Waiting on the Lord
A Way to Grow in Strength
Psalm 27:14
There is a young man in our church’s youth group that is an encouragement to me just about every time I see him. He’s really disciplined in the way he takes care of himself. He is going to be a senior in high school, where he plays football and lifts weights. As I look at him, I wonder some things about myself and some other people. If our spiritual lives for God were seen as muscle to God, what would you and I look like? This young man is disciplined in the way he eats, they way he exercises, and the way he lives.
The Psalmist wrote, “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” Many of us have read Isaiah 40:31, where the scripture tells us, “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Many have sung this verse in a song. This takes a discipline that many Christians do not have. The biggest discipline you’ll ever learn is waiting. Waiting on the Lord takes disciplines like my friend has in his life. So let’s look at some of these and just see what we can learn from it.
Learning to wait upon the Lord is learned by what we eat. Think about it for a second. If we eat what old Satan feeds us or this world feeds us, we soon develop, what I call, the attitude of Nike. The huge shoe monstrosity developed this saying when Bo Jackson played for the Oakland Raiders and whatever baseball team if played for. The world has this attitude toward anything; “Don’t think about it; just do it.” Christians develop this attitude and call it faith. However, when it falls short of what we want, we state, “Well I just didn’t have enough faith.” That’s not necessarily true either. There are things we do need to step out on in faith, and pray that God will use us. However, in our day to day lives we sometimes may huge decisions without waiting on the Lord’s instruction. I have learned, the hard way, that when I wait upon the Lord, He never leads me wrong. If I learn to wait upon HIM all the time then I become fit spiritually and don’t become ‘fat and lazy,’ as a Christian, lol. Lesson to learn; do not believe the world’s instructions, because it will always lead you in the wrong direction.
Learning to wait upon the Lord is learned by how we exercise. Physical exercise seems to be in the past tense for me. Amazingly, when I was 16 – 25 years old, I stayed in good shape, because I participated in sports such as baseball, softball, football, and weight lifting; and no I was not what people call ‘cut’. When I was 26 – 36 I still got some exercise, but it went way down. At 48, and yes I know I’m still a youngster to some, some exercise I get is just being able to get up out of bed, because I’m so stiff, or my back hurts, or something hurts, etc. You that are my age or older know what I’m talking about. Spiritual exercise is apparently no different in our spiritual life. I am 28 years old in my salvation. I’ve gone to church most of my life and even though I know that I do not know everything about God’s Word or God, I feel okay spiritually. However, there have been many times that I was not even okay. Spiritual exercise comes through daily Bible studies, daily prayer, and a good regiment of church faithfulness. The more we use these spiritual exercises, the easier all the things such as witnessing, preaching, working for the Lord, etc, become to us. This young man can lift more weight than I can, because he works out daily. He was not able to accomplish these goals over night, but instead he was faithful in these exercises. Spiritually strong people can do more when we exercise spiritually daily.
Learning to wait upon the Lord is taught by the way we live. I am reminded of many examples that Jesus used in the Bible that were not able to live for Christ, because of the way they wanted to live for the world. Jesus told us that we cannot live for HIM and the world at the same time. Money is the root of all evil and we all want that root. In an earlier ‘thought of the day,’ I made the comment that we need to be content. However, many of us are never content. We have to have more money. A rich young man came to Jesus and asked him, “What can I do to inherit the Kingdom of God?” Jesus told him to keep the commandments, and the young man told Him, “I have done this since I was but a youth.” Jesus said, “Then give all your money to the poor, sell all you have and follow me.” The man went away sad because he thought that was too high of a price, for he was very wealthy. Living for Christ takes a huge regiment of eating the right spiritual food, exercising with our weights daily (studying, praying and worshipping), and living our life like each day is our last day for Christ on this earth.
Many things you can learn by watching discipline athletes, but I can honestly say that God has told each of us how to become stronger for HIM. As I examine myself, I have decided that I don’t look like a big body builder in my spiritual life, but I know how to start building that way. How about you?
A Way to Grow in Strength
Psalm 27:14
There is a young man in our church’s youth group that is an encouragement to me just about every time I see him. He’s really disciplined in the way he takes care of himself. He is going to be a senior in high school, where he plays football and lifts weights. As I look at him, I wonder some things about myself and some other people. If our spiritual lives for God were seen as muscle to God, what would you and I look like? This young man is disciplined in the way he eats, they way he exercises, and the way he lives.
The Psalmist wrote, “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” Many of us have read Isaiah 40:31, where the scripture tells us, “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Many have sung this verse in a song. This takes a discipline that many Christians do not have. The biggest discipline you’ll ever learn is waiting. Waiting on the Lord takes disciplines like my friend has in his life. So let’s look at some of these and just see what we can learn from it.
Learning to wait upon the Lord is learned by what we eat. Think about it for a second. If we eat what old Satan feeds us or this world feeds us, we soon develop, what I call, the attitude of Nike. The huge shoe monstrosity developed this saying when Bo Jackson played for the Oakland Raiders and whatever baseball team if played for. The world has this attitude toward anything; “Don’t think about it; just do it.” Christians develop this attitude and call it faith. However, when it falls short of what we want, we state, “Well I just didn’t have enough faith.” That’s not necessarily true either. There are things we do need to step out on in faith, and pray that God will use us. However, in our day to day lives we sometimes may huge decisions without waiting on the Lord’s instruction. I have learned, the hard way, that when I wait upon the Lord, He never leads me wrong. If I learn to wait upon HIM all the time then I become fit spiritually and don’t become ‘fat and lazy,’ as a Christian, lol. Lesson to learn; do not believe the world’s instructions, because it will always lead you in the wrong direction.
Learning to wait upon the Lord is learned by how we exercise. Physical exercise seems to be in the past tense for me. Amazingly, when I was 16 – 25 years old, I stayed in good shape, because I participated in sports such as baseball, softball, football, and weight lifting; and no I was not what people call ‘cut’. When I was 26 – 36 I still got some exercise, but it went way down. At 48, and yes I know I’m still a youngster to some, some exercise I get is just being able to get up out of bed, because I’m so stiff, or my back hurts, or something hurts, etc. You that are my age or older know what I’m talking about. Spiritual exercise is apparently no different in our spiritual life. I am 28 years old in my salvation. I’ve gone to church most of my life and even though I know that I do not know everything about God’s Word or God, I feel okay spiritually. However, there have been many times that I was not even okay. Spiritual exercise comes through daily Bible studies, daily prayer, and a good regiment of church faithfulness. The more we use these spiritual exercises, the easier all the things such as witnessing, preaching, working for the Lord, etc, become to us. This young man can lift more weight than I can, because he works out daily. He was not able to accomplish these goals over night, but instead he was faithful in these exercises. Spiritually strong people can do more when we exercise spiritually daily.
Learning to wait upon the Lord is taught by the way we live. I am reminded of many examples that Jesus used in the Bible that were not able to live for Christ, because of the way they wanted to live for the world. Jesus told us that we cannot live for HIM and the world at the same time. Money is the root of all evil and we all want that root. In an earlier ‘thought of the day,’ I made the comment that we need to be content. However, many of us are never content. We have to have more money. A rich young man came to Jesus and asked him, “What can I do to inherit the Kingdom of God?” Jesus told him to keep the commandments, and the young man told Him, “I have done this since I was but a youth.” Jesus said, “Then give all your money to the poor, sell all you have and follow me.” The man went away sad because he thought that was too high of a price, for he was very wealthy. Living for Christ takes a huge regiment of eating the right spiritual food, exercising with our weights daily (studying, praying and worshipping), and living our life like each day is our last day for Christ on this earth.
Many things you can learn by watching discipline athletes, but I can honestly say that God has told each of us how to become stronger for HIM. As I examine myself, I have decided that I don’t look like a big body builder in my spiritual life, but I know how to start building that way. How about you?
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