Grace For The Journey

I believe today’s message will offer a word of great comfort and encouragement right where this finds you.  There are many places in the Bible where this four-letter is mentioned.  Note the verses I have listed below:

 “Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”  Psalm 27:14

 “Wait for the Lord and keep His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land.” (Psalm 37:34)

 “Blessed are all those who wait for Him.” (Isaiah 30:18)

 “They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)

“The Lord is good to those who wait for him . . . It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”   (Lamentations 3:25a, 26)

“While staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father.” (Acts 1:4)

When was the last time you enjoyed waiting for ANYTHING?  From the check-out line in the grocery story . . . to the doctor’s office . . . to the fast food drive-through line . . . to that check you have been told is in the mail.  None of us likes to wait for anything!

But what about waiting on God?

The verses above are just a tiny sampling of the scores of biblical admonitions for the people of God to wait upon their Lord.  We must be careful never to thoughtlessly put God in any of our other “hate-to-wait” categories.  Why?  Because . . .

Often the blessing God has ordained for us

Will only be found on the other side of waiting.

WAIT is a “faith-filled four- letter word” when we are waiting on God, because His timing is always perfect.  God knows exactly what we need and precisely when we need it!

He has ordained waiting

As one of His ways

To increase our faith

AND our appreciation

When we actually do get

What we have been asking for.

Anyone who has been following Jesus for some time knows there are times we pray and God says “No.”  Yet, if we wait (there’s that word again!) and watch, when we look back on that situation we will see why . . . because God had something better!  Then there are those times God says “Yes” . . . but that faith-filled four-letter word is attached to the “Yes.”  Frequently what we were asking for comes to us in a completely different way than what we were expecting.

Waiting on our Lord

Is nothing more

– And nothing less –

Than putting our trust in Him

For what we need,

Knowing that it will

Be delivered to us

In His way and in His timing.

We can all look back in life and thank God for the times He said “No” to our petitions, as well as those times He said “Wait” . . . because God alone knows what is in the best interest of His children.

Let us prayerfully seek to develop the patient understanding of the psalmist who knew God’s timing is perfect:

“I trust in you, Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’  My times are in your hands.”  (Psalm 31:14-15)

This is God Word … This is Grace for your Journey …

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”