we can trust Him? Because He will act. Isaiah 64:4 promises us that; there is no one like our God, "who acts for those who wait for Him." Look at the next phrase, and see God's actions: drawing him out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog. He lifts us out. He always will. The trouble comes with the timing. God drew Him out only after he had fallen into these dark and hard places.
You see, the psalmist recognizes that God does not bring afflictions or hard times our way for nothing. It is especially not for punishment: for those of us who have been made righteous by Christ--our punishment for all we have done or ever will do wrong was (past tense!) taken care of on the cross. The punishment we deserved was satisfied by Christ's sacrifice. And that is exactly where we can look to see this truth that the psalmist knew as he faced crazy circumstances.
"Mission without suffering is Christianity without the cross." (David Platt)
In our Savior's own suffering, we were granted redemption. And we can trust that our own suffering has the same sanctified purpose. We can rest secure in troubling times, clinging to the promise that God is here, He hears us, He will respond and He will act to work together ALL things for our good and His glory. In times when we doubt this, we need to look again to the cross, where this truth is so perfectly shown for all to know and experience.
This psalm resonates so deeply with me right now. I can sense how the Lord has grown within me, purely by grace (not of anything I could do or muster up), a sense of patience and peace in a time of trial and suffering. I know, and at times am frustrated in it, that I have stopped and just sat down, realizing that it is more important for God to move and work than for me to. I need to learn how to rest and be still and be able to feel His Spirit no matter what circumstances scream and yell at me to feel. I've become sensitive to His voice as His speaks through His word. I have both a deep peace that He hears my cries and knows my longing heart, and also a divine expectation for how He is going to act. I'm ready for the next move, but also learning & reminding myself daily to trust His timing.
Waiting is never in vain. God is always responding to us, whether it is with an open ear and inclined heart, or with tangible action. Are we waiting for Him, stopping our own efforts and asking desperately for His, or are we waiting on Him, trying to fit His work into our own?
"But for you, O LORD, do I wait;
it is You, O LORD, who will answer."
Psalm 38:15
Today, I want to begin walking through Psalm 40, starting just with the first few phrases. Here we go.
I waited patiently for the LORD;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the pit of
destruction, our of the miry bog...
I love the phrasing of the psalmist's waiting. He is waiting "for the Lord." I don't think we ever say that. I'm pretty sure we always say, "I'm waiting on the Lord." But the more I meditated over this tiny phrase today, I got increasingly wary of that little word, "on." On, to me, denotes a sense of uncertainty: Is God here yet? Or are we waiting on Him to arrive into our circumstances? I also get a hint of impatience in the word. I picture someone walking on through their daily grind, yet silently longing for things to get better.
But with the word "for," my picture changes. I see a person on hold, stopping in the middle of all the chaos and confusion, sitting down, and saying, "Lord, I can't do anything else like this. It's Your move." I picture this because of...
A) How he waits: "patiently." He slows down, calms his heart, and quiets his mind. He does not rush the Lord's timing, nor question His seeming inaction in it all. He stops trying to make things happen or act on his own feelings. He matches his own pace with God's, and waits for the Lord to make the next move.
B) God's response:
Notice that His first response is not one of action. But it is one of love. God cares for us, and desires us to cry out to Him no matter what we are facing. He longs to hear our voice, for us to tell Him of our hurts and cares, our joys and complaints. We so often doubt that He is listening to us, just like the Israelites when they were slaves in Egypt. And from that dangerous doubting, we refuse to be vulnerable with our God, our Father. That is such a scheme of Satan. He would rather us be over-vulnerable with so many people around us who can do nothing than be vulnerable with the One who can do EVERYTHING. We can trust Him.
How do we know we can trust Him? Because He will act. Isaiah 64:4 promises us that; there is no one like our God, "who acts for those who wait for Him." Look at the next phrase, and see God's actions: drawing him out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog. He lifts us out. He always will. The trouble comes with the timing. God drew Him out only after he had fallen into these dark and hard places.
You see, the psalmist recognizes that God does not bring afflictions or hard times our way for nothing. It is especially not for punishment: for those of us who have been made righteous by Christ--our punishment for all we have done or ever will do wrong was (past tense!) taken care of on the cross. The punishment we deserved was satisfied by Christ's sacrifice. And that is exactly where we can look to see this truth that the psalmist knew as he faced crazy circumstances.
"Mission without suffering is Christianity without the cross." (David Platt)
In our Savior's own suffering, we were granted redemption. And we can trust that our own suffering has the same sanctified purpose. We can rest secure in troubling times, clinging to the promise that God is here, He hears us, He will respond and He will act to work together ALL things for our good and His glory. In times when we doubt this, we need to look again to the cross, where this truth is so perfectly shown for all to know and experience.
This psalm resonates so deeply with me right now. I can sense how the Lord has grown within me, purely by grace (not of anything I could do or muster up), a sense of patience and peace in a time of trial and suffering. I know, and at times am frustrated in it, that I have stopped and just sat down, realizing that it is more important for God to move and work than for me to. I need to learn how to rest and be still and be able to feel His Spirit no matter what circumstances scream and yell at me to feel. I've become sensitive to His voice as His speaks through His word. I have both a deep peace that He hears my cries and knows my longing heart, and also a divine expectation for how He is going to act. I'm ready for the next move, but also learning & reminding myself daily to trust His timing.
Waiting is never in vain. God is always responding to us, whether it is with an open ear and inclined heart, or with tangible action. Are we waiting for Him, stopping our own efforts and asking desperately for His, or are we waiting on Him, trying to fit His work into our own?
"But for you, O LORD, do I wait;
it is You, O LORD, who will answer."
Psalm 38:15
Never in vain. Truth!
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