Waiting on the Lord... All the day long!

You know, we all pray. We all ask God for this or that and we all wonder if He hears. We all ask to be guided and directed. The end result is that we still want to be in control. I was studying a topic this week and ran across these scriptures in Psalm.

Psalms 25:4-5  Show me Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths.  (5)  Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day.

I found these scriptures interesting and they prompted me to think about what God said in Isaiah:

Isaiah 55:8-9  "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD.  (9)  "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

His ways are higher than our ways. Understanding God's plans, or what we consider a delay in answer to prayer is something that can be difficult for us to comprehend. Yet, the Psalmist asked God to show him His ways. The Psalmist asked to be TAUGHT God's paths. The Psalmist went on to ask to be led in God's truth and to be taught. Why? Because God is the God of our salvation. And on Him we wait. The Psalmist said he waits ALL day for God.

Don't we feel like that sometimes? We are waiting....and waiting....and waiting...and waiting for God to show us His will, provide His answer, provision, peace, etc. Then we get frustrated because "it" is not within our control. We haven't allowed to God to "teach" us yet. Sometimes we look at things through our physical, fleshly minds, thoughts, and emotions to try and understand "why" or the things of God. Yet, Paul told the church at Corinth:

1 Corinthians 2:12-14  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.  (13)  These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.  (14)  But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Our natural mind cannot receive the things from God. We cannot know they ways of God, learn the ways of God, or be taught His paths (as the Psalmist asked) if we are not focused on the Spirit of God instead of our fleshly mind. For those of you that are Strek Trek fans, think about Mr. Spock. Mr. Spock is a member of the fictional race of people called Vulcans. Vulcans are a very logical people, according to the sci -fi series. He has no understanding of human emotion and anything that is "not logical" or does not follow the predictive flow of what "logically" comes next is lost on Mr. Spock and he generally gets an explanation from Captain Kirk about whatever "it" is he doesn't understand.

My point here with that example is to say that we do not understand the things of God with our natural, logical mind because the things of the natural, fleshly, human part of us stands in direct opposition to the Spirit of God (Romans 8:7,8) and (James 4:4) So, the Psalmist in Psalm 25 asked to be shown and taught God's ways and paths. It is not "natural" for us to know His ways and His ways are do not follow our chain of logic thinking. In fact,

1 Corinthians 1:27-29  But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;  (28)  and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,  (29)  that no flesh should glory in His presence.

To prevent us from being able to discern the things of the Spirit with our natural mind, God has chosen to defy our logic.  Hence, "show me Your ways and teach me Your paths."  So we shouldn't get frustrated when we don't get our answers right away.  We shouldn't get frustrated when we can't see the big picture, the solution, the provision.  We wait on the Lord.  He provides.  He answers.  He will teach and guide if we ask.  Sometimes, it will feel like we waiting "all the day long" because we may be.  We have to remember, though, that God lives outside of man's time.  He does not consider time as we do, so while we think we may have been waiting for such a very long time, to God it wasn't.

If you want to know why waiting on the Lord is so important.  Consider the following verses:

Psalm 27:14 - He will strengthen your heart. 
Psalm 37:9 - Those that wait on the Lord shall inherit the earth.
Psalm 37:34 - He shall exalt you to inherit the land. 
Isaiah 30:18 - Blessed are ALL those who wait for Him.
Isaiah 40:31 - Renewed strength; mount up with wings; run and not be weary; walk and not faint. 
Psalm 130:5 - Hope in His word.

So, wait.  Wait on the Lord.  As you wait, ask Him to show you His ways.  Ask Him to lead you in His truth and to teach you.  Let Him teach you His paths.  It isn't about patience...it is about trusting Him to fulfill His word.  Knowing His word does not return void and it will accomplish the purpose for which He sent it out (Isaiah 55:11).

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