Waiting
on God
Romans 8:22-25
Now the
problem with waiting is that it seems to
many of us, like a complete waste of time.
I¡¯m waiting
for a train, I¡¯m waiting for the doctor, I¡¯m
waiting on the Beltway, I¡¯m waiting at the
checkout line. So often we look for
something to do while we¡¯re waiting. That¡¯s
why there are magazines in the checkout
aisles, in the doctor¡¯s office. We try to
fill up the time that seems to be wasted
while we¡¯re waiting.
So we think of
waiting as primarily as something we have to
endure in order to get what we want.
But God speaks
of waiting as the way in which we grow when
we don¡¯t have what we want. And there¡¯s a
world of difference between these two
realities. Waiting, as God speaks about it,
is never wasted time.? Waiting is one of the
workouts that will, properly used, shape our
Xian life. Waiting can be one of the
greatest growth opp¡¯s in your entire walk
with God. And if you can grasp that, it
would change your entire perspective on some
of the situation we find most difficult and
frustrating in our lives.
I. Grow in patience as you embrace the
disappointments of life.
Waiting is
what we do when things don¡¯t work out as we
had hoped. Somewhere within every heart,
there is a dream. A dream of life as we
would like it to be. That dream is placed in
your heart by God himself. And when Jude
uses that word wait, he reminds us that the
dream in your heart will never be fulfilled
in this world. You need to come to accept
that b/c it is a fundamental Xian conviction
if you are going to think biblically.
So when God
does not give you what you want, in this
world and culture where we have so much, He
opens a door of critical opportunity for
your spiritual growth. So embrace that pain.
Love God in that disappointment. Recognize
that in a world of abundance, this may be
one of the most important junctures in your
Xian life. Here is one place & one time
where you have the opportunity to detach
yourself from the headlong pursuit of
Paradise Now, and to set yourself apart for
Jesus Christ as Lord.
And the places
where you may have this opportunity may be
relatively few, so seize them; grasp them.
They are critical to your spiritual fitness.
The areas & times God calls you to wait are
of great importance in your Xian life. This
is a wake-up call to reality that God is
giving you. There are discoveries of grace
that you can make while you are waiting,
that you can never make while you are
sailing thru life smoothly and satisfied.
Paul says in
Romans 8:24, ¡°Hope that is seen is not hope
at all.¡± That¡¯s why so many Xians have such
little hope, b/c everything around us is
seen, we have no sense of what lies ahead.
II. Grow in Hope as you cultivate the
anticipation of Heaven.
Jude reminds
us that the larger part of the Xian life is
to be the part of anticipation. The Bible
speaks of believers as being like the bride
of Christ, so the whole of
your Xian life is to be viewed as a bridge
to be would view an engagement. Those of you
who are married, do you remember the
engagement You¡¯re counting days. The whole
of your life while you¡¯re engaged is geared
towards ¡°The Day.¡±
Now that¡¯s
what it¡¯s to be like if you¡¯re a believer in
Christ. Life is all about
happens after the day when you stand with
Him and you are united with him and enter
into life forever with Him. That¡¯s to be our
perspective on life if we understand the
Bible.
Now Paul says,
this is how you are to think about this life
& ever experience in it, every blessing,
every joy.
It is only a
tiny deposit, a tiny anticipation of what is
yet to come! So grow in hope as
you cultivate the anticipation of what God
has promised. And the disappointments in
this life are the places where you can best
do that. My greatest hope is when God will
wipe away every tear from my eyes. But the
only place I can understand the glory of
that hope is when I have tears in my eyes.
The only time when you can understand the
glory of no more tears, no more mourning, no
more pain and no more death¡. Is when you¡¯re
in pain, find yourself alone and find the
bottom has fallen out of your life. Use
these painful moments to increase your
anticipation of what God has promised.
Think about
what life will be like when you¡¯re in the
presence of JC. Your body will be redeemed.
Your relationship will be whole. Your soul
will be freed to love & serve God with all
you are. Creation itself will be renewed and
you will be completely at home in the
presence of God.
And waiting is
not a waste of time. It is the place where
God renews my soul.
III. Grow in worship as you love God in pain
as well as in pleasure.
Waiting on God
is a wonderful expression of worship.
And saying yes
to Jesus in the disappointments in your life
will be just about the highest worship you
can offer to God. B/C it is your way of
saying ¡°I¡¯m not interested in you O God b/c
of your gifts. I love you for who you are.¡±
And how can you ever state that except out
of your disappointments. If all your dreams
were fulfilled, all your prayers answered,
everything in your life is just as you would
have ever wanted ¡. How could it ever be
known that you truly love God and not just
His gifts.
¡¡