Waiting for God

In our past several blogs we have been talking about how God builds our faith. We said God starts the process of building our faith by giving us a dream for something He wants to accomplish through us. That puts the ball into our court. So we spend some time evaluating the dream, and ultimately we decide to pursue it. And that’s when we often encounter delays. We think we understand what God wants us to do, and we are raring to go, but things just seem to stop. So we wonder why God allows these delays to occur, and we wonder what to do.
Well, I am not going to be so presumptuous as to try and explain why God does what He does. After all God is transcendent and infinite and all-powerful, and I’m not. But I have noticed something that may help us understand why God appears to delay when He gives us something to do.
What I have noticed is that God operates in the natural realm. In other words He uses existing circumstances. Now God could change circumstances. It’s certainly within His power. For example He could stop the sun in the sky, or He could stop the flow of a river. Actually there are stories in the Bible where He did those things, but that’s not the way He normally operates.
God prefers to work through everyday circumstances, and that means He subjects Himself to the constraints of everyday circumstances. Let me give you an example from the Old Testament. It’s the story of Moses as he lead the Jews for 40 years in the desert.
God gave Moses the dream to lead the Jews out of slavery in Egypt. God wanted Moses to take them to the promised land, which was only two weeks walking distance away from where they were in Egypt. However, it took the Jews 40 years to get there. Now for sure God had given Moses the dream to lead the Jews to the promised land, so why the delay? Well, as it turned out there were significant problems with the Jews that prevented them from completing the journey. They constantly doubted God. They complained continually. They doubted Moses’ competence. And they even got into idolatry. And these problems continued for 40 years!
God wanted the Jews to trust Him. He wanted them to be obedient and grateful. But they weren’t. So God worked through everyday circumstances trying to get them to change. And He did that for 40 years. Take a look at what Deuteronomy 8:2 says about this,
“Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether you would obey His commands” Deuteronomy. 8:2
God tried to get the Jews to change. He gave them many tests in the natural realm, but they flunked all of the tests. They didn’t respond. The didn’t obey His commands, and they were generally ungrateful and complaining. So finally they all died off – except for two – Joshua and Caleb.
So what can we learn from this?
Well, there are four things that God says we shouldn’t do as we encounter delays while He is building our faith. I am going to list them for you, and then we’ll talk about each one.  The first thing God says is we shouldn’t fear. The second thing is we shouldn’t fret. The third thing is we shouldn’t faint. And finally God says we shouldn’t forget.
So let’s talk about the first one.
God says we shouldn’t fear.
There are 365 “fear nots” in the Bible. That’s one for every day of the year. The reason God says don’t be afraid is because He’s with us.We are never in any situation of life where that’s not true, but when we forget that, we become afraid. Take a look at Isaiah 41:10.
“Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.” Isaiah 41:10
That is a powerful, powerful verse.The antidote to fear is believing what God says in His promises and acting on it.In this promise God says, “I am with you… and I will help you”, and we act on it by believing it to be true. And when we do that God strengthens us, helps us and keeps us from falling. What else could we ever need?
Do you know that there’s never a time in our lives when God is not with us? He’s with us on our good days. He’s with us on our bad days. He’s with us when we feel like He’s there, and even when we don’t feel like He’s there. God’s always with us no matter what is going on. Some of you are may be in the so called “waiting phase” right now. You’ve been waiting and praying and nothing seems to be happening, and you think God has forgotten you, and He doesn’t care. Well, let me tell you, God has not forgotten you, and He does care. He knows what you’re going through – every single detail. And the delay you are experiencing is by His design. God wants to build our character, and He wants us to learn to trust Him – just as He was trying to do with the Jews in the desert. So God says you may have to wait, but “Don’t fear”, because I am with you.”
The next thing God says is don’t fret.
Fretting means worrying and complaining. The two go together. When we have wait on God, we get worried. And when we get worried, we start to complain. One always leads to the other.And that’s what happened to the Jews. They griped all the time. They griped about being trapped at the Red Sea. They complained about the journey. They complained about the leadership. They complained about no water. They complained about no food, and when God provided food, they complained about what they got. They never got to the place where they trusted God or were willing to be obedient to Him.
Let me ask you something. What’s the major problem that happens to us when we fret? We become impatient, and when that happens, we take matters into our own hands. Proverbs 19:2 says,
“Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good (that’s being impatient); haste makes mistakes.” Proverbs 19:2
A good example of this is when we don’t think God is moving fast enough, and we get impatient. That’s when we try to take control and help God out (it’s frustrating to be in a hurry when God isn’t). But the Bible says with God, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day, so it’s useless to try speed Him up. Psalm 37:7 says,
“Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for Him to act………………” Psalm 37:7
Waiting on God is an act of faith. When we get into difficulties, we often lay awake at night, and we fret, and we complain and we get impatient. That’s not living by faith. We can’t sleep, because we don’t trust God to work things out. But God says, “Don’t fear, don’t fret. Wait on Me. Remember I’m always with you.”
Go back to Psalm 37:7 and find where is says, “Wait patiently for Him to act”. You know – when we get impatient, it doesn’t make waiting any better or faster. Being impatient only makes us miserable.
Well, that covers the first two things God tells us not to do when we experience delays in carrying out the dreams He gives us. Remember delays are part of the faith building process that God is taking us through. Next time we will talk about the final two things that God tells us not to do while we are waiting. Until then, be PATIENT and have a blessed week……………..